The Big Move

I … am … SO tired.  And so sore!  Some good sore, some not so good sore!  My guns are seriously starting to take shape.  I have never been so active over the past couple of days – my Body Media tells me it is so.  How’s 15000 steps?  Or, 8 hours, 50 minutes moderate activity in one day?!

Four days of craziness.

- Sunday, packing, then loading up the cars
- Monday, hoping we get the keys after the dramas the week before.  Got the keys(!) then doing the first couple of trips.  Monday night more packing, then re-packing the cars and doing a late trip over with a couple extra hands helping  (in the dark, as we didn’t have any power) 
- Tuesday, I made one trip over on my own, then tried to unpack as much as possible, with power(!) … Tuesday night we attacked the fridge, packed up the TV, all the big items.  Then loaded the cars up again.
- Wednesday, removalists arrived at 8am, we helped as much as we could.  Everything was in our new place by 11am   Awesome effort.  Another trip back to the old place, let the cleaners in to do their magic, plus pick up our bedding.  Spent the rest of the day getting everything sorted so we could sleep here.  Plus our carpenter came to help make the fridge fit – It fits(!)  Then washing, unpacking, more unpacking, and furniture putting together and arranging
- Thursday, today – first trip to uni for supervision, traffic wasn’t an issue   Supervision, then a quick catch up with a friend, who is getting married!  YAY!  Then home to do more unpacking and sorting.  When Mr. J finished work, we went to Costco and spent too much money

And now, I am wrecked   But our place is starting to come together -Slowly, but surely.  I will have to do before and after pictures, when it is looking a bit more home-y    And when we have the internets!

It is SO nice to have our own space, no more sharing!

And a little something special from my fam to make it real >>

I could really do with a massage right about now though…

Read Full Post »

The Weekender

Saturday morning, after saying goodbye to my friend who stayed over after the ticket terribleness(!), Mr. J convinced me to check out a sale at King Furniture.  Of course the sale is up to 50% off, and the couch that I/we   liked was not quite 50% off!  I like the Jasper, it is like sitting on a cloud!  We picked a design, leather, timber shelving, almost convinced ourselves… then we got the quote -

At this stage, however awesome a new piece for our new home would be, we are sensible and waiting for me to start working f/t.

So forgetting about that idea, we headed home to pack.  The kitchen is done (other than perishables)!  Now we need to sort the attic, our bedroom and bathroom and we should be right to go.

There are some issues with settlement, however it looks like we will be able to move in anyway for the time being.  As it is the vendor’s issue, not on our side of things.

So Saturday afternoon we got to see the apartment empty, and mostly clean.  It is starting to feel a bit more real now.

Saturday night was dinner for a friend’s Birthday and drinks.  We had the second banquet at Blu Ginger (3 courses).  Starting with pappudums, then an entree of different pieces – the chicken tikka was perfect.  Then our main dishes were butter chicken, chicken desi, prawn something and dahl, with naan and rice.  I had mango icecream for dessert, but I wasn’t a fan, and Mr. J ate it.

The service was terrible – there was a mix up with our order, and we waited extra long for each course and our waiter would just ask “are you done?”.  The food was nice, but of course there was too much of it, and it seemed wasteful.

After that it was time for drinks, everyone was very indecisive, so of course we ended up at King O’ Malley’s as it was still quite early.  Mr. J and I didn’t last long, I kinda felt bad, but I wasn’t really feeling it!

Sunday I was not in the mood te get packing, but by 11am, we knew we had to get started on it.  We finished the attic, and even made a few trips to the car by the time we were over it.  Still the bedroom to go, but I guess if we get the keys tomorrow I will be so excited that everything will come together quickly.

Fingers crossed for a smooth occupancy agreement tomorrow!

Read Full Post »

The Weekender

Saturday was spent feeling sorry for myself completing the dreaded selection criteria.  Then I hit the bike, and was feeling pretty crappy after.  But after a couple of hours, and putting in some effort to look nice   my appetite returned and I started to feel better.  So we decided to wing it, and see if we could get a table at either Saffron, or Mecca Bah in Manuka.

It was struggle to find a park so late, so after doing a few rounds we had to park in the Coles pay parking – 80 cents oh no!   Anyway it was freezing so we walked to the closest restaurant, which was Mecca Bah.  Luckily, they had one last table. Lucky, because after all the dramas with parking and actually getting out in the first place, the next stop would have been McDonalds!  Ick.

Anyway, I was excited to see cocktails on the menu – I went for a French Moroccan – which was meant to have pineapple, but I definitely couldn’t taste pineapple, so I wondered if they got the order mixed up.  But not to worry, it tasted awesome anyway.

