Who needs a bed anyhow?

One of the obstacles you have to deal with while living abroad short-term is sourcing all the large items that are essential to life (but impossible to fly over) without breaking the bank. Having lead a very sheltered life in South Perth, I only encountered this problem when I moved out of the Billinghams’ and in with Jess. For example, I had to buy a second-hand bike (and collect it from bloody miles away without a car), which I’m currently in the process of trying to sell on.

A little more essential to everyday living than two-wheeled transport (if it gets sold before I leave, there’s always the bus) is bedroom furniture, which I was very lucky with when I initially moved into Peppermint Grove. Sian, Jess’ previous housemate, was graduating and moving back in with her parents down south while she worked during the summer and left me everything in her bedroom, including the best bed in the world. However, she’s about to go travelling for four months (including Cornwall – yay!), meaning she had to come up and clear out her room last week so that her parents don’t have to do it by themselves when the lease finishes. This culminated in me leaving a fully furnished room on Monday and returning from work to the exact opposite. No desk, no chair and, most importantly, no bed. It’s extremely lucky that Jess had a spare single mattress; otherwise I’d either be sleeping on the floor or, even worse, searching the verge sales for a mouldy and probably bug-infested replacement. My new arrangement is “minimalistic” to say the least:

Before

After. To quote Step Brothers: "So much room for activities!"... Unless said activities include working, sitting down or sleeping anything more than three inches off the ground.

I only joke about my ferral living conditions. Firstly, it was lovely of Sian to let me use her stuff in the first place and I can’t begrudge her reclaiming it. Secondly, I’m actually loving the whole bed-on-the-floor set up! It reminds me of having a den as a kid and is super cosy now the weather’s starting to get colder. For the sake of five weeks, I think I can put up with my new tramp-chic lifestyle.