I suspected, shortly after we moved into the little room, that there was a problem. It seemed to have sorted itself out but 2 nights ago, it became obvious that it was still indeed a problem (I should have known, things just don't ever sort themselves out, do they).
I've been finding little black dots 'inked' on the sheet of my bed, almost like a fineliner point had touched the sheet and left a mark. 2 nights ago, as I was neatening up my bedding before going to bed, I noticed there were a few dots collected in one place on the sheet, at the corner of the mattress (where the sheet is tucked in). I pulled the sheet, untucking it, and recoiled in horror: there were LOADS of the black marks there, plus a bug... or 2. I don't remember what exactly I saw, because I was so horrified that I jumped back at least 2 metres. G found and squashed the one bug, but if there are others, we haven't found them - yet.
The little room has bedbugs. I am HORRIFIED. Let me first say that a) bedbugs are not a sign of bad hygiene b) they can come from anywhere AND they can last a long, long time without food, and c) they probably were in the room before G's parents moved in a few months ago and have probably been merrily living off the dogs' blood (the dogs slept in the room before it was prepared for us to stay in).
But I am still horrified... it's revolting. Just the thought of lying there, unaware, in the bed, while these little bastard bugs creep around and feast on me... I just... EUUUUUUUUUUUUGHHHHHHHHHHHH.
At the moment I'm busy washing all our clothes, (one load at a slow time), all the rest of our stuff (unwashable, like the luggage) will need to be sprayed with bedbug spray (gotta pop out to the shop and buy it soon), and then kept out of the room. I do NOT want to take them with us, firstly because we're staying with G's friends who I seriously do not want to give bedbugs to (what a way to thank them for their generously letting us stay in their spare room!), and ultimately, I do NOT WANT them in our new place. If there is a bug problem there, then it's the fault of the house, not because they've hitch-hiked with us across the planet.
What a BLOODY PAIN (no pun intended here, GRRR), and just the sort of stress I REALLY FEEL LIKE right now. The horror and anxiety is just so unnecessary right now, but what can we do apart from soldier the fuck on and deal with it.
In other news, we've been going out a bit lately - we went to the Tibetan teahouse for lunch yesterday, after which we popped in by Tears to drop off some donation odds and ends, then to Mom+Sis, to pick Sis up to go visit M's horse, and also so that I could dye my hair.
Yes, the 'yay I'm finally free of this horrible workplace' celebratory hair-dyeing has only just been done now... and it's done and I loooooooove the colour!
After I dyed my hair, we headed off to find the place where M's horse is currently stabled. Her directions are unfortunately based on 'visual' cues - which are subject to change: just now someone cuts down a tree/the shop moves/someone knocks over a street sign - and she was unable to give us a street name... so we couldn't find it. This has been a bone of contention between her and Sis before, and although Sis is very quick to jump onto her high horse about stuff, in this case I can understand at least the reason for her annoyance, if not the degree of it.
But we found it after phoning M and asking where she is, and we had a nice time visiting Poneh! Interestingly, he's now stabled with his 'brother', M's sister's ex-horse, who he 'grew up with'. It's lovely there, and nice for them to be part of a home stable, and not a stable-yard or riding school.
Last night, after Pony Party, we headed through to the Spur (a local steakhouse chain) for supper. We met up with Bobby & her bf Nico who was at school with me (see previous post about winning a necklace on her blog giveaway). It was so lekker to see them, but a pity that we didn't get to chat as much as I'd hoped - I guess she felt a bit 'odd' what with Nico knowing most of the rest of us and her not really knowing anyone. I have a suspicion I am going to feel the same way later today, as we go to G's office farewell.
On Wednesday I had to go to the bank to sort out the closure of my account. The STUPID branch in the CBD had lost my details. I SPECIFICALLY went there after we got married to give them a copy of my new ID, a copy of the marriage certificate and also so I could sign the signature record form. But no, after banking a further 2 years with them, they have managed to lose that and so I had to take my ID, G's ID and our marriage certificate as proof that I am who I say I am, because I don't have my maiden name ID with me (it's in the container by now). Great stuff, and I thought this bank was a rather good bank - I was a bit mistaken, I suppose.
It's nearly time for me to hang out the 2nd load of washing. I think there are another 6 or maybe more loads to do. Yippee.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Great days
Yesterday G and I spent the day at the World of Birds.
