Mom has been helping the kids sort their bedrooms out, and a damn fine job she’s been doing too. Jessica’s room looks fantastic and as soon as it is fully finished (she still needs her computer desk and curtain rods) I’ll take photos. They worked on Tamsyn’s room yesterday and as she doesn’t have everything in her room yet she left me notes… too cute.

I sure hope it does, otherwise I’m getting myself tested for altzheimers…. I’m in the cafe yesterday because I suddenly had the attack of the munchies and needed reinforcing before I tackled the ‘no matter how much I pack there still seems to be more’ packing at Kommetjie. As I’m walking towards the ice cream fridge (don’t judge me) this bloke gives me a huge smile and says in that *gosh haven’t seen you in ages but I sure know you* tone “Hi, how have you been?”

Internal response…. “Who the *beep* are you?”…. actual response *mumble* “Finethanksandyou?” I then took ages choosing an ice cream and loitered around the back of the shop waiting for him to leave so that I didn’t end up having one of those awkward *I’m talking to you but I have no friggen clue who you are* conversations.  I swear I’ve never met him before in my life.

Scary thing is, this happens to me A LOT, either I look a helluva lot like a whole bunch of women out there or I’m losing my mind.  I need another ice cream.

I remember watching a movie as a child called Pollyanna (turns out it was a book first) it was at a birthday party for some girl from my class when I still lived in Fish Hoek (the first time round) - so we’re talking some time back - I must have been around 7 or 8. The movie had a profound affect on me and as such I tend to try and look for the ’silver lining’ or ‘pollyanna’ in most situations, although I must say I’m struggling a bit these days.  It wasn’t till this morning that I spotted the silver lining in the pipe in the backyard deciding to spew hot water all over the jacuzzi and surrounds late last night. It meant I got to stay in bed 20 minutes longer this morning whilst Wouter fixed the connection, it was either that or go to work without showering… *shudder*.

We’ve almost finished carting all the stuff from my Kommetjie place - unbelievable really how much one can fit into a small place. Problem with the Kommetjie place is it has a lot, A LOT of cupboards and storage space - so there have been boxes and things living in those cupboards for five years now, untouched by human hand. As nice as it is to discover something you hadn’t realised you had - there are distinct disadvantages to being a hoarder.  As Wouter so sweetly reminded me last night, this is just *my* stuff we haven’t got around to packing *his* stuff yet. He takes hoarding to a whole new level. Today should see everything out of the place and all that remains is for the cleaning lady to do her thing on Friday and the official handing over of keys.

‘Course the FH place should be declared a disaster zone but at least it isn’t quite this bad (Close but not quite as bad).

Despite the crushing sense of impending doom that is pervading my life at the moment (you’ll understand when you look at the pictures on Wouter’s blog) I still managed to buy the girls bean bags which I’ve been promising them for years now. The park home was way too small for them but they’ll fit nicely in their new rooms.  They look remarkably like giant cellphone holders to me but are extremely comfortable.

Notice my dressing table behind them - looks rather dashing in the middle of the lounge, doesn’t it?

I was thinking about the park home and not living there anymore, and while there are many things I won’t miss (like the 9 sleeping policeman I have to drive over to get from the park gate to my house) there are a whole heap of things I *am* going to miss.

In no particular order…

The little black cat that visits all the time…sometimes, not often but sometimes for a cuddle and not just the food

Waking up each morning and wondering what new wildlife/animal/pet might be waiting on the stoep (or in the kitchen cupboards - many a time I’d open the cupboard to see a mouse staring back at me). I have a nasty suspicion though that Spikey (the porcupine) was moved on - I do hope he was relocated and not disposed of, but I haven’t heard him in ages and my black bags have remained intact.

There are actually three bunnies, a black one as well.

The peace and tranquility that comes with living in the middle of a veld…

And whilst taking a break from packing over the weekend (had run out of steam by that stage) I had a look through my photograph albums and discovered a picture taken when we moved into the place - 5 years ago. It isn’t really surprising then that as much as I cannot wait for the FH house to be ‘finished’ - I really am going to miss this place.

As a kid growing up I was the happy go lucky child, nothing phased me - some might even say I was too lazy to get wound up about anything - I think I must be getting old because this move has me completely and utterly freaked out. You know you’re desperate when sites like this start to look appealing.

