Helping Jenny move to Bondi
So Jenny had decided to move again. Her place near Central was too noisy, and there was a guy in the room, which wasn't what the landlord said when they negotiated.
She found a place in Bondi for $180 a week. Not sure how she's going to manage since she said her initial budget was $130/week and given she'll only make about $600 this month.
So in the morning I washed my car and went to get some groceries for the week ahead, then changed and went out to pick up Jenny. When I arrived and called her, she seemed surprised at the time, and said "give me $10" when she meant to say ten minutes. I was like "ten dollars?" and she laughed.
I waited a while and then saw her come out without any suitcases. She said she decided we would go check out the mattresses first and then come back to pick the stuff up. We sat in the car for a bit as she whinged about the landlord not keeping his word, fearing that he would change his mind about refunding her rent money.
After she vented, we discussed which mattress place to go to and she decided on Ikea. So we went there and got something to eat from the food court upon arrival. To my surprise she wanted to share food again, so we got some meatballs, macaroni, a pudding/cake, mash potatoes and a salmon salad to share.
We had a really good conversation as we sat there and ate, with me telling her about a sham marriage case I had, as that is what I thought Coco was initially doing. Of course, the conversation was interspersed with talk about Coco.
After that we moved through the place looking for a mattress. She picked out a cup and some bed and pillow covers. I remarked that she seemed to match the colour of the cup to the covers, and she said that was a coincidence but she did like the Tiffany blue colour.
It took us a while to find the mattress section but it was kinda fun when we eventually did, as we half playfully sat on the beds testing them out. She eventually picked one, but we had to go downstairs to actually pick it up. That took us a while as the aisles were right at the end of the store.
When we found it, it was packaged in a way much bigger than expected. We paid for all the stuff and then I had to go find some strings as the plan was to fold the mattress in half and tie it up to put in the car. I got the strings, then we both pulled apart the packaging together outside the store. When she had to tie it up, we got really close to each other and at one stage she stood behind me and wrapped her hands around my body as she needed to thread the strings through the right area.
To my surprise we got the job done and managed to fit the mattress into the back seat of the car. We then went back to her place to pick the suitcases up. Luckily the landlord returned all the money that was due. I was afraid I'd have to 'intimidate' him a little bit, but maybe the fact that I was just sitting there in the lounge silently was enough. Shuing did once say I looked like a guy not to be messed with.
We put all her stuff into my car and we were both pretty thirsty as it had been a hot day. We went to a cafe in the city to get a drink. She insisted on paying so I let her. We went to a cafe on the corner of Liverpool and Pitt Streets, a Korean run joint. We sat there talking about stuff and I asked if she had a boyfriend whilst she was in the US, and she said there wasn't really time for it as she was there to study and learn about the culture.
She did express to me how much she liked it there and how good her host family was, showing me lots of photos of them and their place. It made me wonder if she was just as proud of her own family in Hong Kong.
When we got to my car, she did something strange. She asked if she could go in via the driver's side as she didn't want to go in through the passenger side because of the traffic (there wasn't that much traffic). I said yes and watched as she struggled to climb over the middle console. I playfully gave her the keys and asked her to drive, she took them but didn't know where to put them. I had to lean in to put the hand brake down to make it easier for her.
We drove to the shopping centre in Bondi as we still had some time to kill before she could actually move in. We went to the food court where I got some Macca's and she got some Chinese noodles which she eagerly shared with me. We talked a bit about Coco's husband, and also her trip to Korea in October 2012 (2013?). She said she just went there to see the maple leaves.
After we finished eating we went to Coles for her to do some shopping. She bought enough food for a week, and I thought maybe she was pre-empting things a bit by buying all this stuff before moving in and settling in.
Anyway, afterwards we drove to her new apartment which wasn't far from the shopping centre at all. In a bit of light rain, we moved her stuff via a few trips. At one point she said it was lucky I went to the gym, and I joked that if she gave me more notice next time I could prepare even more and help her carry a King size mattress. When she helped me carry the mattress, I jokingly asked if I could tell people I had shared a mattress with her and she laughed.
Finally, I left her with the new place. It seemed a lot nicer than the other cramped up place. This time I didn't feel like I was abandoning her. We agreed to meet on Tuesday to see a movie.
