So I need to tell you about our new flat! As said we spent the whole weekend just cleaning and scrubbing the place, and in the end it turned out to be nice and in a good condition under all that grunge. We even shampooed and washed the carpets and mopped the walls. On Monday our landlord helped us with his trolley to move all our things here, and since then we’ve been officially living here. Much of the floor is still covered with suitcases and black bags waiting to be unpacked though.

We decided that the bedroom is too narrow for the bed. There wouldn’t be any room for anything else in the room then. So instead of having a yellow bedroom we now have a yellow study. Next to the high and narrow window are the closet and the wardrobe and a chest of drawers for our clothes. Then there’s our bookcase (we desperately need another one, because the one we have can hold about half of the books we own), CD stands, and one of the armchairs, covered with a cream coloured Indian spread. One wall is taken by the Computer. It’s happily sitting on a dark brown old half moon shaped table.

The living room is very very red. The red walls are really almost overwhelming, as the sealing is very high, and we’ve yet to put up any paintings or pictures. One end of the room is now dedicated for our bed that fits there quite perfectly next to the old wooden foldable desk I once found from Oxfam that holds inside all my cosmetics. This corner of the room is gorgeous with our Japanese paper lamp, and the big thick dusty red duvet, pillows and cushions. We can watch TV in bed. The wall opposite to the TV, PS2, video and all the DVDs and such is taken by the sofa, covered in red. Very comfy. The wall facing the street is practically just three large and high windows. In front of the windows are our small garden table and chairs (ie. where we eat) and another armchair (again in red Indian cotton).

Our flat is at the same height with the leafy parts of the trees that grow on our avenue. So at the moment the view from the living room windows is lush green and full of leafs, and bits of the hotel across the street, and a nice panoramic view of the street. The red velvet curtains only cover the two side windows, so at night when we sleep the street lamp shines into our room and casts an orange square on the walls, in which shadows of branches dance.

This is truly the town flat I always dreamed I would be living in when in university. We’ve been making sweet love, taking hot and steamy showers, and dreaming about the future. And we’ve been sitting outside on the fire escape stairs, smoking cigarettes in the middle of the night, and Jim’s been teaching me the English names of star formations, and I’ve been teaching him the Finnish ones. Life sure is beautiful right now.

before & after