Things I did today -

1) Put up my wardrobe and exhibited my girl guide skills anchoring the whole wardrobe (which is shaky, due to poor workmanship and because it is the cheapest I can find in ikea) to the wall so I won't wake up with the wardrobe on top of me.

2) Spoke to mum and had her laugh at me

3) Spent half the day hammering away in the patio trying to assemble the futon sofa chair thing. And possibly irritating the hell out of my neighbours at the same time.

4) Battled with mother of all lady long legs (the spider, albeit oestrogenised) found hanging above my head in the shower

5) Survived on just one cup of coffee and hainanese rice without the chicken.

As part of my ongoing attempt to maximise space, I went along with Alex's advice and gotten myself a vacuum bag. Works pretty well, though I'm not sure Toffee likes it.

Moving on to my CD collection as I set about further de-cluttering my life. Spotted one CD collection of music compiled by PQ years ago. Made me laugh, as I read through the titles (especially the 张学友 one). I feel old.

Clothes for recycling - includes the old and unwanted, the too-bigs, the too-smalls, the new but never worn, the once-trendy-now-never-to-be-caught-dead-ins, and the oh-why-the-hell-did-I-even buy-its aka fashion disaster wear.

Includes my Tom Bao Jeans. They have lasted me 10 years, and endured many trips abroad. They even have tar markings from Nepal. I still love them, but I didn't think I would want to be spotted wearing bell bottoms anytime soon.

Ta-da! I reckon that's a pretty good effort on my part. If the Edinburgh Council's website is to be trusted, these bunch will be sorted and depending on usability, either go to charity shops for sales, or to be cut into shreds and sold us cleaning rags.

One of the many reasons why I'm never able to fit my worldly possessions in the one car.

Highland terrier keyboard sweep / mouse hand rest I got from Mer as a birthday gift long long long time ago.

Pigle from Sui Kai. This is Pigle No 2. Pigle No 1 was from my First Year flatmates, but was lost within the hour of receiving it. I kicked up such a fuss my brother had to buy me a replacement one.

Ah Beng Cow from Hilary.

Random doggie memo clip I got from XG.

Got this from Mer when she went to Australia, like what, a hundred years ago?

TY bear from my host family in Croydon! The queen's golden jubilee edition.

Another TY bear, this time from Mayu in Boston.

Random furry friend from Denmark, again from Hilary.

This isn't actually mine. It's a gift to Hilary Wong from us when we were still stuck in Singapore and she was in UK. It was given to her with this random Tarzan lunch box (the only things we could afford from Watson at that time). How it ended up with me I have no idea.

Monkey from XG. This monkey has a name. I do not remember what.

It used to smell nice, not anymore. Gift from million years ago.

Ee-yor, a gift from a long time ago.

七味唐辛子

Another exciting parcel today! Took me a while to figure out what this thing does.