A Moving Weekend

It's Monday morning and there's loads to report back on. We had a busy weekend filled with moving and buying for Varen's brand spanking new house :)

Friday evening we had sushi for dinner followed by a very relaxed last night at his old house ... and very quiet too since neither of his brother's were home.

Saturday we were up early to begin the move. It wasn't really a massive move, since all he had was his bed, clothes and general stuff. His dad had kindly organised a bakkie with 2 guys to help with the heavy lifting. The guys arrived about an hour & half late which meant that Varen & I had already packed his Polo to the brim and the grey day had started to drizzle - not ideal for moving beds in!

So we decided to head to the new place's nearest shopping centre (closer than you can imagine!) and start buying all the other heavy-lifting items. Boy were we lucky things worked out in that order because we managed to get his fridge, washing machine & microwave all before Game's storage warehouse closed (1pm on a Saturday) - if we hadn't it would have to be delivered today and the move would not have been terribly successful.

So we got all the new appliances unpacked and in place and unloaded his car full of stuff and hoped the rain would pass. It thankfully did (although we wrapped the bed up in black bags just in case anyway) and we hauled the last of his stuff and the bed thru to the new place.

Then, Varen & I unpacked all the kitchen-stuff he'd bought a few weeks back and made lists of what he still needed and then we headed off to do a big grocery basics shop.

After that we were exhausted and spent the rest of the evening relaxing (and taping up his bedroom window's with black bags since there are no curtains yet).

On Sunday we attempted the Fragrance Sale (Lady had called to tell me it was on and just how fab it was) but we just couldn't justify the lengthy queues and an additional waiting area when we still had so much house-stuff left to get done. After queuing about 15 minutes, we cut our loses and left.

Then we got caught in a road block. This wasn't a bad one at all, in fact I was quite impressed. It was purely a "traffic fines" block and it looked like they had camera number plate recognition that beeped everytime a car with outstanding fines went passed. They also had a handy computer set-up to print your outstanding fines while you stopped and a credit card facility to pay them. And the cops were very friendly :)

I think it was a good idea, it's just a pity it has the effect on traffic you'd expect. I think a far better idea would be to set up these sort of road-side kiosks where you could voluntarily pay your fines. As I've said before, I think lack of ease is a huge deterrent of fine-paying up here in Jhb. Anyway, Varen got all his fines paid up and felt better for it (aside from the cash outlay he hadn't anticipated on a weekend when he was already spending like a demon).

And then it was off to Makro for Tupperware (not the actual brand, but it's sort of like when Aussies call all cooler bag's Esky's) and Builder's Warehouse to look for hand towel holders and the Design Quarter to look for kitchen and bathroom bins. It was very disappointing to find that if you don't want an Addis kitchen bin, you aren't paying less than a grand!

We had a lovely pasta lunch at My Cafe in the Design Quarter. I really like this restaurant, it's just a pity you have to schlep to the Design Quarter for it. We'll have to make the effort and head back again sometime - although eating out is not going to be as regular an event these days.

Then it was home to rest our weary feet and relax again for the rest of the afternoon (oh yes, and home made food for dinner even!). Although we're only using the Main Bedroom and it's en-suite bathroom and the Kitchen, it's still lovely to have him all moved into the new house. Makes me have pangs of want for my own place too. But that is another story ... even tho I got the offer to purchase, it still may all fall thru. But I'll wait for more concrete news later this week before I divulge that story.

Note to Varen: Must buy Oven Gloves. Hope your hand is feeling better, baby.