Week 1 in my new flat (13th May 2010)
It has been a week since I moved into Jono’s flat and I’m loving it :) It is quite a change from my previous lifestyle living in Wellington CBD and having my own room; now live in Newtown, a vibrant and multi-racial suburb about 10 minutes drive away from Wellington CBD and I’m sharing the room, storage and personal space with another person. Though I’ve previously room mated with others, every room mate is different and it takes time to adjust to each others’ likes, dislikes and habits. It still feels a bit like I’m ‘invading’ Jono’s personal space in the sense I still have my clothes and personal items in boxes lying in the upstairs hallway and my workstation is a corner of the dining table – it feels a bit nomad-like, as if I’m only living here temporarily and out of bags/boxes. Much to sort out and we’ll probably get another closet to store our things…
Compared to my last home at Mt Victoria, my new place is much warmer (I can run around the house in t-shirt and shorts yoo-hoo!), newish-looking and has bigger communal areas i.e. kitchen and living room. I used to spend most of my time in my room in the past but now find myself using more of the shared areas. There are 2 existing flatmates who live in the flat: James and Amy. I’ve met James on several occasions when I dropped in or stayed over at Jono’s while Amy I hardly see (she lives in the room downstairs that has a bathroom en suite). Even though there are 4 of us, it doesn’t feel as congested as my old flat (I had great flatmates but the Mt Vic home was really small). It feels more like there’s just 3 of us (me, Jono and James) in the flat that’s split into 3 floors since Amy is never seen out of her room much (with the exception of seeing her briefly when she’s zapping her meals in the microwave). No queues to the bathroom and toilet in the mornings with our staggered work times – yay!
One of the biggest changes for me living in Newtown has to be commuting to and fro work on the bus. The bus now has a new payment system using Snapper, a card that is pre-loaded with credit which you tag on and off on the card reader and it automatically works out your fare. Day 1 on my bus adventure to work, I didn’t tag off on my Snapper card and ended up paying the full fare for the whole ride on the bus line! I was hoping to see what other people did when they got off the bus but I was the only one who got off AND the bus driver never bothered to tell me I had to tag off either!! Grr…It has been a long time since I commuted on the bus and I was shocked to find out my 10-minute one-way ride from home to work cost me $2.40, which works out to be about $5 return a day. According to Jono, we live just at the start of the second zone and work at the outmost edge of the inner city zone so we do not get our money’s worth for the ride. Oh well, beats taking the car in – car parking would be even more costly! My daily routine too has changed, with me going to the gym or swim during lunchtime instead and finishing work later. A lot more pre-planning and packing my bag for work because I won’t be able to zip home as easily as before when I lived 5 minutes walk away from my office.
To be honest, our home in Newtown is situated in a prime location – the hospital, school, bus stops, main shopping and food strip, library, post office etc. are all within a block’s distance. It’s no wonder the rent too is slightly more expensive, costing me $250 a fortnight inclusive of power (I used to pay $255 a fortnight for my room in Mt Vic) but everything is within walking distance. What more can you ask for?
Ah, of course, I get the bonus of living with my amazing bf. No more 6.30am alarms and rushing back to my old flat in Mt Victoria so I can get to work! Now I can leisurely get up at 6.45am and get ready for work (the poor guy probably gets woken up by me every morning but denies it when I asked him…tsk,tsk…). Hehe, we’ve been somewhat ‘domesticated’ since I moved in, spending most nights cooking together, having dinner and chilling out watching movies or TV series. It’s great to share cooking – we get to try something different on nights we do cook and I’m eating much better too (than when I was on my own, most days raiding the pantry because I can’t be bothered to cook for one). And lots of cuddles and snuggling in bed :P It’s really nice to have someone to keep you warm in bed, snuggle up and wake up to :) Photos of my new home: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8070917@N05/sets/72157623926403361/detail/
Compared to my last home at Mt Victoria, my new place is much warmer (I can run around the house in t-shirt and shorts yoo-hoo!), newish-looking and has bigger communal areas i.e. kitchen and living room. I used to spend most of my time in my room in the past but now find myself using more of the shared areas. There are 2 existing flatmates who live in the flat: James and Amy. I’ve met James on several occasions when I dropped in or stayed over at Jono’s while Amy I hardly see (she lives in the room downstairs that has a bathroom en suite). Even though there are 4 of us, it doesn’t feel as congested as my old flat (I had great flatmates but the Mt Vic home was really small). It feels more like there’s just 3 of us (me, Jono and James) in the flat that’s split into 3 floors since Amy is never seen out of her room much (with the exception of seeing her briefly when she’s zapping her meals in the microwave). No queues to the bathroom and toilet in the mornings with our staggered work times – yay!
One of the biggest changes for me living in Newtown has to be commuting to and fro work on the bus. The bus now has a new payment system using Snapper, a card that is pre-loaded with credit which you tag on and off on the card reader and it automatically works out your fare. Day 1 on my bus adventure to work, I didn’t tag off on my Snapper card and ended up paying the full fare for the whole ride on the bus line! I was hoping to see what other people did when they got off the bus but I was the only one who got off AND the bus driver never bothered to tell me I had to tag off either!! Grr…It has been a long time since I commuted on the bus and I was shocked to find out my 10-minute one-way ride from home to work cost me $2.40, which works out to be about $5 return a day. According to Jono, we live just at the start of the second zone and work at the outmost edge of the inner city zone so we do not get our money’s worth for the ride. Oh well, beats taking the car in – car parking would be even more costly! My daily routine too has changed, with me going to the gym or swim during lunchtime instead and finishing work later. A lot more pre-planning and packing my bag for work because I won’t be able to zip home as easily as before when I lived 5 minutes walk away from my office.
To be honest, our home in Newtown is situated in a prime location – the hospital, school, bus stops, main shopping and food strip, library, post office etc. are all within a block’s distance. It’s no wonder the rent too is slightly more expensive, costing me $250 a fortnight inclusive of power (I used to pay $255 a fortnight for my room in Mt Vic) but everything is within walking distance. What more can you ask for?
Ah, of course, I get the bonus of living with my amazing bf. No more 6.30am alarms and rushing back to my old flat in Mt Victoria so I can get to work! Now I can leisurely get up at 6.45am and get ready for work (the poor guy probably gets woken up by me every morning but denies it when I asked him…tsk,tsk…). Hehe, we’ve been somewhat ‘domesticated’ since I moved in, spending most nights cooking together, having dinner and chilling out watching movies or TV series. It’s great to share cooking – we get to try something different on nights we do cook and I’m eating much better too (than when I was on my own, most days raiding the pantry because I can’t be bothered to cook for one). And lots of cuddles and snuggling in bed :P It’s really nice to have someone to keep you warm in bed, snuggle up and wake up to :) Photos of my new home: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8070917@N05/sets/72157623926403361/detail/
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