As anticipated, we moved into our flat on Thursday (pictures later, when we've finished putting it to rights).

So far so good. The building (just seven floors tall) is brand new. The flat (on the top floor) has been furnished with quality stuff. It's walking distance from the river and the old town in one direction, and from a mall (with a cinema) in the other. There's a bigger residential building going up nearby, but to date the site is not too noisy.

At the moment, the view from our front windows is reasonably open. There's lots of green. We're guessing this is unlikely to last. You can see various plots that are likely to be magnets for developers... Nothing we can do about that. We'll just have to wait and see.


Key furnishings are provided, but we've had to acquire a number of essential household items. Three days in, and we now have stuff for washing up and doing laundry, for eating and drinking from, for storing kitchen items in, and for putting rubbish in. There's still quite a lot to do, though. And, given that our transport consists of Grab and our feet, it's a fairly exhausting business.


We're aiming for minimalism, so every import has to be stringently vetted. Is it absolutely essential, or can we do without? Can we buy cheaper, while still getting reasonable quality? Can we adapt something we already have?





We've made good use of chains like Super Saver and Mr DIY and Yubiso. But we've also bought a lot from the small businesses on Jalan Padungan, which are very characterful.


Our purchases are working out well so far, with the exception of the mugs that are apparently not designed to take boiling water... The cracked one now serves as a toothbrush-holder...

Tomorrow, Nigel will be assembling the kitchen rack (we need to buy a hammer first). And we'll be on the trail of cushions...