Greetings, I’ve been offline a little longer than I anticipated due to serious problems with the phone line, we’ve had at least 4 visits from the phone company to sort it out, but it’s fixed now. I could have posted from Gorgeous Man’s office, but it’s on the second floor of a building with no lifts and I just couldn’t face the rather steep flight of stairs. It’s been a busy two weeks, some parts have been good, some bad and some just ugly, and no, the offspring has not arrived yet.
1. We left this house
on Monday the 17th of September, and I didn’t go into labour on moving day – it was a major concern. The packers seem to have done a reasonable job – the kitchen, nursery, our bedroom and the linen are unpacked, (the rest is being done bit by bit) and nothing (of ours) seems to be broken or damaged so far. We left this place with some regret because it’s a nice little house with nice neighbours and was just across the road from the hospital – I could have literally walked across the road if I’d gone into labour on moving day.
2. We moved into our new house and this is the view from the back door.
As Gorgeous Man says, we have a million dollar view – even though we don’t have a million dollar house. I love our new back yard and have been spending some time each day out there just soaking up the sun and the tranquility – it’s much quieter here. We are on quite a steep hill.
3. Fat Boy has take the move very well. Here he is keeping an eye on the removalists as they packed up the old house.
He does move well (he is 11 and has lived in 3 Australian states – New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, 2 countries and 12 houses), but I was worried because this would be the first move in South Africa. He loves the new backyard: we have a vacant lot at the back and neighbours only on one side – they don’t have pets, so Fat Boy has already colonised their yard as well. He is actually asking to go outside (as opposed to being forcefully shunted outside by us for a bit of sun), so hopefully he’ll lose a bit of weight with the increased activity (he is currently 7.5kg – 16.5 pounds).
4. We saw the ob/gyn on Wednesday and it seems we can expect the baby sometime this week – he says he’ll be surprised if we make it to our next appointment on the 4th of October.
5. We found a store that sold biodegradable, flushable nappy (diaper) liners (we’ve decided to go the cloth nappy route) and made the trip to Cape Town to fetch them. While in the store Gorgeous Man found this little armadillo
that insisted on coming home with us.
THE BAD
1. The removalists managed to do this to the fence at our old place
… as they were leaving. We have notified the company of the damage and the body corporate for the estate is going to bill them.
2. Moving at 37 weeks pregnant is not fun and I found it very frustrating to have to rely on other people to help unpack and wipe out cupboards
3. We got our new computer on Friday afternoon (which is wonderful and I’m enjoying vey much), but before we could connect to the internet our phone line went dead. It was a long weekend here (Heritage Day) which further delayed repairs, we were without a phone for 5 days and the internet took another few days after that to repair.
4. We don’t have enough curtains for the new house, so I need to make some more – not too much of a drama, except Gorgeous Man and I visited all of the fabric shops in the area and couldn’t find anything we liked enough (or could agree upon) to bring home.
THE UGLY
Our new house was not very clean when we moved in. The worst thing though was that the house smelt of wet dog. We had all the windows open for about a week and burnt smelly things in the oil burner, but to no avail. Eventually I called a carpet cleaning company. The colour of the water after they had finished was scary! The house smells much better (and I had them do my couch set while they were here), but I’m a little peeved at having to pay for two sets of carpet cleaning – we were required by terms of our lease to have the carpets professionally cleaned when vacating our old house. I’m feeling very frustrated at not having the energy or mobility to be able to get the house as clean as I would like it. I’m not a great house keeper, but I do like things to be dust/dirt free…
If you’re still with me at this point, well done lol.
I’ve been doing a fair bit of hand quilting, but the projects on the knitting needles require either blocking (no space in my craft room yet – it’s still filled with boxes of books) or complicated shaping that I know I will screw up at this point in time.
I received a package in the mail from Cathi on Wednesday, but that deserves a blog post all of it’s own.
I felt sure you’d had your sprog when we hadn’t heard from you! Moving is stressful and you’ll be needing to ‘nes’ too. Apparently if you start manicaly cleaning you are only days away. Very best of luck and I’ll be thinking of you and wishing you well!!!!!
Glad to hear you got into your new place, although it’s a bummer it wasn’t quite as smooth as you would have liked. We’ll be looking forward to hearing all about the new arrival! Sounds like any day now! 😉
Nice to hear from you again! I also thought that the baby must have come due to the silence at Ruth’s Place. Hang in there though…you’re so close and – as my midwife told me when I was already one week overdue – you’ll be holding your little one within a couple of weeks!! 🙂
Good to see you back! Yes that is realy a milion rand view, hehehehe, did i write rand? i must having a thing for this country! Good to know that everything went well and that you are still well….well expecting!
hope you have a nice weekend!
Glad you made it safe and sound. I’ve been waiting for your update. The new place sounds great, and the view is quite stunning. Hope you get a little bit of relaxing in before the baby comes. Holy cow, the baby is coming very soon!
Your new view is very nice! I’m glad that the kitty cat is doing well with the move. 🙂
That truly is a million dollar view!
Sorry about the carpet cleaning fiasco, but it must be a huge relief to have that smell gone. We’ve gotten rid of all the carpeting here, but that’s much easier to do when you’re not renting.
So, you’re in your last days … wow! Take care!!
So glad you moved safely and nice to have you back on line. Look forward to seeing you having baby safely too!
Good work on the move! The new view is really nice and relaxing. We used cloth nappies in the day but disposables at night and when we had to go out. We don’t have a diaper washing service here but there is this wonderful product called napisan I used for washing the diapers myself. It was very easy to use, just rinse the soiled nappy, soak in a pail of napisan for as long as I want, then rinse clear. Best wishes on baby’s arrival!
I’m so pleased you’re all moved in. I did wonder if junior had arrived when you were quiet for a little while, I’m thinking it could be any time now.
Hope all goes well hon.
*hugs*
Tazzie
🙂
I was beginning to wonder about you – ANd I’m happy to hear that yo are okay. Oh, that is so exciting about the birth getting closer (Today, tomorrow, Monday??) I’m thinking about you, and actually Ruth, could you e-mail me your new adress? I want to send you and baby something!
Hugs from Maria (and remember – you can always handle one more contraction, never think further ahead than one more!)
Glad to hear it went all according to plan – to say the least… though I would freak out somewhat over the smelly carpet in the new house thing… I HATE dog smell in the house… having said that… LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that cat of yours – that well travelled cat. I want a cat but Mike has put his foot down. No child by the time I am 40 I am getting a cat to nuture and fuss over… lol…
As much as I’d like to see the stuff from Cathi – I do hope your next post is about sprogging! (OK, I confess – I know what’s in the box from Cathi – I was there while it was being planned…)
Good to hear that everything is fine. I expected that the quiet around here was related to being busy, but of course one never knows. Best of luck getting settled and welcoming that new guest you’ll be bringing into your home any day.
The view from your new place is amazing! I’m glad to hear you guys are moved and getting settled in. I’m so sorry the place was such a mess! The carpets and stuff really should have been cleaned for you! But I guess that’s university housing for you!
Here’s to hoping the baby comes soon!
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bye