We have officially moved in - we have no curtains, the kitchen isn’t finished yet, we have one working shower (plus side, we do have two working toilets), we have about a gazillion boxes and still more stuff in Kommetjie and I forgot our mattress is a queen and bought everything for a king size bed. I’m unravelling as I write this.

A lot has happened over the last few days, Wouter finished installing the stove plates…

We also had to burgle the house again - my fault this time. I’ve given my keys to my mother so that she can help Jessica move her stuff - and Wouter gave me his keys to open up with, I then put them down somewhere and promptly forgot about them - so off we went to shift stuff from Kommetjie only to get to FH and realise we (I) hadn’t remembered the keys. Fortunately I’d left a window open in Jessica’s room - bit scary to think how easy it was to unscrew the burglar bars.

Wouter putting them back on.

We also shifted the kids beds and fridge - with a little help from Frank.

It’s remarkably disgusting how much dust is in this little place of mine - we had to take the vacuum cleaner to the fridge.

However despite the total chaos and disarray - we still managed in typical South African style - to have a braai as our first meal in our new home, and damn fine it was too.

Yesterday I stayed at home with Jessica - she has flu, poor kid. This meant I could get on with some more packing and I managed to do something which I’ve been meaning to do for some time now - sort my clothes out.  Two black bags later I’ve realised I need to go clothes shopping, I’ve also realised I need to change my eating habits (I know… euphemistic). Enough said.

There was an upside to the packing though - I discovered something I thought I’d lost when I was burgled several years ago.

We bought this cutie in France in 2001, I forget which town it was, and I fell in love with it the instant I saw it. I lost a lot of sentimental stuff in the burglaries (the thing I miss the most, my charm bracelet which I’d had since the age of 16 and had been adding to ever since - bastards) so I’m *really* delighted to discover this wasn’t one of them.  Of course it does say something about me, but as I’m already beating myself up about the eating habit (euphemistic, I know) I’ll leave this one for another day.

Sunday we had a braai with the folks and my brother plus his family.  They’re emigrating to Australia soon so we had a get together.  I didn’t get to take many photos - which is unusual for me, but I thought this one was gorgeous.  My brother’s youngest.

Wouter spent much of the weekend routing the kitchen counter.

Whilst he was doing that I decided to cover some of the shelves in my bedroom wardrobe with a very nice contact paper we found at the local hardware store. 

 ’Course we’d only gone to the store for window putty to put the pane of glass back but I spotted the paper and knew I had to have it.  The really ancient guy who assisted me was half deaf so I had to raise my voice quite considerably to get across how many metres I wanted. We then went to the counter to cut it and on the radio they were discussing how someone had won R1000.00 which prompted the other staff to start discussing the R1000 as well.  What does the ancient half deaf dude say?  “Did the wife win it, ‘cos if she did I’d go over there and give her one”.  I kid you not.  Gads but Fish Hoek is strange, either that or I just attract weirdos.

As previously mentioned we had Jessica’s party on Saturday evening - I’d bought everything for an oil and chocolate fondue, had the party packs ready - the three close friends had arrived and all was set for a nice sedate(ish) evening, that is till they went for a walk in the park and Jessica phones me to ask if it would be alright if two boys joined, ‘just for a little while’. Which boys I ask suspiciously…just two boys from her class. What’s a mother to do? I agreed to the two boys coming ‘for a little while’ and awaited their arrival with trepidation. Two boys turned out to be two boys, two girls and two dogs. Spot the coping mechanism in the picture.

After I’d yelled at them for throwing packets of sweets around my lounge everyone settled down and watched a movie whilst I fed them chips and popcorn, blowed if I was going to waste my fondue on gate crashers.

‘Course then mom guilt kicked in and I figured they hadn’t had enought to eat so I put the 13 candles on J’s birthday cake (no, I didn’t bake it) and they all sang her happy birthday.

I had to smile - the movie finished before they were due to go home so Jessica set up the old tv game console that Wouter bought ‘for the girls to play with’. Personally I reckon he bought it so he could play with it. It’s actually quite amazing how today’s youth with all the modern technology at their disposal still enjoy the games we used to play ‘in the good old days’. ‘Course Jessica impressed the boys no end by shooting better than they did

We finally got around to the oil fondue once they’d left (it was too late to do the chocolate one) - and a nice fondue it was.

Thank goodness the ex and I have an agreement that we alternate parties each year - he gets the next one!