Randomly Noted

As we prepare to move back to the U.S. after living abroad for nearly nine years, we’re realizing that all the electrical items we own must stay in Singapore. And everything we need – electrical or otherwise – will have to be purchased at Target or IKEA after we arrive. We’ve had three-pronged electrical appliances since 2000 when we moved to London. (The U.K. and Singapore are both of the three-pronged ilk.) So, it’s  goodbye microwave, TV, stereo, hand blender, tea kettle, floor fans (it’s hot here!), iron, food processor. What’s actually most startling to us is how LITTLE stuff we actually own: In London, rental flats come semi- or completely furnished; the situation’s similar in Singapore, where our apartment came with most of the furniture we needed. Basically, we own a couch, loveseat and chair. That’s about it. We think our son’s bed belongs to us – if that. There are three desks – they belong to our landlord as does the table we eat on and the chairs that go with it. Our perusal of real estate listings, glossy magazines and TV shows (Desperate Housewives re-runs, among others ) suggests our fellow Americans co-exist with quite a lot of furniture in a multiplicity of common areas: living rooms, dens, family rooms, dining rooms, sun rooms, home offices, finished basements, eat-in kitchens – not to mention the rooms in which they sleep, and, oh, those vast walk-in closets! We do have a lot of Lego toys, however. In this regard, we can compete with the most acquisitive of consumers.