Letting Go Of The Old

The apartment is looking a lot emptier now, and feels a lot lighter too. We or rather I, have managed to sell off quite a few pieces of furniture and other odds and ends. Surprisingly, Christmas time seems to be a good time for people to be scouring the classifieds to see what they can lay their hands on. And at the prices I've advertised, they know a bargain when they see one, especially those who like retro, vintage furniture.

So good bye to the old, familiar pieces, especially when they had been with G for so long. It is with a twinge of reluctance to let some of them go, especially the low orange plastic Kartell-era coffee table on which we've had many weekend brekkies on the balcony of our other apartment in Surry Hills. We tell ourselves that since we've moved to this apartment, we have not done the same, so it is time to let it go.

I was a bit sad to see the orange vinyl dining chairs go as I like them a lot. But we had to make a choice between them and the green vinyl Parker-ish chairs and those won, even though they were squeaky and will need to be repaired in due course.

The pink retro toaster which can toast 4 slices of bread at a go used to sit on the bench of my apartment in Oxford St as it had been a spare which G had. I like the retro design but on my own, I will never need 4 pieces of toast at any one time!

The Danish-style wooden table was always a tad high for a coffee table although we like its clean lines. So we last used it as a table for the printer. The top was a little water-damaged and had started to warp a little and the slates in the second tier were loose. So we really didn't want it THAT much.

G was also a little sad that his light green table lamp had to go, he used to have it on his bedside. I didn't like it that much for some unknown reason. The low Ikea coffee table was the right height for us to prop our feet on when watching telly but once we've got the Noguchi table, we used it as a side table for odds and ends.

Hence as the Chinese saying goes, "If the old things don't go, the new ones don't come". How very apt. And with furniture, and other general aspects of life, we probably have to let go of the old and the familiar in order to welcome some other newer, better changes into our lives...