New home

Monday:

We are settled into our new home! We still don't have Internet set up at home so I'm writing this on my iPad at the library. I have lots to say so I might write in instalments, and so many blogs to catch up on reading. I have Aiden with me, impatient to get a turn on the Internet (apparently my iPhone just isn't good enough) so I'll have to be quick.

Thursday we loaded up the truck in Canberra. The removalists did all the carrying but Tim and I still had about three hours work packing up last minute things, after another poor night's sleep. It poured rain for a while then drizzled the rest of the morning. We found a few of the boxes a bit soggy later on. The removalists couldn't get the truck down our long windy driveway so they had to walk up and down the slope. I got soaked early on and then rather cold later when I stopped working.

I left at about 1pm to get to Sydney in time to pick up the keys, leaving Tim to deal with the removalists and help the professional cleaner clean and wait for the kids to get home from school. It was a long boring drive by myself but I got there just at 5 and got my new house keys! That was exciting. Then I went around to the house and explored. The previous owners fed the birds so as soon as I satoutside I had a kookaburra visitor - I will add the picture later. Since then I have had regular visits from two kookaburras, a butcher bird and a magpie, all demanding meat. The butcher bird is practically tame and sits on the window sill while I'm washing up. The kids also saw a big lizard in the garden, and I've seen little lizards and a million other birds.

Eventually I headed over to my brother-in-law Nick's house as we were staying there the night, and Tim and the kids arrived soon after. I was really exhausted after a long week and it was possibly the first time I've felt really irritated with my lovely sister-in-law. She kept pushing food on me when I didn't want to eat (I eventually had a little to not be rude), she kept pushing for us to stay several nights when I was very keen to get into my own house, and she just wouldn't take no for an answer about coming over to help unpack the next day. I felt that it would just be chaos with the removalists there and there was no urgency unpacking when we'd be so tired, but she insisted and I would have had to be very rude to prevent it. I reminded myself that it was all coming from her loving personality and tried to let it go, but I really felt like she wasn't listening to what I wanted at all. I was probably at lot more tired and cranky than usual.

Worst night yet in a string of terrible night's sleep, hard bed with a streetlight just outside the window (I woke at 3am and honestly thought it was morning with the sun coming up), Ping cooked us a lovely breakfast then she went on some errands while we went home.

Houses look big empty! Tim and I planned out where the furniture was to go then the truck arrived. We had (arguably) better weather, really hot and humid from rain during the night, and a big storm just after the removalists left. The removalists did all the heavy work, the driveway was too steep (but short) for the truck so again they were jogging up and down with our 148 boxes and all the furniture. Tim and I helped a lot, up the four steps into the house and then another four internal stairs with the lighter things. It was a great workout!

Ping turned up with cold bottles of water (very grateful for that!) and proceeded to unpack the kitchen for me. As I had expected, she had to keep interrupting me directing the removalists to ask where things should go, and because I hadn't really worked that out myself I later moved everything into different places anyway! Oh well, I was over my irritation about it and just enjoyed having such a lovely family. She also went out and got us all lunch.

In the afternoon I would have liked a nap but we had to go up to Jasmine's school to meet her teacher and get her uniform for Monday, and also picked up some essentials at the shops. Then I got to
collapse! I went to bed early and had the best sleep I'd had for months!

Time to hand over the iPad, looks like I don't have time to read any blogs today. He'll be at school tomorrow, I'll have plenty of time then.