The weather was perfect, I even wore SHORTS! Canyoubelieveitgaspomgwtf?! It's rather a large place, so it took quite a while to make our way through it, but it's still lovely to go there and see all the birds.
Unfortunately, G wasn't having as much fun as he'd have liked, as his (recently-filled) tooth was hurting, his leg was sore from Sunday (see below), and his legs in general were tired (cos of his nerve condition).
The birds are fascinating, and they even have a honeybadger, meerkats, porcupines, badgers and a dassie (or 2?), and I was most amused to see the bright pink ibises. We even got 'attacked' by a hadeda ibis who was probably conditioned by moron visitors that passers-by = food. He tried to rip open the shopping-bag G was carrying and also tried to eat my shoelace (after pecking my sock and leg). I had to fend him off with my own bag so that I could get past him as he was in the path. It's quite weird to be walking and all of a sudden have a hadeda between your feet!
The pic below shows how big a hadeda is - those are standard size bricks (in SA, at least).
^ above pic from Locutis on Flickr
Sunday we met up with Sis, KM, S+C+KW plus KM's friend, to go to Cape Point. It was INSANELY windy, despite being the most beautiful sunny day. We endured though, and made the most of the time there. We went to the look-out point, which looks down to the point, then went to the restaurant for some coffee/cake/lunch. I had a pasta, which was big so I had more pasta for supper! We took a look around the curio/souvenir shop. I bought a Cape Point lighthouse thimble, except I chose the one which says Cape Town (it looks like a mistake as everything with the lighthouse painted on it says Cape Point), so I have a unique one! :D
Then we made our way up to the lighthouse, where I held on EXTREMELY tightly to the video camera. It's so beautiful up there, so awe-inspiring seeing this panorama of open ocean almost all around, where you just KNOW that out there, there's no land for a very long way. I don't envy the sailors in the old days, setting sail to find a new land without any way of knowing whether they'd ever get home again.
I must say that our gym sessions seem to have paid off, as I am not madly stiff/achy after the walk as I would have been previously. I wasn't able to mountain-goat it up the walkway, nonstop, but I still managed without stopping to catch my breath every 10 metres.
Today is another stunning day, and Sis is picking me up for a 'jol'. G is at work today, and I need to go to FH to clean the fishtank - for the last time, ever. It also serves another purpose: to show Sis how to do it so that once I'm off on my merry way in Aus, she'll know how to clean the tank.
We might go to the beach, too, and we're also meeting up with Te (or kidnapping her!) for coffee.
It feels crazy. There are 4 days til we fly. 5 sleeps. Four days, total, until we are out of the country, moved. Relocated. Emigrated. Mind-boggling, really.
Let me sign off with that, as I need to get some tea before Sis arrives.
The weather was perfect, I even wore SHORTS! Canyoubelieveitgaspomgwtf?! It's rather a large place, so it took quite a while to make our way through it, but it's still lovely to go there and see all the birds.
Unfortunately, G wasn't having as much fun as he'd have liked, as his (recently-filled) tooth was hurting, his leg was sore from Sunday (see below), and his legs in general were tired (cos of his nerve condition).
The birds are fascinating, and they even have a honeybadger, meerkats, porcupines, badgers and a dassie (or 2?), and I was most amused to see the bright pink ibises. We even got 'attacked' by a hadeda ibis who was probably conditioned by moron visitors that passers-by = food. He tried to rip open the shopping-bag G was carrying and also tried to eat my shoelace (after pecking my sock and leg). I had to fend him off with my own bag so that I could get past him as he was in the path. It's quite weird to be walking and all of a sudden have a hadeda between your feet!
The pic below shows how big a hadeda is - those are standard size bricks (in SA, at least).
^ above pic from Locutis on Flickr
Sunday we met up with Sis, KM, S+C+KW plus KM's friend, to go to Cape Point. It was INSANELY windy, despite being the most beautiful sunny day. We endured though, and made the most of the time there. We went to the look-out point, which looks down to the point, then went to the restaurant for some coffee/cake/lunch. I had a pasta, which was big so I had more pasta for supper! We took a look around the curio/souvenir shop. I bought a Cape Point lighthouse thimble, except I chose the one which says Cape Town (it looks like a mistake as everything with the lighthouse painted on it says Cape Point), so I have a unique one! :D
Then we made our way up to the lighthouse, where I held on EXTREMELY tightly to the video camera. It's so beautiful up there, so awe-inspiring seeing this panorama of open ocean almost all around, where you just KNOW that out there, there's no land for a very long way. I don't envy the sailors in the old days, setting sail to find a new land without any way of knowing whether they'd ever get home again.
