Flat Pictures :)

Ah... home sweet home. :) At least for the past 3 weeks. I realized I haven't posted pics of my flat yet, so here they are.

Well, this is my flat. Kitchen, living room, dining table, the bathroom is on the other side. I'm standing beside the bed when I took this pic, so that pretty much gives you a general layout the place.

The sala is probably the least used area in the place. One, there were no English channels on the TV. Two, table was too low to put my laptop on and three, I didn't really have much time to lounge around. I just used this during weekends, when I was just kicking back with a book.

The kitchen...probably the most used place in my flat. :) I cook every day, and have a lot of fun combining ingredients to make the most of my limited pantry. Oh, and yes, I kept its pristine condition coz I'm terribly obssessive compulsive so after each meal was cooked, everything was cleaned and wiped down. :)

My walk in closet! I always wanted one of these! This is directly adjacent to the kitchen, but fortunately, my clothes didn't smell like food even though I cooked everyday. I loved this closet and when I get my own home, will probably put in something like this in as well. :)

And lastly, the laundry and shower area. The toilet was in a separate room. Probably the biggest advantage to being in a flat, next to cooking of course, was being able to do laundry. I used to hand wash every day when I was in the hotel, and it's a bit tedious. Now, I just put everything in (similar colors of course), and after 30 minutes, I just have to hang them out. Easy. :) Which came in handy since I was bringing home clothes after each trip to the mall. ;)

And of course, the view from my room. I actually took this with a makeshift tripod, using a candle, a wine glass, with my camera on night mode with a 2 second timer. I don't think it still came out the way I wanted it too.. with the moon so bright and the moonlight cascading on the unfinished building...sorta looks creepy but I liked the whole melancholic vibe that it gave off.

I realized I have no other pictures of my trip here on my camera... really didn't do much at all. It was office from Mon to Friday, shopping on Saturdays, then church and groceries on Sunday. And in between, all the rituals of keeping a clean house. I'm pretty much settled in to the routine, but still not quite sure whether I want to keep on doing this. All I can say now, is that I'm looking forward to going home on Friday.

The Tomasikova Experience

Let me take a break from the SG/KL Chronicles (which I hope to finish by this weekend), to tell you about my stay here in Bratislava. This is the third time I've been here, but the first time I'll be staying at an apartment, and the first time it's going to be a short stay (just 3 weeks, yay!). I'm posting this in bulk because I had no access to the internet for the weekend.

Day 1 (Friday)
Anyway, arrived at the Tomasikova flat at around 3 in the afternoon. Rode up the elevator to my floor and found two unmarked doors there. Slightly annoyed that the driver didn't take me up to the actual unit, I fumbled with the doors and tried all the keys from my keychain (there were 5).

One fit, but no matter where I turned it, the door remained closed. I felt as if the key was stuck or something. Really starting to feel annoyed (and a little frantic). After a full 5 minutes of fiddling with the stupid lock, I went back down (luggage and all) hoping to find someone I could ask help from, there wasn't anyone there. So, I made my way back up the elevator and faced that stupid door.

I took a few calming breaths and tried a few more times. I pushed, pulled, twisted and still the door wouldn't open. Feeling increasingly panicked, I gave it a few more tries, willing myself to think of every possible way to open a lock, and then suddenly, to my immense relief, the lock clicked.

My relief was short lived. Inside the hall was four identical doors WITH NO NUMBERS! How the hell was I supposed to know which flat was which?! Cursing to myself, I tried all the keys again, and again I couldn't open the lock on the first door. I tried the second door, for some reason, 2 of the keys on my keychain could fit into all the locks. But none opened. So, I had 2 keys, 4 doors. I tried every combination, and I couldn't open any. I didn't want to waste too much time (or effort) trying out the lock (what if the owners thought I was breaking in), so I called up Grace and asked her if she knew which was flat Maris used to stay in, she asked Olive, who asked Lucy. who then told me, Finally I knew which was which!

So now that I knew which door to focus on. I tried the two keys that could be inserted into the lock. I tried the same technique as I did with the other door, but no luck. Finally, with a few more tries, I was able to open the door, and got into my apartment.

Compared to Manila standards, it was very big for a studio. I call it a studio coz there's no door for the bedroom. But I realized that if they had done that, then the bedroom would have felt claustrophobic. All in all, I like it, the kitchen is just the way I like it, and I even have a walk-in closet!

I spent a few moments unpacking and setting up the place to make it more 'homey', then I went to
Polus to buy some desperately needed necessities. Finding my way didn't take too much effort (which is a big deal for me since I pretty much suck at directions). When I got back to the flat, I just fixed my stuff, took a bath and fell asleep.


Day 2 (Breakfast)
Woke up with the sun high up in the sky, I tilted my head to the side, put on my glasses and found out it was only 5AM! I have no idea when the sun rose, but given the brightness of the surrounding area, it must have been about an hour ago at least. And to think it only grew dark after 9 in the evening.

