aka R’acquel

Once upon a time, i used to dream of owning a 3bdr penthouse by Sydney Harbour. Oh, only just a few million to buy one but yeah - it was a fierce dream once. So fierce that i even used to fold triangles at the end of the toilet paper, just for the sake of a laugh…

Couldn’t afford one at the time, I still can’t - but that dream hasn’t stopped me from trying to make my own home *feel* like a 3bdr penthouse, or a 5 star hotel. It’s not the object, it’s the *feeling* I’ve been aiming for the last 6 years. A minimalistic form of zen - peace & tranquility, that’s what I want.

I’m estimating that this will be the second last “gutting” of my house. Life is getting very close towards gaining the prized fish fillets of ‘less is more’ now. It’s feeling fantastic.

Let me introduce you to our “Black Cupboard”, the home of hocus pocus and a lot of other oddities. This was the shape that it was in at our former house during a TIT a while ago…

I remember packing the contents of the black cupboard in Newtown 14 months ago, and dreaded re-unpacking them. As our former house had so much storage space, the contents of this cupboard spent the last 14 months on hiatus in 3 boxes that were never touched! This is why this cupboard wasn’t looking like much of a cupboard at the former house.

So - with the much smaller house here, the three boxes could not be housed in the linen closet, so i was left with the need to confront them today. I took a deep breath, made myself a cup of coffee and just went for it!

The state of things after i purged through the contents of two of the boxes. You can see the third box lurking near the window. So much stuff/shit/unuseable “ornamental” souveniers from relatives overseas. Gah! It’s no wonder i was dreading the re-opening of these boxes. Felt good to cast some of the items into the “ebay” box while others went straight into the garbage bags. Ohhhhh, that felt good alright.

My most confronting toss for the day, was all of my report cards & awards. The feeling of holding all the sporting ribbons, crushing them in my hands and then tossing them onto the pavement like a barbarian. It was a very cathartic release to discard them.

Had trouble tossing out a small handful though. Spent 4 years working my butt off for this one. Why hold onto it? Why do i need it? Maybe because it’s not poorly designed piece of paper/certificate. A heavy metallic object that’s a bit like a tallisman which reminds me of Bednobs & Broomsticks? Suitable for a cupboard filled with hocus pocus stuff like crystals & tarot cards for now perhaps.

The most funiest find was OS/2 Warp… erm, Version “3″. Hilarious that it hasn’t got a .31254 at the end of that number. These days, you need internet access in order update the latest patches to fix all the bugs from software you purchase off the shelf. Then again, it’s been many years since i last purchased software “off a shelf” too as it’s been online order or download for such a long time.

Very funny to reflect on the days that it took 20 or so floppy disks to load an operating system. I have no idea if the new computers these days still come with a floppy disk drive. Maybe they do, but it’s been many years since i’ve had to use my own A: drive.

Looking forward to getting rid of the light that doesn’t work and my late FIL’s bar heater.

Why order your DVDs alphabetically when you can do it by colour instead? *lol* It was something an old friend used to do with her books & CDs once, so it was a lot of fun to try and do it like that this time. Felt good to tackle the boxes and purge a lot of dust collectors. It still needs more decluttering work but it really must be my husband who has to review his own posessions within it, as I don’t know how relevant programming books on vrml, C & C++ are these days. Do we still really need that Internet for Dummies book with a free CD that probably doesn’t work on our computers now? *lol* Oh well, only my husband can decide on that one. For now, the cupboard is looking remarkable compared to the days in Newtown. It felt good to complete reviewing the entire contents of those 3 boxes that hadn’t been touched in 14 months.

Dining room area had more boxes to tackle, so there was more purging to get on with. There’s not enough space in my garbage bin to toss all the rubbish, so i’ll have to wait until garbage day on Wednesday. At least it’s not as bad as our first major purge in Newtown 2-3 years ago, when our garbage filled up all the rubbish bins in the entire appartment complex. 555

The state of things in the afternoon, when we get heaps of sunlight beginning to pour into the house from the western facing windows. I’m appreaciating how much warmer this house is by about 2-4°C compared to the former one. It makes a big difference.

Slowly getting very close to resembling a hotel room in small steps. Although things are a little sterile & cold right now in this space, i’m sure it’ll warm up rather nicely after i finish my painting of succulent flowers on fire. The chairs could do with some cushions so i look forward to knocking some up on the sewing machine soon.

That’s another thing i’m enjoying about this house - there’s painting hooks on the walls everywhere, even in the toilets. When you rent over here, you’re not allowed to nail hooks into the walls without gaining permission from the landlord in writing first - so it’s been great that all these hooks have been inspiring me to paint even more.

As this place is a temporary shelter for the next 6 months, i’m hoping that i can achieve my 3bdr penthouse goal before we move to the next place but placing the deadline for this goal before the year ends, regardless of where i’m living by then.

Must get on with tackling my workroom space today and get the sewing machines in a position to return back to my fashion design work, so I’d better get cracking!