Back online

Found all the bits we need and are now back online.

Moved!

I've got 16 more minutes on a Library PC so I'll be brief.
We're all moved but not by any means unpacked.
We were packing all weekend putting stuff in to boxes. Got lots of boxes from work and from the bottle shop - looks like we were on a six month bender to get all the wine drunk to get the empty boxes! We hired a truck for Sunday and set to filling it.
Catherine (Hosking) kept us supplied with food so I didn't have to think about that. She arrived at morning tea with home-baked chocolate chip cookies (my favourite), at lunch with home-made felafel rolls (my favourite) and at dinner with home-made lasagne (my favourite - anything someone else cooks is my favourite). I had recently given her several years back issues of the delicious magazine and she'd made good use of them.
By mid afternoon Sunday we realised we weren't going to have nearly enough room with the one truck and Ian went off to book another for Monday morning. We also began to run out of boxes. Catherine came to the rescue again, raiding the local supermarket.
The new owners arrived mid morning to do their final inspection. They seem a nice couple. Surname Camilleri - Ian discovered later Mr. C is Maltese. They have a 17 year old son and a boy-girl twin pair who are almost 10. Despite being determined not to like them because of the haggling over the deck (just kidding) we had a long chat which was reprised on Tuesday morning when we went back for some rubbish that we couldn't get in to truck (yes we filled the second one completely) or car.
Ishbel stayed at her friend Ruby's on Sunday night - she had a dance group performance on Monday. I didn't discover that until I was dropping her off at Ruby's and Carolyn told me about lining up for hours for tickets. I don't remember getting a note about buying tickets. Sounds like the organisation was a complete schemozzle on the school's part.
Finally it was Monday morning. Jamie went off to school - he likes school - and we just had Rob for muscles. We packed up the last of the stuff and cleaned everything. We were done about 12:30pm and went down to Springwood for lunch and to await the call about 2:30pm that the settlement had been completed.
We arrived at the house just after 3pm, about the same time as Jamie coming home from school. Spent hours unpacking into the garage. Made up the beds. Sent Ian out for pizza. We'd not long sat down when Sharon and Holly turned up along with a German exchange student, Inge. While we showed them round the house, Bella helped herself to the abandoned pizza! Good job I'd had a fruit cake in the freezer which had defrosted by then.
Carolyn then arrived with Ishbel. We'd thought she'd be late home because of an evening performance but (again the school had been rubbish at letting us know) Ishbel's group doesn't perform until Thursday evening (must not forget, must not forget).
Tuesday the boys went to school and Ishbel had the day off. We had to go to the storage place to fill up the trailer they let you use. I'd booked it to be delivered to the new house on Wednesday and they would pick it up on Thursday. When we arrived, however, it was a complete surprise to the woman. She had us booked for next week!! A few phone calls and some manoeuvering of the trailer ourselves and we were able to load up. Didn't think all the stuff was going to fit but it did and it was duly delivered this morning. Just have to go home now (8 mins remaining) and make a start on the unpacking. I have spent all morning making a space for the storage stuff in the garage. Can't believe the amount of STUFF.
We were supposed to be having a gas hot water system and a gas heater installed today but again there'd been a mix up. We thought we'd bought a hot water system with wireless water temperature controllers but that's not what they'd brought (and we discovered later that's not what was ordered) and the wireless controllers are over AU$300 each so the fellas went away without doing anything. We've sorted the mix up and have decided just to have wired-in controllers (the controllers allow you to set the hot water temperature so kids can't get burned - all you have to do for having a bath/shower is turn on the hot tap - no mixing hot and cold and adjusting the temperature - great). The men will come back and do that tomorrow.
Think that's enough for now.

Going offline for a little while

We are packing up today. Ishbel's room cleared of her stuff, now being piled up with boxes. Tomorrow we get a truck and pack everything in to it. We should get the keys to the new house about 2:30pm on Monday.

We are about to pack the computer away and we'll be offline for up to 7 days.

Byeeeee

We bought a bed on Saturday

I'm blogging about this because Karen mentioned it.

I had us heading down Parramatta Road to the big Home something or other centre at Auburn or wherever it is. We’d been down at the RTA so Ian could renew his drivers licence which we’d realised only the night before had expired over a fortnight ago.