We started with turkish bread and Labna dip.  The bread was amazing, probably the yummiest I’ve ever had.  But it is unforutnately unpictured, because the photo is terrible and doesn’t do it justice.  In fact all of the pics are terrible, the restaurant was very dimly lit.  Nice atmosphere though, even if totally packed.
Mr. J then had a garlic chicken kebab, which was pretty good.  But the star of the show was my dish – a chicken tomato almond tagine.  So good.  The chicken just fell of the bone, the couscous was as good as couscous can be (I mean that in a good way), and the sauce – uhuh!

Even though I was close to bursting point, we decided to share dessert – vanilla date, rich chocolate, and turkish coffee.  My favourites were the vanilla and coffee. O…M…G.  Worth it.

The adjacent bar – The Bah – was closed for a private function.  If not I totally would have been up for another cocktail

When we got home, the tiredness started to hit me.  Plus I started to develop a cough?!  So totally not on, I am trying to ignore it so it goes away.

Sunday was an early start on the selection critera.  All done now, yay!  Although I will send it to a few friends for review, so not 100% free yet.  And then Mr. J was off, so zero packing got done this weekend.  We are going to have a lot to do next weekend!  But I am getting excited, only a week and a half to go.

After he left I just wanted to curl up and go to sleep, but I knew that yoga was on the calendar this afternoon.  So I went, and I struggled.  I don’t know if it is because I am actually run down with this cough thing or what, but it was HARD and it HURT.

Thinking I need a quiet night on the couch, and maybe cereal for dinner   Is that bad?!

Read Full Post »

The Weekender

Started the weekend with my regular – a brisk walk at the lake. I’m a bit disappointed that it was only 6km again, but my pace is improving. Next weekend if all goes well, I will push it to 8km…

After that it was quick shower, berry smoothie and a bit of a relax before – I was off to the hairdresser for the second time this week. They couldn’t fit in cut and colour, Tuesday, so I was spoilt and got to have a profesh blow wave twice this week. But, it was $$! Still not 100% happy with the whole fringe saga, but I am coming to accept it And I have decided to invest in a Parlux hairdryer to ease the pain

After that it was a coffee catch up with a friend that turned into a 3hr mega catch-up. Mr. J started msging me ‘frantically’ along the lines of: “what do you want for dinner” … “I’m hungry” … and the last one “nom nom nom!”.

So I headed home and after a bit of umm-ing and ahh-ing about where to go, we headed to Le Rendezvous in Manuka because Mr. J wanted steak. That was his only request. But my only request was to use a voucher from the Entertainment Book. I seriously recommend this because we have tried so many new restaurants/cafes with it(!) Plus if you’re in to coupon-ing, this is coupon-ing in a pre-packaged book – no hassles! One of my favourites was Flint, but recently there was a fire. I wonder if it will re-open, definitely hope so.

Anyway, I was a bad blogger and forgot to take any photos. I decided to go with steak too, to stay away from the carbs as it was pasta/pizza otherwise. Unfortunately my medium-rare steak arrived more rare-blue, so I sent it back. Round two was much better. But the prize of the night goes to dessert – a chocolate fondant cake with homemade roche icecream – which we shared. It was amazable (new offspring obsession!). Seriously so good.

And when we handed over the entertainment book card as we were paying, they said hold on to it, gave us 25% off anyway, and just said come back soon. So that was a really nice surprise. And after the less than satisfactory initial steak, I probably would give them another chance now

Oh and check out my calorie burn for the day! Awesome!

Sunday was a lazy start, blog stuff, tea, and a tiny breakfast to tide me over until a late brunch with a friend. She is being a gem and helping us out with boxes.

Which brings me to my BIG news. We have a date! A move-in date! Two weeks and counting – SO much to do!

So after brunch there was packing And then it was off to yoga at the gym. Well it was *meant* to be off to yoga at the gym. I am so pissed. I should have been more strict with myself (and my friend). I love spending time with her, don’t get me wrong, but I should have made it a priority to go.

So disappointed that I will not hit my goal today, and that is the third time this week that I haven’t done what I said I would exercise-wise.

Was pretty successful on the packing front at least – check it out! >>

Haha – Yes this picture is mega, but you can see our NewWave Multi-Cooker and Scanpan set peeking out of the Victoria’s Basement bag

Read Full Post »

The Pack Ahead

This week has been a tad hectic, which I definitely was not ready for, especially following last week (interview etc).  I need a breather, like, now!  But I will compose myself because the good news is that tomorrow is Friday.  So one more day, and then I get a breather, well a ‘packer’… Ha!

Yes, Mr. J and I need to start the arduous task of sorting out all of our shit!  -I mean, possessions.  I really don’t want to take anything unnecessarywith us when we move.  It will be nice to have a clean slate, and start to build a place that is really ‘ours’.  Not just me, ‘stayin over’, with free rent

I came home to a nice home-related surprise though.  Ony good things come out of Amazon boxes!

Hello JosephJoseph ‘Elevate’ Utensil Carousel!  You will be a nice addition to the kitchen bench in our new place!

8BPANWZRMRRM

Read Full Post »