Anyway, stood up, checked my stock and wondered what I was going to eat for breakfast... scrambled eggs? Hmmm... bacon? My pantry wasn't as fully equipped as I wanted it to be so making my favorites were out of the question. I settled on corned beef, rice and fried egg.

And then I realized I forgot my can opener, and there wasn't a can opener in the flat. 8-|

Anyway, after much experimenting with various kitchen utensils, I finally ended up opening the damn can with the use of my utility knife from M&S (funny, this thing didn't have a can opener either). And then I was in business. :P

I really enjoy cooking, it's the cleaning up part that sucks. :( Good thing I'm obssessive-compulsive, so I pretty much keep a clean house. We'll see how long I can keep this up... I really don't know if I'm cut up for living alone. The charm of being independent and living alone can lose it's charm very quickly... so we'll just wait and see.


Day 2 (Before Lunch)
Having nothing else to do, I set out for Hlavna Stanica to get a 1 month prepaid ticket...unfortunately, the tram lines have been discontinued from where I was at. So, I just took a bus to Aupark to check out the sales. :D

There was a lot of items on sale, but none of them appealed to me... I figured I'll just save up until I go to Avion for an M&S spree. I did buy a cute white cap from C&A though. So, I went to the grocery, and picked up some other items that were missing from my pantry. Syr (Cheese), Chlieb (Bread), Mlieko (Milk), some olive oil, grapefruit juice, cappuccino, and lots and lots of Voda Neperliva (Still Water). I also bought some toilet paper and since I am quite OC (to a fault), I also bought a new cheese grater, and of course the all important can opener and a peeler.

Now I had to lug everything back to the flat... I put the 9 liters of water in my backpack and carried the rest. Trust me, it was heavy. I took the bus, and waited.

For some reason I must have spaced out, coz I missed my stop!!! I only realized it when the bus doors closed. :( So, I had to get off on Maxmiliana Hella instead and walked back to my flat, heavy load and all. Moral of the story: Pay attention to your surroundings AT ALL TIMES.


Day 2 (Lunch)
Ahhh...sinigang. It's one of my favorite Pinoy dishes, but I like mine really sour, and a bit spicy. Sometimes a bit too sour for my family, so now I have the perfect opportunity to make Sinigang the way I want.

Now, I really don't know how to make Sinigang per se, but I have a general idea. And I also had to be constrained with what I already had in the flat...meaning, no veggies. :D

So, my recipe for Sinigang was this. First I put in some olive oil (it's the only oil I have), and added some garlic (are you supposed to add garlic in sinigang?). Well, anyway, I like garlic so I put some there. I then added some onions and finally tomatoes. In short, gisa. :P I then added the pork to the pot. I seasoned the pork with some ginisa mix (ok, so I also don't have salt and pepper here). But I'm not even sure you had to season the pork. Well, anyway, I figured might as well give flavor to the pork before I boiled it.

Then I added some water and boiled everything. After boiling, I tasted it, it was bland, added some more mix, tasted it, seemed better, added a whole lot of Sinigang na may sili mix. :P Let it boil again, tasted it, and voila! It was Sinigang! I simmered it for a few more minutes, heated up my leftover rice, and lunch is served.

I'll probably go to Billa after this, also to check out the route going to work. :P I'll be buying some parmesan cheese and pasta...I'm thinking tuna in olive oil pasta for dinner. :)


Day 3 - Sunday
So Sunday is mass day. :) I woke up early, made my favorite, bacon with cheese and potato omelette and had some Jacob's Chocolate Nut Capuccino (with real Milka bits). It was a long leisurely breakfast, then I washed the dishes, cleaned up the counter, stovetop, table (I do this every single time I cook), and then started to get ready for mass.

Ria, Vangie, Marbi and Jay got on the bus when we passed by Slovanet. Finally, someone to talk to! :) There were some rerouting with the buses and trams so we had to transfer at Legionarska. The good thing was it was closer to St. Ladislav, and that's a very good thing coz the weather here is very, very hot, and any way to limit our exposure to the scorching sun was a good thing.

After mass, Ria and I went to Avion! Ahhh...my favorite mall. :) As usual, I had some purchases from Marks & Spencer, a blouse from Gate, shorts from H&M, and I bought 2 shoes at such a bargain from Humanic! Imagine, a Clarks sandal (previously 2400SKK) at 399SKK, and an Ipanema sandal for 299KK. We also went to Ikea for dinner (Kotbullar aka meatballs with gravy and jam), and I bought 2 scented candles for the flat. Then we did some grocery shopping, and I bought some more stuff for my pantry.

After the shopping spree, I passed by Ria's hotel to pick up my stuff (the ones I left from the last trip). Then, walked the long walk back to Slovanet (carrying 3 large bags) and waited for my bus. I did 3 loads of laundry, darks, lights and reds. Prepared my stuff for tomorrow and finished up my Tomasikova blog for the weekend.