Taking a wrong turn, or rather, finding we couldn't turn the way we wanted to get to the M4, we ended up on the Great Western Highway and Ian thought we were heading for Homebase at Blacktown where Ikea USED to be and where the marshalling point was for the cleanup after the storms last December. I’d forgotten about it being there but said I was happy to give it a try.

We’d been trawling around for a bed in Penrith a few weeks ago and couldn’t find anything we liked. They were either cheap nasty or the solid ones were like Tudor Great Beds. Lo and behold, thinking we were on Mission Impossible, at the second shop at Blacktown we came across a nice sleigh bed in Sleep City. It’s made of recycled timber and is as solid as you’d wish.

Here it is:

The King size was only $569!!!!! Any of the Queen beds we'd been looking at thus far were over $1000 - on Sale. So we bought it and a bow-fronted tall boy (just out of picture) to match, plus a new mattress.

We are well pleased with our purchase.

Last weekend

Last weekend was supposed to be Ishbel's last weekend of soccer. It was hard enough to get her to make that one last appearance; not sure if she took on board that they are expected back again this weekend!! Might let Ian tackle that.

Around taking Ishbel to soccer, we cleaned out the shed and the area under the house and deck ready for the move. Our friend, Bec, came with her trailer and helped us and diffused the tension when Ian and I disagreed over what should stay and what should go - and almost every single item had to be negotiated despite Ian having told me before we got up that morning that he was quite resigned to throwing stuff out.

ANYWAY (deep breaths, HC, deep breaths), two and a half trailer loads to the tip and two loads to storage later the shed is empty except for shelving and there is just the old lounge suite lurking under the house. Getting everything into the storage facility was a bit of a squeeze - we all but held stuff in as we pulled down the roller door. Bec also took a trailer load to her house saying they wouldn't need the trailer before we move and that we could store that load with them. When I spoke to her yesterday, however, she said they'd had to unload the trailer - Steve decided he wanted to get soil and mulch and such for digging a garden!

Sunday was a far more civilised affair. In the morning Rob, Ishbel, Ian and I went round antique shops looking to see if we could find a tall boy. Three non-existent antique shops (don't believe the Pink Pages, Karen) and four really ones later we still hadn't found what we were looking for. But that's OK. I just wanted to check there was nothing out there before we buy from a 'normal' furniture shop.

And it got much better for me in the afternoon when I headed off to Lilianfels in Katoomba (picture of the lounge below) for my book group where we discussed the delightful The Uncommon Reader.

Meanwhile Rob was at his mate Nick's house for the afternoon. Jamie was playing golf as an end of season outing with his AFL team and Ishbel had Ruby over to play. Ian pottered about sticking up the polystyrene he'd got from work for insulating the underside of the house.

And we'll be living in a wild life sanctuary

Found out why it's called Red-Crowned Court.
Apparently the garden is half native plantings, and has to be maintained as such forever, because it's a protected habitat for the endangered Red-crowned toadlet or Pseudophryne australis

Red-crowned Toadlet Fact File
Despite its name, this is not a toad but a colourful little frog. It is restricted to the Hawkesbury sandstone areas surrounding Sydney. It is easy to identify by the bright orange-red triangle or 'T' shape on its head and a stripe on its lower back of the same colour. On its belly is a striking, marbled, black and white pattern.
The calls of Red-crowned Toadlets can be heard all year round. They call several times in quick succession, as these frogs commonly live in small colonies and answer each other.
The Red-crowned Toadlet breeds in damp leaf litter. Hatching occurs when the tadpoles are well developed and the site has had heavy rainfall. Until then, the male frog usually stays close to the developing eggs, but this is probably to defend the breeding site rather than the eggs.
Distribution:Sydney.
Habitat: Forests and woodlands, heath (Hawkesbury sandstone only).
Status: Uncommon
Size: Up to 3 cm.

Coincidence . . . or is it just a small world?

I was getting my hair done today and mentioned to Robyn, my hairdresser, that since I'd seen her last we'd sold and bought a house. I told her it was not far from where we were (the shopping centre at Winmalee), in Red-Crowned Court.
"What number?" she asked.
"Four."
"No way!"
Turns out Robyn has house-sat there a couple of times for previous occupants (RAAF people now up in Queensland).
She said the lady used to feed the birds and heaps of
rainbow lorikeets, king parrots and cockatoos come into the garden.

Robyn said the birds are so used to people they will sit on your arms!