She found a place in Bondi for $180 a week. Not sure how she's going to manage since she said her initial budget was $130/week and given she'll only make about $600 this month.
So in the morning I washed my car and went to get some groceries for the week ahead, then changed and went out to pick up Jenny. When I arrived and called her, she seemed surprised at the time, and said "give me $10" when she meant to say ten minutes. I was like "ten dollars?" and she laughed.
I waited a while and then saw her come out without any suitcases. She said she decided we would go check out the mattresses first and then come back to pick the stuff up. We sat in the car for a bit as she whinged about the landlord not keeping his word, fearing that he would change his mind about refunding her rent money.
After she vented, we discussed which mattress place to go to and she decided on Ikea. So we went there and got something to eat from the food court upon arrival. To my surprise she wanted to share food again, so we got some meatballs, macaroni, a pudding/cake, mash potatoes and a salmon salad to share.
We had a really good conversation as we sat there and ate, with me telling her about a sham marriage case I had, as that is what I thought Coco was initially doing. Of course, the conversation was interspersed with talk about Coco.
After that we moved through the place looking for a mattress. She picked out a cup and some bed and pillow covers. I remarked that she seemed to match the colour of the cup to the covers, and she said that was a coincidence but she did like the Tiffany blue colour.
It took us a while to find the mattress section but it was kinda fun when we eventually did, as we half playfully sat on the beds testing them out. She eventually picked one, but we had to go downstairs to actually pick it up. That took us a while as the aisles were right at the end of the store.
When we found it, it was packaged in a way much bigger than expected. We paid for all the stuff and then I had to go find some strings as the plan was to fold the mattress in half and tie it up to put in the car. I got the strings, then we both pulled apart the packaging together outside the store. When she had to tie it up, we got really close to each other and at one stage she stood behind me and wrapped her hands around my body as she needed to thread the strings through the right area.
To my surprise we got the job done and managed to fit the mattress into the back seat of the car. We then went back to her place to pick the suitcases up. Luckily the landlord returned all the money that was due. I was afraid I'd have to 'intimidate' him a little bit, but maybe the fact that I was just sitting there in the lounge silently was enough. Shuing did once say I looked like a guy not to be messed with.
We put all her stuff into my car and we were both pretty thirsty as it had been a hot day. We went to a cafe in the city to get a drink. She insisted on paying so I let her. We went to a cafe on the corner of Liverpool and Pitt Streets, a Korean run joint. We sat there talking about stuff and I asked if she had a boyfriend whilst she was in the US, and she said there wasn't really time for it as she was there to study and learn about the culture.
She did express to me how much she liked it there and how good her host family was, showing me lots of photos of them and their place. It made me wonder if she was just as proud of her own family in Hong Kong.
When we got to my car, she did something strange. She asked if she could go in via the driver's side as she didn't want to go in through the passenger side because of the traffic (there wasn't that much traffic). I said yes and watched as she struggled to climb over the middle console. I playfully gave her the keys and asked her to drive, she took them but didn't know where to put them. I had to lean in to put the hand brake down to make it easier for her.
We drove to the shopping centre in Bondi as we still had some time to kill before she could actually move in. We went to the food court where I got some Macca's and she got some Chinese noodles which she eagerly shared with me. We talked a bit about Coco's husband, and also her trip to Korea in October 2012 (2013?). She said she just went there to see the maple leaves.
After we finished eating we went to Coles for her to do some shopping. She bought enough food for a week, and I thought maybe she was pre-empting things a bit by buying all this stuff before moving in and settling in.
Anyway, afterwards we drove to her new apartment which wasn't far from the shopping centre at all. In a bit of light rain, we moved her stuff via a few trips. At one point she said it was lucky I went to the gym, and I joked that if she gave me more notice next time I could prepare even more and help her carry a King size mattress. When she helped me carry the mattress, I jokingly asked if I could tell people I had shared a mattress with her and she laughed.
Finally, I left her with the new place. It seemed a lot nicer than the other cramped up place. This time I didn't feel like I was abandoning her. We agreed to meet on Tuesday to see a movie.
posted by toey | 22:01
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