Leaving

July 22 - July 29 2007

Some of 'the packing'

the last two weeks left in our old flat were incredibly stressful for me. colin was at work all day and so it fell to me to organise the move to our new apartment. i showed the flat and found new tenants and i, with dina's help, packed absolutely everything that we could take from that flat; from our clothes, our bedding and our cutlery to our microwave and a mirror (which wasn't technically ours ;-). it was a physically and mentally stressful task. i am a worrier and get stressed very easily and me still being sick did not help. colin and i fought a lot in those last two weeks, mainly because i was an emotional wreck and he just wanted everything to be calm, but also because we were both frustrated and just wanted to get out of the little box that we had been trapped in for two years.

everything was eventually packed and it was incredibly easy to find people to move into our apartment. firstly, the rent is affordable, it is furnished and it is in one of the best areas of taipei. the apartment is right next to the national taiwan normal university, so the area is full of students; ergo, full of restaurants, bars and shops in the shida nightmarket and right by da an forest park. perfect for energetic, young people who want to get outside and explore taipei city life. i had had my fill of exploring taipei's nightlife and am not an energetic, young person at the moment so that area of taipei was wasted on me. plus i was heartily sick of the noise of construction. anyway, after showing the flat for two days it was snapped up by a young couple from texas.

mr. fuping, our landlord was very keen to have a big peking duck dinner with us and the new tenants. this was all arranged and then, murphy's law, i had terrible spasms and colin and i couldnt go, which of course made me angry and frustrated, it seemed like every time i wanted to actually be a part of the real world and have some fun, my brain would go and misbehave. mr. fuping and his wife were very understanding and brought us a tonne of left-overs, which fed us for two whole days. and then mr. fuping wanted colin to go out drinking with him while amy, his wife, stayed and looked after me. of course we didnt agree, but it was very funny to see how keen mr. fuping was to go out drinking with colin one last time.