What you've all been asking for...

For once in the history of the blog, it's actually true, people have been asking (and not just my Mum!) I spent an exciting and glamorous Saturday night cleaning and here's some pics of the new flat avec furniture. I'll let you in on a little secret though, I have yet to throw out any of the boxes which currently occupy pretty much the whole east side of the living room. I dragged them out of the way for these photographs, and it actually looks really empty without them ha ha! Maybe I should keep them on and make a fort or something. I'm afraid no photos of my bedroom, I couldn't be bothered putting away bits and bobs like makeup and so on to make it look nice. Maybe another time. Oh and the bathroom pretty much looks the same, except with a big washing machine and more junk in it.

The kitchen:

I had to get a fridge magnet in Ukraine just because the fridge is so fricking massive I had to stick something on it! Currently I have a 'save the date' for a wedding I won't be going to (in New Zealand, masel tov Tiana and Gavin) and a list of things I want to buy for the apartment.

The living room

Note the coasters! Not the ugly ones from the market, I bought these at Kiev airport but there's only two because they cost 3 euro EACH! Normally wouldn't blow that much on coasters, but I had a bunch of Ukranian money to get rid of and a stupidly low dutyfree alcohol limit (and then I had to check in the vodka anyway...) Also a candle from the same airport gift shop. Mum and Dad may also recognise the poster as the same one, lovingly professionally framed, that is languishing in a basement room at theirs.


The gaping chasm normally occupied by millions of cartons:

Just to give you some perspective on the relationship between the kitchen and the living room (to wit, next to each other):



This is mostly to show my expert handiwork on the towel rack. This thing literally cost me blood, sweat and tears to put up (well, definitely literally blood since I cut myself trying to put the metal bars in, probably sweat. No tears though). It is possibly the crappiest product I've ever bought, and that's saying something. I was very suspicious that a suction-based towel rack liberally festooned with Chinglish would actually work, but I was persuaded by the fact that it cost 10 euro, and you can get away with selling out-and-out-crap for like 3 euro but not, I naively believed, for 10. Firstly, the suction cups didn't work on any kind of surface - wallpaper, shower cubicle, painted wall or wood. Secondly, the whole thing relies on lateral force somehow holding the metal bars in between the plastic endpieces, there's no screws or anything in there, so as you were trying to get it to suck on to stuff, it would just collapse. So first I tried putting blutack in the holes (during which I cut myself and bled all over it). Then I thought about taking it back to the shop, but decided they probably wouldn't take it, seeing as it was now "enhanced" with blood n' blutack, so I resolved to forge ahead and cellotape the bars into the thing. Still had the suction problem, tried blutacking it to the wall, didn't work. Finally, as you can perhaps see, I bought some hooks and forced them through the rubber backing (quite difficult, perhaps that's where the sweat came in) and hammered the bloody thing to the wall. So much for trying not to put more holes in the flat! Anyway, it looks and feels as though it will collapse at any moment, but I'm still putting it down as a DIY triumph!