Moved house

And we've done it again! We've moved house, and as I said we're getting rather good at it. We're even not surprised anymore when things didn't survive the move as they should have, we only just hope when handling each individual item that it's not this item that has damage. But you get a bit concerned when one of the movers says 'Should this flat pack bend so much?'. Well, that was Age's desk top. Now in three pieces.

Boxes in the kitchen

And internationally wrapping items is fine, but the hardest part is to get all the wrapping materials off. The most delicate goods are wrapped in bubble wrap with cardboard around it, and with most delicate I don't mean crockery or glassware, but couches, desks, bicycles, etc. So how do you unpack a couch that's tightly wrapped in bubble wrap? With a stanley knife. And what happens when you aren't very handy with your knife? You go straight through the leather couch.

Our new lazy chairs with footstool on the deck

And so forth. The list is growing slowly as we're still unpacking things. The latest discovery is a hole in one of the doors of our self-shipped-Australian-to-NZ Ikea bookcase that's now back in Australia. At least we won't have troubles replacing that one - one would think... But that bookcase was bought in Sydney, and it looks like they don't stock that particular door in Adelaide. So we need four new doors then!

Everything in the kitchen has found its place

A bit of moaning and groaning to start the day, but it's not all doom and gloom. It's actually really nice to have our own stuff back and to have room to move. This house is big!! Yesterday I met the landlord, who plans to live in it in a year or two, as she needs 'something smaller'. Good heavens.
We decided that we really like Australian houses, they are quite smart with their floorplans, although they take up a lot of space as mostly it's all just one level.

Age watching the Ozzie Open Final on own couch

We are the first people to live in it, so there are a few teething problems to go through:

• We didn't have gas, so couldn't use the gas hob to cook. Got connected yesterday :-)
• Because we couldn't cook we were so smart to use the oven instead. But we can't find its power switch! My suspicion is that someone tiled over it. We've been looking with four people now and no one knows where to switch the oven on. We'll get an electrician over to find that one out.
• We don't have a washing machine yet, as we've sold ours, but even if we had one we wouldn't be able to use it as there's no laundry possibility at the moment. Something for the plumber.
• Oh, and we don't have curtains in our bedroom yet.

We have also encountered our first wildlife:

• A terribly annoying mosquito that we couldn't slap because it sat on these white pristine walls and had sucked itself full with our blood. Our insecticide was still at the other rental place.
• A dead white tail spider in the dishwasher. When I removed it it was actually only playing dead. By then we had been over to our other rental place and retrieved the spray can with insecticide.
• And our very first redback spider! That one was hiding in/under our bathroom cabinet. I had spotted spider poo, but didn't see a spider, and thought nothing of it. There is heaps of spider poo spots on the floor in corners everywhere, not being cleaned by the cleaners before we moved in.  Then I wanted a new toilet roll, opened the cabinet and there it was, hanging under the door in its small messy web. We couldn't see immediately its red spot, but they have a very recognisable shape, so even without ever seeing one before we both knew that this probably was a real redback. So the spray can came in handy yet again. Time for surface spray to prevent insects from entering the house altogether!
• Oh and we had a really funny encounter with three big magpie's (eksters). We were sitting outside, on our lazy chairs on the deck, eating lunch, and there they suddenly were, sitting on the fence not even a meter from us. They started singing! Do you know how loud that is!! Dideloodelaaadilooodeliiii. And then got off the fence and started walking around us. Well, a magpie is actually quite big too, when you are in your lazy chair. Very funny.

Cricket: Australia vs. India on Saturday. Not that you see much from the stands - Age got a free ticket so went on Saturday, but the game was over in not even 1 hour and it was too early to start drinking beer. Apparently cricket is all about drinking all day. No surprises there! Who can watch that game for five days in a row???

Oh and one last thing: I'm still dreaming of becoming this famous (and rich, very rich) writer, so I thought I better start doing something about it then. I am starting a 6-month creative writing course next week :-). I'll tell you all about it soon in a new blog, as we have to keep a journal and do lots of writing exercises. That's what my free Tuesdays will be for too!