An enormous wall to wall unit provides storage of all kind at the new apartment’s entrance. This includes racks for shoes, drawers, shelves, coat closet, and space for storing luggage.
The wide hallway leads to 1 ½ bathrooms on one side, and a master bedroom on the other that has additional closets wall to wall.
At the end of the corridor an additional room that could serve as a 2nd bedroom, has a desk in it so that I could use it as a study. Later on I’ll include in it an ottoman to accommodate eventual guests.
The visitor’s bathroom is closest to the entrance, while the other faces the master bedroom, and, to my delight, it includes a bidet and a washing machine! What luxury! Nothing seems to be lacking here!
The studio has a floor to ceiling, narrow glass wall, kitty corner to another glass door leading to a small balcony. As I sit at my desk, at dawn I can watch the sun rays come up from behind the Dajti mountains. In the evening, 12 floors below, the never ending traffic moves along this boulevard of Tirana, and during the night, when it eases off, I can observe city trucks washing the streets and doing garbage collection pretty much on schedule around 12:30am.
In less than a week, I moved out most of my personal stuff and furniture from the old quarters I used for 9 years, as a residence and office. Thanks to small rearrangements and the available spaciousness these fit and blend in just fine in the new residence, while the balance of office furniture and stuff will be moved out in another week. Thus, the old apartment can be released back to its owner, who is sincerely sorry to see me go. The organization I am running can now be housed separately, free of charge, on my property in another part of the city.
As most of you, my friends, know it took years to re-obtain possession of my ex residence and land, after decades of use by the government. Last year it was finally released to me, as a rightful owner, but in a terrible condition. It will take quite a bit of planning, time, and money to put it to good use, but a wing of it is already in good shape to store what the organization will need to operate from there in the future.
Two days ago 2 young workers came to install the communication wiring inside my new apartment, where a router will provide wireless connection throughout, while my host was assembling a huge antenna that will be mounted on the balcony, with a terrestrial digital, for clearer TV viewing and access to all other foreign channels. Meanwhile I was busy washing, cleaning and organizing my belongings of all sorts and cooking my first home meal. There is still quite a bit to do, but I’m making good progress.
Internet communication in my property will be provided soon by existing coaxial cables in the zone, and the satellite TV setup that I used in the old apartment will also be transferred there for the organization.
This is all a simple beginning for now, but hopefully, when the necessary funds, being researched now, will become available even this project will be implemented and eventually fully developed by employing appropriate staffing. Just the other day a high level officer of a foreign bank here was telling me that he was highly impressed by the seriousness and enthusiasm of the young Albanians they have hired here, most of them trilingual.
Thus, I am pleased that, with some effort, good beginnings are being put into effect all the way around. This, indeed, reinforces my positive attitude toward the future and what I am involved in. Onward we go!
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