I must say that our gym sessions seem to have paid off, as I am not madly stiff/achy after the walk as I would have been previously. I wasn't able to mountain-goat it up the walkway, nonstop, but I still managed without stopping to catch my breath every 10 metres.
Today is another stunning day, and Sis is picking me up for a 'jol'. G is at work today, and I need to go to FH to clean the fishtank - for the last time, ever. It also serves another purpose: to show Sis how to do it so that once I'm off on my merry way in Aus, she'll know how to clean the tank.
We might go to the beach, too, and we're also meeting up with Te (or kidnapping her!) for coffee.
It feels crazy. There are 4 days til we fly. 5 sleeps. Four days, total, until we are out of the country, moved. Relocated. Emigrated. Mind-boggling, really.
Let me sign off with that, as I need to get some tea before Sis arrives.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Friday hilarity
The picture below has had me in stitches the whole of yesterday evening and all day today so far. Even thinking about it cracks me up.
Today is brilliant for another reason: I won the bird necklace from the giveaway on Bobby's Blog Yippee!!!
Here's a pic (cropped from the pic she has on her blog) so y'all know what it looks like...
It's too cute for words, AND is another bird-themed thing (to go with the bird-on-a-wire-pole) to keep me going emotionally when I think about Dude and feel sad.
Other reasons for my general jolliness today are:
* Someone's interested in the car and MAY just take it for a test drive tomorrow.
* We're having Syndicate tonight, at M&J's flat which usually gets a bit snoreish*, tonight Sis is hopefully bringing a HOSS DVD to watch. Why it's a good thing that it's a hoss movie is that M at one stage, upon hearing the suggestion that we watch My Friend Flicka (I've never read the book nor seen the movie) stated without hesitation that she's "grown out of watching those kinds of movies", which made the rest of us feel a bit sad. Mostly G I think (since I'm younger than the other 3 by 3 years), because being over 30 is not the death-sentence she makes it out to be.
* I paid off my medical accounts, so shouldn't owe anything here at all now.
* Sunday we're (touch wood the weather behaves!) having a picnic at Cape Point, as a sort of bye-bye/farewell/toodle-doo get together with some of our long-time friends.
^above pic from Page88
A dream of mine is to fly past the cliffs at the end of the peninsula, one day maybe we'll get to do that, but for now it'll be enjoyable enough merely being there again. Of course I'll take my videocamera!!
Sunday is also my last ever fishtank cleaning day. I've printed out the handbook for Sis, just need to get it laminated and stapled and then it's ready to hand over.
Another thing we're going to try do on Sunday is donate some of our last odds + ends to an animal charity. The stuff isn't really worth much to us and we doubt we'd get much for it. I hope I don't find the puppies and kittens there too cute because I already wish we could get a puppy, but we'll have to wait (...a long time) before we can get one. Depending on the house we end up renting, we might not even be able to get a bird for a while.
Today is brilliant for another reason: I won the bird necklace from the giveaway on Bobby's Blog Yippee!!!
Here's a pic (cropped from the pic she has on her blog) so y'all know what it looks like...
It's too cute for words, AND is another bird-themed thing (to go with the bird-on-a-wire-pole) to keep me going emotionally when I think about Dude and feel sad.
Other reasons for my general jolliness today are:
* Someone's interested in the car and MAY just take it for a test drive tomorrow.
* We're having Syndicate tonight, at M&J's flat which usually gets a bit snoreish*, tonight Sis is hopefully bringing a HOSS DVD to watch. Why it's a good thing that it's a hoss movie is that M at one stage, upon hearing the suggestion that we watch My Friend Flicka (I've never read the book nor seen the movie) stated without hesitation that she's "grown out of watching those kinds of movies", which made the rest of us feel a bit sad. Mostly G I think (since I'm younger than the other 3 by 3 years), because being over 30 is not the death-sentence she makes it out to be.
* I paid off my medical accounts, so shouldn't owe anything here at all now.
* Sunday we're (touch wood the weather behaves!) having a picnic at Cape Point, as a sort of bye-bye/farewell/toodle-doo get together with some of our long-time friends.
