Day 322 – Keys?

OK. I’m writing this yesterday, so that today can be used for completing the packing and beginning the next stage of the moving process.

There is a chance that we might be able to pick up the keys to the new place today. We can’t officially move in, but we might be able to dump some stuff in the garage where it will remain for the next 10 years or more.

Seriously though, anything we can remove from this house and put into the other house before the upcoming chaos of the real move day will be of great help, and so I’m hopeful that things work out well today and we can (quite literally) spread the load a little.

I’ll be in touch.

Day 320 – The last…

We’re definitely down to the stage where just about everything we do in the current house will also be the last time that we do it in the current house.

I’ve already survived my last Monday morning in the current house and I’m halfway there on making it successfully through my last whole Tuesday in the current house.

Fingers crossed.

These are minor milestones, though. Yesterday evening was a big one:

The last braai in the current house. On the big braai. Our third in three nights (braais, not houses) because we can.

There were a few emotional moments as the final burger patty came off the grid and was paired with some blue cheese and a teaspoon of blueberry jelly before being devoured. The tears rolling down my cheeks serendipitously added a delicious saltiness.

There is no big braai at the new place (yet), but I do have this, of course. And I’m sure that its first usage at the new place will bring much joy.

 

Day 308 – Are we nearly there yet?

2½ weeks.

2½ weeks to pack up a whole house.

It doesn’t seem such a big job, and indeed it probably wouldn’t be if there weren’t other things which also needed doing during that 2½ weeks. But there’s parenting, schooling (back full-time next week, nogal), riding, Dodgeball, piano and singing.
There’s dog walking, exercise, work, football (on the TV, at least), there’s blogging and there are the daily mundanities of life which still need to be happening alongside the packing up of the whole house.

I’m now at the point where I’m fairly sure that there’s stuff which I won’t need in the intervening 2½ weeks and which I can therefore chuck into in boxes, ready to go. There will be things which I have packed which I will need, but when I realise this, I will just have to curse quietly under my breath and pretend that I can manage without them.

Positives:
Almost sorted the internet connection for the new place.
Almost sorted the inspection certificates for this place.
Managed my fastest run for a while this morning (still very slow).
Wine shop and bottle store down the road seem to be prepping to reopen.

Day 261 – And so it begins…

And by “it”, I mean The Move.

We can’t actually go anywhere at the moment, but we can start the preparation to go somewhere in the New Year. We’re treating this as an opportunity to throw out much of the crap stuff that we don’t need anymore that we have accumulated since we arrived here n years ago. And so today, we began on the garage.

I thought this sort of thing would take ages, but getting it all done so quickly allowed me to enjoy some of the football on offer this afternoon. A couple of hours later, we had removed over a carfull (and it’s a big car) of recycling and rubbish, which I dropped off at the local tip with glee.

If everything goes this smoothly, it’ll be a breeze (and I’ll get to watch a lot more football than I thought).

It was a good start.

Day 247 – Recaps and explanations

Right. Lots to discuss here.

I’m sitting outside in the sunshine on another perfect day at the cottage, the gentle breeze taking the edge off the heat of the late spring sunshine, my computer in front of me and the blackest of Carling Labels at my side. Christine and Queens is playing on my Spotify Daily Mix and life seems generally rather good right now.

It wasn’t always this way, though. The Other Project, which I have mentioned a few times over the last couple of weeks, was selling our house. And that has been extremely stressful, with suspensive clauses everywhere and deadlines being stretched until the very last moment.

Long story short, the last of those clauses was met yesterday, which was incidentally the last day of one of the deadlines. And that’s every reason to celebrate, which we did last night, before crashing into bed just before 9, dead from stress, insomnia and physical exhaustion. Hence yesterday’s blog post*.

It’s been a great measure of just what the human body is capable of on auto-pilot.
And yeah, ok, that blog post wasn’t a good example.

And so we’re all done on our house, which means that we can now move to our new place. And no. It isn’t in the UK or Canada or New Zealand or Perth. It’s here: in SA; it’s in Cape Town.

It’s actually just up the road, which makes me wonder why we are paying so much for it.

Hmm.

Of course, nothing happens quickly in these real estate things, and so we’re looking at a few months before we actually do move anywhere. And by ‘anywhere’, I mean the new house that we have bought, I hope.

There’s loads to do, but we’re not doing any of it this weekend. We deserve the break that we’re having right now. And if this lunchtime drink makes me sleepy this afternoon, well, guess what?

I will happily nap this afternoon.

It’s been a horrible couple of weeks, but I think we’re through it now.
And we have a lot to look forward to, which is a real privilege this year.

* it’s a personal thing.