Archive for the 'Family' Category
May 24 2010: Why Aren’t You, Didn’t You, Couldn’t You?
Filed under Asian-ness & Family with 10 Comments
There are a number of new phone providers who hawk their services (cheap international calls!) in the CBD by accosting pedestrians walking by. The theme however, is that they only accost those who look as though they may have connections overseas. So they’ll accost me, someone who is clearly of East Asian descent. They’ll accost anyone who looks Indian, Middle Eastern, South East Asian, African. If you’re Anglo-Saxon however, you’re safe. You’ll never be stopped and sold an international phone plan!
Narrow-sighted marketing aside (what’s to say that someone who looks white doesn’t have relatives or friends overseas they’d like to call?), I find their sales pitch to me amusing. Communicating with my extended family isn’t something I’d do on a whim. It’s the type of thing that needs lengthy preparation time – e.g. I need to plan ahead and only see them briefly when I’m on holiday in Hong Kong, but never be surprised by a phone call. After all, when all they have to say to me is:
- Why didn’t you study accounting or medicine at university, instead of humanities?
- Why aren’t you already doing a PhD?
- Why are you working at a not-for-profit, instead of having a stable job at a big bank?
- Why aren’t you earning six figures a year already?
- Why have you moved out of the family home even though you’re not married?
- Why aren’t you married?
- Why are you dating a white boy instead of our own people?
- Why can’t you lose three dress sizes and fit into a size six?
Why would I willingly speak to them without prior preparation and boosting of my self-esteem? I get enough criticism from my parents. I don’t need it from all my other relatives too!
March 26 2010: So An Explanation Of This Debt
Filed under Family & House & Money with 12 Comments
So I suppose I should give some actual information about this elusive apartment and how I bought it, rather than simply going ZOMGYAYAPARTMENTYAYOMGFUCKDEBT!?
Some Basic Details
- Two bedroom, two bathroom, security seven-year-old apartment.
- Balcony leading off the lounge area.
- Open-plan living.
- Hidden European laundry in main bathroom.
- Located within two minutes walk to a Zone 1 premium train station (this is a good thing!)
I would post photos but the only photos I have have the current owner’s furniture in them. When I show you photos, I want it to really be of my place, with my furniture, and my design. So…photos in coming months.
How I’m Paying For It
With my soul. No, really. What I’m about to tell you now will destroy a lot of readers’ faith and belief in me and my abilities. They will scorn me for going against my principles and for taking a step backwards. I will lose what readership I have left and no longer be thought of a superwoman. I took my parents up on their offer to help me purchase a property. It probably seems strange considering past events, but that was the offer, and I took them up on it.
Why didn’t I wait till I could afford to buy my own place? Because it would never have happened otherwise. The longer I waited, the more I tried to save, the more property prices went up. Property prices will never drop. They may stop rising as steadily as they have over the past five years, but they will never drop. If I waited to buy by myself with no help, I could only ever have bought in the outer outer suburbs, in what is almost rural areas. This isn’t feasible – as a property buyer, you have to think in the long-term. You have to buy where it’s convenient (I have public transport almost on my doorstep), where you have access to good public schools for future children (my apartment is in the McKinnon school zone, which is one of the top four state schools), where property prices won’t stagnate (property prices will never drop in inner Melbourne).
I have my pride. But I’m also pragmatic enough to realise that I shouldn’t turn down a perfectly good offer to own my own home because of personal differences. It was either that, living in the country (not my thing, I’m an urban girl!), or end up renting my whole life and never owning a home of my own.
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February 13 2010: Happy Chinese New Year!
Filed under Asian-ness & Family & Relationships/Men with 11 Comments
Happy Chinese New Year to anyone for whom it actually means something!
I managed to inadvertently aggravate my parents by forgetting that it was Chinese New Year’s Eve tonight – it’s more important to our family than the actual day itself. Having lived away from home for the past few months though, I forgot entirely about the New Year, and arranged early on to meet a friend from Sydney for dinner tonight as she’s only down for a few days. Bad move on my part. At least I’m back in the family home in the afternoon, to at least do my part in the worshipping of our family ancestors – the burning of paper money, etc. I try my best to do what’s expected of a good Chinese daughter.
And – tomorrow’s not only the start of the Year of the Tiger, but also Valentine’s Day! I haven’t planned or organised much as I was quite extravagant in planning an elaborate birthday for Dylan last week, so I’ve just done something quite small (which I can’t write about here yet, because apparently he’s starting to read this blog again).
I have told him though, that however commercial or cheesy he might find the holiday, I fully expect him to make an effort tomorrow. We might be used to just chilling at home with a few DVDs, but tomorrow needs to be something more. It needn’t be as cheesy as roses and chocolate – I just need him to show that he understands that while the holiday might not mean anything to him, it means something to me, so he should just suck it up and treat me like a princess. So there. =P