^above pic from Page88
A dream of mine is to fly past the cliffs at the end of the peninsula, one day maybe we'll get to do that, but for now it'll be enjoyable enough merely being there again. Of course I'll take my videocamera!!
Sunday is also my last ever fishtank cleaning day. I've printed out the handbook for Sis, just need to get it laminated and stapled and then it's ready to hand over.
Another thing we're going to try do on Sunday is donate some of our last odds + ends to an animal charity. The stuff isn't really worth much to us and we doubt we'd get much for it. I hope I don't find the puppies and kittens there too cute because I already wish we could get a puppy, but we'll have to wait (...a long time) before we can get one. Depending on the house we end up renting, we might not even be able to get a bird for a while.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Restlessness
I'm sitting alone at G's parents' place. I feel so unbelievably restless, and I'm not sure why. I had a Dr Pepper but I doubt it's the caffeine in it that's making me feel so antsy.
We don't have that much still to do, in preparation for our move. The car is the biggest thing, it's still to be sold - no one has really shown an interest in it.
I feel tired, restless, on edge. Plus I'm irritated because I have mosquito bites. Or I think they're mosquito bites, they might just be flea bites.
We have 10 days til we fly. It's supercrazytired now. Mom and Sis just keep on going, endlessly. They haven't really been speaking to each other for the past age. I try to enjoy time with both, separately, but it's difficult because of the issues between them. It seeps into my mind and I can't get away from it.
Sis came to G's parents' place, left her car and went through to Spier with us yesterday. Of course she rants about the houses here not having numbers, liberally using the F-word where it isn't quite required. I understand Mom's unhappiness about Sis's attitude, but there's nothing I or she can do about it.
We went through to Spier and as soon as we got there we looked at the crafts stalls they have just at the entrance. Of course I fell head over in love with the little stone birds-on-a-wire-pole, and had to be swayed to have lunch first. We had a delicious buffet lunch at Moyo, an African themed restaurant. Sis, G and I each got dots painted on our faces and we were serenaded by 4 singers who sang a click-song.
^above pic from SAWeddingVenues.com It shows one of the kinds of eating area at Moyo - we had a similar place which is built up out of wood so it felt as if you were up in the trees.
After lunch we browsed the Moyo crafts shop, had a brief relaxing moment sitting by the river/lake in the picnic area (see below for pic of the lake), and then went to see the Cheetah Outreach and Eagle Encounters area.
^above pic from Afrilux.co.za
The cheetahs are beautiful, but the experience wasn't much to write home about. Not dissing their work etc, just from a tourist point of view, unless you feel like forking out R110 to have an encounter with a cheetah which involves stroking it a bit*, you can only see them from a few metres away. Luckily the handycam has a good zoom so it wasn't that far off.
* Ok, maybe growing up in wild ol' Africa and seeing wildlife so much in pictures makes this less exciting to me than it would to real tourists LOL!
^above pic from Picasa user Bonnie
After the cheetah view, we went across to the Eagle Encounters, which was incredible. For R30, you get entry plus you can 'cuddle' some owls (there are other additional experiences that you can have, like an encounter with a Black Eagle, for example).
As we entered, there were 2 Wood Owls stationed at a table, one 3 years old and one 9 weeks old. The 9 week old one was SOOOOOOOOO adorably floofy and fuzzy, I wished I could steal him and take him home in my bag!
This is a pic of a Wood Owl youngster, like the little floofball I scritched:
^above pic from Owen & Mzee's Web log.
Isn't he just too adorable for words?!
This is the older Wood Owl, Woody's Facebook page
Next to the Wood Owls were 3 half-asleep Barn Owls who didn't seem to care either way whether you stroked them or not. To me, they look so much like over-sized moths!
^above pic from cdedancemom's photobucket
We then entered an owl enclosure, got to don leather gloves and become Spotted Eagle Owl perches!
^above pic from Owlpages.com
These guys were clearly trained to perch in order to get food as they completely ignored us apart from the cue of glove+outstretched arm, and focused entirely on the 'handler' guy who was (in the minds of the birds) limitlessly laden with food.
