grunt

well, the housing issue is settled. we only had to put our lives on hold the last two weeks on this project. now, this doesn’t seem like much of a time investment but if you take into account the fact that we viewed 30 odd sites in the process, along a 10 km radius, some of them more than once, you’ll appreciate why i am utterly sick of inspecting air quality and toilet bowls.

looking for a house is perhaps one of the most emotionally draining preoccupations in the city. in my world, it stacks up right after inevitable goodbyes and just above presenting myself for a no holds barred gynaecological exam. there is little left to clap about at the end of it all. after the hard selling broker is done with you, after the repetitive trauma of finding just the place only to be diagnosed with a myriad of personal dysfunctions, after the n-th society secretary turns you down for simply being female, you tend to walk away shaken and almost completely unstirred.

i honestly have no clue why i came up with the asinine plan of moving base in the first place. yes, i now have a nice flat on a nice road with a nice coffee shop right out front. but i will also pay three times my current rent and have exchanged phone numbers with a bunch of people who stopped just short of asking whether the two of us charge by the hour. plus, i have been duly lectured by the pater on minding my wayward habits and impressing the old folks who live on the floor below. they seem conservative, he said. by which he means their imagination can and will exceed our excesses.

the chocolateuse is happy, i must admit. being 24, french-italian and completely innocent of the local ethos must help. i cannot think of any other explanation for why she’s thrilled about the antique tiles and i’m contemplating drowning in a bottle of old monk this evening.