new bungalow in new france

i have the day off today; it's moving day. well, not moving day, more like just move-in day. i'm moving into my 5th bungalow. this one's in trois-rivières, quebec. nice spot to spend time in during the dog days of summer. it's a comfy 22 here today.

i'm sure i'll write more about how this in general, but the way housing works for us is this: everyone gets a bungalow to live in. several, actually, if you want them, anywhere in the world. all free, of course. it sounds luxurious, and i guess in some sense it is. but not in the way you're thinking.

this will seem very foreign to all you regs, but all of us basically have whatever we want. i mean, what good is secretly running world affairs down to the burg level, if we don't skim a little off the top? ;)

but what's weird is that since we can all literally have anything we want, all the trappings of conspicuous consumption that are so common among you regs just don't exist. plus the fact, of course, that we can't flaunt it publicly anyway, of course. sure, people get into it for a while when they're young. but it's pretty boring to have 6 ferraris in your garage if you can't drive them around and show them off.

so, with a few exceptions, we all pretty much settle into a lifestyle surrounded by the absolute best, not by the absolute trendiest or coolest or hippest. audis & bmws, not ferraris or aston martins.

and that's how it is with the bungalows. they're not really what you think of when you hear the word 'bungalow'. that's just the common term for them, a generic that applies to a wide variety of abodes in a wide variety of locations. they're nice, but they're not ridiculously opulent mansions. they're usually apartments, actually. large, beautiful apartments, located in the nicest part of town. apartments & condos are much easier to be anonymous in than houses, anyway.

i've spent most of the last few months, aside from traveling for work, at my place in lagos. yes, the one in nigeria. not exactly the kind of place you usually see posters of in your travel agent's office, lol. but my cousin gregor runs the municipality, and some of the food and music there is really nice. but it's been getting hot, and i've been missing québécois.

my furniture was just deliviered; gotta go.