We spent quite a while admiring the birds there: eagles, kestrels, falcons, vultures, the list goes on. The birds are really beautiful but it's innately sad, because the whole reason so many of the birds are there is because they've been injured, or rescued and imprinted and can never be released into the wild. Some of these birds spend so much of their time 'screaming' for the attention of the handlers. On the plus side, though, is the fact that you can see the birds comparatively up close, and they really are beautiful (apart from the vultures, of course!).
Afterwards we popped by the craft stalls again, for me to finally buy my birdie. Sis decided she also wanted one, so we both got one each. Each and every one of the birds has a different personality as they are hand carved and also are of different colour stone. It was hard to choose but I think this one is by far the sweetest. Sis's one has an attached, carved tail, whereas mine has an inserted metal tail. I have yet to name him, but I'm sure he'll love wherever we live, in Aus.
Hope AQIS doesn't have a problem with him!
Ok, that's all for now - time to head out to gym! Yes, not quite a new year's resolution, but we've been good and have gone quite a few days in the past 2 weeks. We only have until Sunday to gym, so we're going to head out now and work up a sweat.
We don't have that much still to do, in preparation for our move. The car is the biggest thing, it's still to be sold - no one has really shown an interest in it.
I feel tired, restless, on edge. Plus I'm irritated because I have mosquito bites. Or I think they're mosquito bites, they might just be flea bites.
We have 10 days til we fly. It's supercrazytired now. Mom and Sis just keep on going, endlessly. They haven't really been speaking to each other for the past age. I try to enjoy time with both, separately, but it's difficult because of the issues between them. It seeps into my mind and I can't get away from it.
Sis came to G's parents' place, left her car and went through to Spier with us yesterday. Of course she rants about the houses here not having numbers, liberally using the F-word where it isn't quite required. I understand Mom's unhappiness about Sis's attitude, but there's nothing I or she can do about it.
We went through to Spier and as soon as we got there we looked at the crafts stalls they have just at the entrance. Of course I fell head over in love with the little stone birds-on-a-wire-pole, and had to be swayed to have lunch first. We had a delicious buffet lunch at Moyo, an African themed restaurant. Sis, G and I each got dots painted on our faces and we were serenaded by 4 singers who sang a click-song.
^above pic from SAWeddingVenues.com It shows one of the kinds of eating area at Moyo - we had a similar place which is built up out of wood so it felt as if you were up in the trees.
After lunch we browsed the Moyo crafts shop, had a brief relaxing moment sitting by the river/lake in the picnic area (see below for pic of the lake), and then went to see the Cheetah Outreach and Eagle Encounters area.
^above pic from Afrilux.co.za
The cheetahs are beautiful, but the experience wasn't much to write home about. Not dissing their work etc, just from a tourist point of view, unless you feel like forking out R110 to have an encounter with a cheetah which involves stroking it a bit*, you can only see them from a few metres away. Luckily the handycam has a good zoom so it wasn't that far off.
* Ok, maybe growing up in wild ol' Africa and seeing wildlife so much in pictures makes this less exciting to me than it would to real tourists LOL!
^above pic from Picasa user Bonnie
After the cheetah view, we went across to the Eagle Encounters, which was incredible. For R30, you get entry plus you can 'cuddle' some owls (there are other additional experiences that you can have, like an encounter with a Black Eagle, for example).
As we entered, there were 2 Wood Owls stationed at a table, one 3 years old and one 9 weeks old. The 9 week old one was SOOOOOOOOO adorably floofy and fuzzy, I wished I could steal him and take him home in my bag!
This is a pic of a Wood Owl youngster, like the little floofball I scritched:
^above pic from Owen & Mzee's Web log.
Isn't he just too adorable for words?!
This is the older Wood Owl, Woody's Facebook page
Next to the Wood Owls were 3 half-asleep Barn Owls who didn't seem to care either way whether you stroked them or not. To me, they look so much like over-sized moths!
^above pic from cdedancemom's photobucket
We then entered an owl enclosure, got to don leather gloves and become Spotted Eagle Owl perches!
^above pic from Owlpages.com
These guys were clearly trained to perch in order to get food as they completely ignored us apart from the cue of glove+outstretched arm, and focused entirely on the 'handler' guy who was (in the minds of the birds) limitlessly laden with food.
