- Death of a loved one.
- Divorce.
- Moving.
- Major illness or injury.
- Job loss.
I'm grateful to not to have had to deal with the stress from 4 of the life events mentioned above. (Not counting Kong Kong and Princess' deaths. 😢) But the only one that I have been through – moving – well, I've done that so many times I've more than made up for the lack of the rest.
Was talking to an old friend from Penang this morning when it suddenly dawned upon me that I've moved homes 12 times since I was 17. That's TWELVE TIMES in the last 17 years of my life, yo. No exaggeration. Let's recount just for kicks.
📦 MOVE #1 @ January 2002 – Moved from my family home in Penang to a triple-sharing rented room in KL to begin my college life at Taylor's College, Subang Jaya (TCSJ). 13 girls in 1 rat-infested, flasher-frequented house. Yay!
📦 MOVE #2 @ January 2003 – Moved to a twin-sharing room in a small shoplot that's closer to class. 10 girls, 1 shower, 1 toilet, total fire-hazard. But who cares? GOT WASHING MACHINE! Woohoo! No need to carry 8kg of laundry from home to the laundrette or hand-wash anything ever, ever, ever again amen!
📦 MOVE #3 @ Early 2004 – Tenanted The Husband's aunty's empty double-storey house in USJ 9 with some friends and had an awesome degree life there. My own room, at last – whoopee! My first time having a queen bed to sleep on, too – yay! This place was quite a distance from TCPJ Bali campus so my parents ended up buying me my first car for easy commuting. All things considered, it was definitely a good year for a teenager. Haha. 🚗💨
📦 MOVE #4 @ 3rd Quarter 2007 – Moved into the master bedroom of a unit at Damansara Perdana that was tenanted by a colleague from MCKL. This was my first time living out of Subang area since moving down to KL. No choice but to move lah because the USJ 9 house was to be sold, but also glad to move cos Damansara Perdana was so much closer to MCKL – my workplace at the time. That meant no more hour-long car rides to and fro from work, and no need to pay toll. No complaints also cos I finally had an adjoining bathroom! Wheee!
📦 MOVE #5 @ January 2008 – Moved to a double storey house in Ara Damansara with the same MCKL colleague. (Our previous home owner wanted to sell the place.) Got a bigger room so yay! Only horror was finding out that the water pressure was super shit after we moved in. 😰🤦🏻♀️
📦 MOVE #6 @ January 2009 – Moved in with The Owner – the easiest-going housemate I ever had, who was also the first housemate who was neither a friend, nor a colleague, nor a college-mate. We basically had nothing and no one in common but heck, I was really blessed to have the best time of my life with the E0506 gang. (Yup, with The Owner, it was "Buy 1, Free 5" because his group of college friends were tight and we ended up hanging out together often during the weekends.)
📦 MOVE #7 @ Mid-2010 – Moved back into my family home in Penang and started work at KRPG. That meant bye-bye, friends! 😭 Bye-bye familiar hangouts! 😭 Bye-bye, KL shopping! 😭 Bye-bye, 4As agencies! 😭 Bye-bye, global accounts! 😭 Bye-bye CHCKL! 😭 Bye-bye, adjoining toilet! 😭 But hello, family + free meals. LOL.
📦 MOVE #8 @ Mid-2011 – Moved in with my in-laws when I began married life. Lots of adjusting to do and discoveries to make in my newly minted marriage and with living in an unfamiliar family home. Not easy considering The Husband was away for work 5 days out of 7!
📦 MOVE #9 @ End-2011 – Moved down to live in Mont Kiara, KL to be with The Husband as post-marriage LDR just wasn't ideal for us after having already gone through 10 YEARS of LDR. Cukup la, bro!
📦 MOVE #10 @ 2nd Quarter 2012 – Moved back into Subang as Mont Kiara was the worst hell hole ever! I hated living there. The toilet stank, the house was perpetually dusty, the roads were badly paved, food was expensive, and the traffic jams were horrendous! Day and night – always jammed! What the heck!?! I dunno why I still have so many friends living there. No un. 🤔
📦 MOVE #11 @ October 2014 – Moved to our current condo which is closer to the city and also closer to JZ's preschool. This move was exceptionally trying and tiring for me because I had all of 2 days to pack up and move everything because I was in Penang before that to deliver JJ. This also meant that I was moving homes fresh out of confinement with 1mo JJ 👶🏻 and 1y23mo JZ 👦🏻 with me. Perfect timing, right?? 😅🤪 #caripasal
📦 MOVE #12 @ January 2015 – Moved next door. Like literally right. Next. Door. Hahaha. Ciak pa bo su cho, right? No la. Not really la. Got reason wan. We decided to rent the house next door the year before while our actual unit was finishing its tenancy agreement.
But even though it was just next door, move is still move la. Still have to pack up E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G and then unpack E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G wat! Summore we were packing and moving and living there while reno was being carried out. OMG, things were so crazy, messy and dirty that JJ ended up having to nap in a stuffed luggage bag because the beds were already moved over but weren't set up yet. LOL. You look and see! Siao or not?? Hahaha.
😅😂🤪
This one started life rough.
He'll be tough. Hahahaha.
Under-utilised kitchen gear and serving dishes – packed.
Kids' old toys – packed. Kids' old clothes – packed.
My too-small-for-me-now clothes – packed. 😅🙆🏻
Honestly, I'm beginning to look forward to this move. It won't be easy considering I've got three lives to pack, not including my own. But I'm silently praying that it will be the last move I'll make in a long, long time. 🙏🙏🙏
So that I can unpack all our things without the thought of having to keep boxes around for the next move. So that I can make plans without an impending future move lingering at the back of my mind. So that my family and I can finally grow roots and find permanence and belonging where we're at. So my kids can grow up without the insecurity of instability and the stress of constant change.
Yes, I'm looking forward to this move. ☺️
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