housing thoughts, and teacups

One problem with the idea of going back to the Netherlands (or for that matter of traveling in an RV for a year, another of our possibilities) is that it means that much more time separated from our nice stuff in storage. It’s a calm Sunday afternoon, my chores are done, my workout’s done, so if you’ll excuse me I think I’ll spend little time in materialist musing. That stuff from which I’m currently separated includes a lot of things I cherish (my boat, Sunrise *snif*, our sleighbed, the majority of my books) but a recent post on my friendslist made me thing about the china.

When it comes to actually drinking liquids, I am a baby: I tend to drink water from a bottle (sports bottle) and tea from a sippy-cup (lidded travel mug). However, that’s not for lack of options. Even here I have some options; one big Taiwan souvenir is a stone tea table and set of tiny cups (white china, suitable for green or red tea, can be used for oolong but the proper cups for that are really the dark brown ones). Back home, though… there are the cups from our own good china, the ones from the set we inherited from Ted’s grandparents (no idea what the pattern is), the celadon tea set we bought in Korea (something like the plainer ones here), some tea cups Ted brought back from an earlier trip to Asia (here in Taiwan, probably), and, most precious, a few we inherited from my grandmother with a different flower on each and from his great-grandmother that are souvenirs of places she’d been.

I really need to hold a tea party some day.

I really need to have my own house again some day. It’s pleasant to think of where we might someday settle down (almost certainly a rented place as well, but then when we’re again settled and working somewhere in the States, will we buy? build? renovate? (Of course it’s also possible we’ll end up un- or under-employed and will have to take what we can get, but we have good marketable skills, good resumes, and the savings from selling our previous house, and I don’t see much point in dwelling on less pleasant possibilities.) Meanwhile, I look at houses I’m in to see what I can learn from them, and what I’d like to do in my own. Someday.