Birth Day& The New House

I have turned 30 on September 1st!!

For those who sent me happy birthday wishes, thank you very much! You are the best thing that I have in my life. For others who forgot my birthday, please don’t feel bad ;) I know that you still care about me!! (right??)

As me and my two roommates were moving into the house on my birthday weekend, we postponed the celebration to the following weekend. My roommates and a couple of other people took me out to a nice restaurant near our house. I had nice pasta and crème brûlée as a dessert (was yummy~.) They put three candles on a cake and I made a wish. The restaurant offered all our dessert to be on house, and it felt nice and special.

How do I feel now that I am 30?? I feel exactly the same as before. Unfortunately, it does not mean that I suddenly become mature and wise. I thought I would have everything figured out by this age, but I am in fact as confused and lost as I was five or ten years ago. Life is not easy sometimes, but it’s all good and I am grateful for what I have.

Our new house is located in the Area 12 in Lilongwe, which is a sort of an upper middle class Malawian neighborhood. The house is a nice cozy size with three bedrooms, a kitchen, living and dining rooms with two bathrooms-- a perfect one for three of us to live comfortably. The unusual thing is the size of the house lot itself. It must be close to an acre. Just huge! Cannot believe how big it is. For Japanese person who is used to living in a rabbit hutch house, it is just incredible. From the front gate to the actual house, it is more than 40 meters! It feels like I am living in a small park. The yard got some nice trees, flowers, fruit trees and plants and is quite nice.

We now have nice furnishing and appliances, and we are all quite happy. It involved so much work and spending $$ to get here, and we are completely shopping-ed out. We bought beds, mattresses, a fridge, a stove, a television, couches, a dining table with chairs and some side tables along with other household items like pots& pans, dishes, a toaster etc etc. The list got longer and longer. We have hired three staffs to work around the house. One housekeeper who lives on the premise with his family, one full time night guard and another guard to work on Sundays as well as to work as a part-time gardener. We also hired two additional “security guards”. Two doggies! Two 10 months puppies. The security is an issue here, so to have someone around clock is a good thing. I do feel guilty to have someone else who does cleaning, dishes and laundry& ironing. BUT I have to admit that after long stressful work day, it is so nice to come home to a nicely made bed and ironed shirts.

I will post more photos to make you jealous.