We spent quite a while admiring the birds there: eagles, kestrels, falcons, vultures, the list goes on. The birds are really beautiful but it's innately sad, because the whole reason so many of the birds are there is because they've been injured, or rescued and imprinted and can never be released into the wild. Some of these birds spend so much of their time 'screaming' for the attention of the handlers. On the plus side, though, is the fact that you can see the birds comparatively up close, and they really are beautiful (apart from the vultures, of course!).
Afterwards we popped by the craft stalls again, for me to finally buy my birdie. Sis decided she also wanted one, so we both got one each. Each and every one of the birds has a different personality as they are hand carved and also are of different colour stone. It was hard to choose but I think this one is by far the sweetest. Sis's one has an attached, carved tail, whereas mine has an inserted metal tail. I have yet to name him, but I'm sure he'll love wherever we live, in Aus.
Hope AQIS doesn't have a problem with him!
Ok, that's all for now - time to head out to gym! Yes, not quite a new year's resolution, but we've been good and have gone quite a few days in the past 2 weeks. We only have until Sunday to gym, so we're going to head out now and work up a sweat.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
Craziness!
This blog post has taken me a while to 'get around to'... I started it probably at about 9am this morning, and have just felt too distracted to settle into blogging.
The floods in QLD have been quite a concern, specially since Brisbane's been ravaged too. Thankfully we have the option of popping in to visit my cousin + aunt in Perth though, which is a big relief.
We have 16 days until we fly. Crazy. Just admin stuff to do, and then we're A for Away.
My inspiration has fallen off my chair, so I'll say 'tarrah for now' and blog some more latahhh!!
The floods in QLD have been quite a concern, specially since Brisbane's been ravaged too. Thankfully we have the option of popping in to visit my cousin + aunt in Perth though, which is a big relief.
We have 16 days until we fly. Crazy. Just admin stuff to do, and then we're A for Away.
My inspiration has fallen off my chair, so I'll say 'tarrah for now' and blog some more latahhh!!
Friday, January 07, 2011
Heatwave
The past 3 or so days have been blazingly hot. Hot, meaning 38C, 36C and so on. I am SO GLAD we aren't still living in 'Town', where it was that hot USUALLY, at least upstairs (the bedroom/bathroom). We've been swimming occasionally, G more than me as it's just too hot and I feel the sun a lot more than he does, I think. I already got a 'bikini burn' for the first time ever. I think the last time I actually swam was probably 10 or so years ago.
Gym has been fun, but today we gave it a miss as both of us felt a bit head-poundy. Not exactly a headache but an on-and-off throb. Hope it's nothing bad.
This morning we went to the dentist for our 6 monthly checkup. Stupid medical aid doesn't cover me for this time, because I went most recently in August which means the soonest I'd be covered is March. Sorrehh, no can do. Luckily I had a credit with the dentist, so I won't break the bank this time. However, I need to go for 2 fillings. Ok, 2 replacement fillings - I've been good with my teeth for a long time now and hopefully won't need any more fillings. These 2 are silver (mercury-based) old-style fillings, and will be replaced with new-style white ones. Yay, I really feel like having fillings done!!
Oddly though, despite ignoring it when I was small, I now regret not grabbing on tight to the advice of "take care of your teeth now, once you get a filling you can't undo it". I have, in my opinion, too many fillings. Not visible or detrimental cosmetically, but still, I regret having them. Maybe one day they'll be able to regenerate teeth, but I doubt it'd be in my lifetime!
Next up, once I get a PROPER answer from my medical aid, I'm going to go for an eye checkup. Haven't been in probably nearly 10 years, haven't had problems with my eyes, but it's still a good thing to do anyway. I'm trying to get a straight answer from my medical aid as to whether I'm covered for optometry or not. You'd think they'd be able to give me a definite answer after 3 days... but no.
I've been looking at our Move Preparation list. There are a couple of things to do, but it's 'easy' stuff like getting certified copies of important documents, getting bank reference letters, etc. Also (as mentioned above), going for general checkups.
It's crazy to think that we have 23 days until we fly. I think I'm excited, because it's a flight, overseas trip, etc... but I still feel sad, because we're LEAVING. Permanently. Moving. Not merely going away for a long time, we're MOVING there. That in itself is exciting (new home, new car, etc etc), but it's a bit scary thinking we won't just be 30mins away from family. Can't just quickly drive down/up to the mall. Can't just sommer sms friends. Although, granted, we haven't been 'just hanging out with friends' because friends have, for the most part, disappeared. There are so few people we have actually seen or heard from since the wedding. I must have mentioned it in a previous blogpost (or two), but it still sucks, and hopefully things will improve in Brisbane.
