Goodbye Urbana, Hello MBS

Today we said goodbye to Urbana, our home for two and a half years in Singapore. The professional (?) packers came this morning and started packing up all our belongings at a dizzying speed.

Goodbye Urbana. We will miss you, our Singapore home.

I didn't realize that when they said the packers will pack everything for you... it meant the packers will hastily put all your belongings into boxes with no rhyme or reason except for what room it came from so that the boxes can properly be labeled.

The OC in me was screaming... NO!!! Don't put my shoes that yaya left in the living room from the storage, with all the knick-knacks I collected from different trips that was really displayed in the living room. In my mind, I trhought it was just plain common sense to pack shoes with shoes but I guess not everyone thinks that way. I also could not understand why the frames don't all go together... but I was too busy chasing after the things I didn't want them to pack to think much about it. I had to fish out our padlocks from a bowl with coins that was being packed exactly the way it was displayed at home! I also had to rescue Sofia's new tumbler that they were packing for the sea freight just because it was still in the kitchen!

I think Sofia was in shock watching the packers box all our things around her.

I was able to make a double shot of espresso with my Nespresso machine before it was packed.
Thanks to Ma for sending us chicken pie! 

"Mom!!! What happened to my kichen?"

She calmed down when she realized that it was all packed up.

Watching TV with no more furniture.

They lined our boxes up along the corridor to the service lift.

I didn't know we had neighbors who biked.

Probably half of our boxes and our service entrance.

Sofia had some cereal in our disposable containers.

Then she became happy when she realized she could climb up the boxes.

They worked as replacement furniture.

This was our safe place.
Here we put everything we rescued from the packers and told them NOT too touch anything.

Asian Tigers were very inefficient in managing my Air Shipment.
They arrived with no scale and could only weigh our things when everything
else we wanted to send by air had already been packed.

So I asked them to ship Sofia's kitchen and more toys instead.
They said I exceeded the volume (not weight) but they backed off
when I gave them hell for their inefficiency.

Packing was quite stressful, but finding alternative accommodations at Marina Bay Sands while our home is being cleaned is a silver lining at the end of the cloudy day.

This is the view from our room.

The Singapore Skyline.

From where I am blogging, this is my view.
I want to write more about staying here, but I will do that in another post.

Staying at the MBS is a bit like being on a staycation, except I barely live in Singapore anymore. It's a weird feeling. Just Saying.