But anyway, it's a nice cool evening now, perfect to head out to our little room in the garden and get ready for bed.
Gym has been fun, but today we gave it a miss as both of us felt a bit head-poundy. Not exactly a headache but an on-and-off throb. Hope it's nothing bad.
This morning we went to the dentist for our 6 monthly checkup. Stupid medical aid doesn't cover me for this time, because I went most recently in August which means the soonest I'd be covered is March. Sorrehh, no can do. Luckily I had a credit with the dentist, so I won't break the bank this time. However, I need to go for 2 fillings. Ok, 2 replacement fillings - I've been good with my teeth for a long time now and hopefully won't need any more fillings. These 2 are silver (mercury-based) old-style fillings, and will be replaced with new-style white ones. Yay, I really feel like having fillings done!!
Oddly though, despite ignoring it when I was small, I now regret not grabbing on tight to the advice of "take care of your teeth now, once you get a filling you can't undo it". I have, in my opinion, too many fillings. Not visible or detrimental cosmetically, but still, I regret having them. Maybe one day they'll be able to regenerate teeth, but I doubt it'd be in my lifetime!
Next up, once I get a PROPER answer from my medical aid, I'm going to go for an eye checkup. Haven't been in probably nearly 10 years, haven't had problems with my eyes, but it's still a good thing to do anyway. I'm trying to get a straight answer from my medical aid as to whether I'm covered for optometry or not. You'd think they'd be able to give me a definite answer after 3 days... but no.
I've been looking at our Move Preparation list. There are a couple of things to do, but it's 'easy' stuff like getting certified copies of important documents, getting bank reference letters, etc. Also (as mentioned above), going for general checkups.
It's crazy to think that we have 23 days until we fly. I think I'm excited, because it's a flight, overseas trip, etc... but I still feel sad, because we're LEAVING. Permanently. Moving. Not merely going away for a long time, we're MOVING there. That in itself is exciting (new home, new car, etc etc), but it's a bit scary thinking we won't just be 30mins away from family. Can't just quickly drive down/up to the mall. Can't just sommer sms friends. Although, granted, we haven't been 'just hanging out with friends' because friends have, for the most part, disappeared. There are so few people we have actually seen or heard from since the wedding. I must have mentioned it in a previous blogpost (or two), but it still sucks, and hopefully things will improve in Brisbane.
But anyway, it's a nice cool evening now, perfect to head out to our little room in the garden and get ready for bed.
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Tired!
We've joined a gym.
Walked there on Friday, went for our first session yesterday (yes, a Sunday). Today was our second session.
G's not doing weight-training this time as it's just a 3 week contract, so we've been doing 'aerobic' stuff, like:
Cycling,
rowing
and running/jogging/walking/hobbling:
We've taken it easy, seeing that it's my first ever stint at a gym, but it's been fun. After our session today we had a swim, which was refreshing and relaxing.
We have 4 weeks now until we LAND in Brisbane. Things are settling in a little here at G's parents' place, but it still feels weird and as if I'm in the wrong time-zone. It's quite an adjustment getting used to a whole different 'schedule' and modus operandi for just about everything.
My brain has fizzled out now.
I'm interested in getting a new phone, once we're in Aus (I am DEFINITELY getting a new laptop!!)... thinking about a Blackberry... but not sure. Will research lots (as per my usual level).
Walked there on Friday, went for our first session yesterday (yes, a Sunday). Today was our second session.
G's not doing weight-training this time as it's just a 3 week contract, so we've been doing 'aerobic' stuff, like:
Cycling,
rowing
and running/jogging/walking/hobbling:
We've taken it easy, seeing that it's my first ever stint at a gym, but it's been fun. After our session today we had a swim, which was refreshing and relaxing.
We have 4 weeks now until we LAND in Brisbane. Things are settling in a little here at G's parents' place, but it still feels weird and as if I'm in the wrong time-zone. It's quite an adjustment getting used to a whole different 'schedule' and modus operandi for just about everything.
My brain has fizzled out now.
I'm interested in getting a new phone, once we're in Aus (I am DEFINITELY getting a new laptop!!)... thinking about a Blackberry... but not sure. Will research lots (as per my usual level).
Monday, January 03, 2011
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