Snoskred - Life in the Country

Last night The Other Half and I went for our very first beach walk together. The sun was setting, the sky was pink and so was the water. As we walked along the beach we saw dolphins swimming not very far off the beach. I did not have the camera, I apologise. I will make sure to take it next time.

We’re all moved in now, the truck with the very last of our stuff - the heavy things - just unloaded everything and left.

The Kitties are doing a freak out. We brought them here late Saturday night, when we’d moved so much of our stuff here we didn’t feel ok about sleeping at the old house. We slept on an air mattress. The kitties did not sleep, they spent the night wandering the house and jumping at every sound. T

They have started to settle down a bit and by Sunday night they were getting quite brave and jumping onto the window sills to look out. Now we don’t have any more moving of big stuff to do, they will settle even more.

I’ve been offline since Saturday Morning, so big thanks to Sephy for posting the thought of the day and the other posts which I’d pre-written, and also for adding a couple of things into my weekly wrap up as I ran out of time (here on the blog and past Snoskred was all Sephy’s own work this week, well done mate!).

I might go get something to eat, the local paper and then find a beach to stroll along. Then back here to read what ya’all have been up to while I’ve been moving!

I don’t think it has really sunk in yet that we have moved, as insane as that may sound. I’ve been so busy doing I’ve had no time for thinking.

Is it possible to have the best week in ages and yet still be moving house? The week did not start out quite as we imagined, we discovered that these places have been refurbished, they’re not new, they were lived in before and the state of the appliances leaves a LOT to be desired. As usual, clicking on the image will get you a bigger photo. In fact I’m not cooking in that filthy oven. I refuse. Either the landlord replaces the oven, cooktop and rangehood - all of which are filthy and the cooktop is actually rusted or we will just replace them ourselves. We didn’t spot it on inspection because the electricity was off, it’s dark in that kitchen without the lights on, it said *clearly* in the advertisements that these were brand new, and we made the mistake of assuming that meant the appliances would be brand new as well. Note to self, remember that rule about never assuming? We did feel a bit like we’d been lied to, though. However that has been the only cloud on our horizon this week, other than real actual clouds, which there’s been a few of as well as some rain and neither of us mind real clouds or rain, so that’s ok. We’ve contacted the real estate agent and asked them to let the landlord know we’re not happy with the appliances and we’d like him to replace them or reduce the rent. I’m not going to let it bother me because either way they are being replaced. We’ve never used the oven in this house because the first time we turned it on, the smell! Ugh! You’ll note I put pictures from my hour long beach walk on Thursday in between the above. This is meant to demonstrate how appliances are of little importance in the face of so much beach beauty. Yes, I walked for an hour, after spending an hour vacuuming and cleaning the new place, then I went home and packed more stuff before returning to the new house with the other half, to carry potplants upstairs to our balcony. I would have been walking on the beach every day, but I have been getting more than enough exercise packing, moving boxes, and carrying heavy things up the stairs. The beach walk on Thursday was actually a reward for myself for all the hard work I’ve been doing over the past couple of weeks but soon enough it will be a daily event, rain or shine.. There’s a reason they have stair climbers in gyms. I have missed stairs while we’ve lived in two houses without them. Carrying heavy potplants upstairs was surprisingly fun for me as well as being great exercise. That sounds like I have gone completely round the twist, but I have found every small thing I do is one step closer to being moved in and ready to start new things - a new business, a new lifestyle, and much cookery. I’m excited and getting stuff done fast! The ute ended up being pushed into a table we had in the garage quite by accident. My parents came to visit and I asked my Dad to back the ute in so I could close the door, but he thought it would be better to push it. I was told to pull the handbrake when they said to. Unfortunately it didn’t do anything like.. well. braking. The ute kept going and there was a crash. There you can see some of the glass left on the table. I would have taken pics of the ute but odd people are having a party next door and I was a bit.. freaked out. So, I just have the above for now. The pool table successfully made its way up the stairs on Monday. As you see. Below is a photo looking back towards the kitchen from near to the balcony door. I have one other thing to mention in this update. Below is a screenshot of my desktop as it looks now, today. The cluttering up as mentioned in this post - Snoskred Is Getting Organised - Are You? - is a thing of the past and this new system is so simple and so easy that I don’t even have to work at it. It magically happens all on its own.
If you are like me and want to get your desktop organised, I have to recommend the article that started it all for me - How to Keep your Desktop Organized (without getting insane) - if you take the time to put the system in place, and learn how to use it believe me this will work for you too. I am stunned by how well it has worked for me.

This is NOT a sponsored post, but I feel the need to share the following information with you. It is possible that you may hate cereal as much as I always had until I tried this new cereal from Weight Watchers. Please note, I know nothing about Weight Watchers or their points system. I hated cereal all my life, I was never a breakfast person. I have only recently started eating it because it is supposed to be more healthy and I could do with a bit more fibre in my diet. I have been so surprised by this cereal. There is something so wrong about it. This cereal should be everything I hate. When I saw it on the shelf I thought yuck, I’m going to hate eating that. There were other cereals there, ones with lots of sugar and general badness. Even one with chocolate chips! But I chose the Weight Watchers fruit and fibre cereal even though I knew I probably wouldn’t like it based on the fibre content. I thought - it’s only one bowl a day, I can survive it. However, it’s brilliant, so I’m sharing cos that’s the kind of blogger I am. Normally on cereal I need at least one spoonful of sugar to make it palatable. This WW cereal, I don’t need to add anything except milk. The fruit that is in it makes it sweeter than normal cereals I’ve eaten. The first day I ate it, I did add sugar as I usually do and it made it way too sweet. All I can say is, they must have some absolute geniuses over at Weight Watchers if they can take a cereal which contains everything I should hate and turn it into something I absolutely love, that I look forward to eating in the morning - and have even eaten a couple of times INSTEAD of a bowl of potato chips while watching tv in the evenings. I’m not lying, truly! If you’re in Australia you should give this cereal a go.

The fruit is soooo nice. I love it. I’m not a fan of dried fruit usually but when you add the milk to it I find it softens nicely. They say it contains 34% fruit. You can’t get a spoonful of this cereal without at least one piece of fruit on it so I believe they are right.

I needed my cereal this morning, because we spent all day moving stuff. I’m completely exhausted and only here to post this before I shower and collapse into bed. We did manage to get the pool table upstairs, so that was fantastic. I met a neighbour and their dog before we’d finished unpacking the first ute load. People are very friendly there. I’m looking forward to that.

I also found out they have Tai Chi within a very short walk, so I might be signing up for that. Half the art/dining box room is now empty, we got a lot done today and now we can take it easy for the rest of the week. I have packed the entire kitchen, only leaving out a few bowls for cereal eating.

Sometime within the next day or so, I will hit 50,000 visits here at the blog. Yay! With only 2 days before we pick up the keys this coming Monday, most of the packing is done. I really only have the kitchen which is half done and our walk in wardrobe left to do, which I can mostly finish before we pick up the keys. It didn’t seem to take as long as I was expecting, and I’ve had time to do other things this week as well which I do appreciate - and some of you might too, because I’ve been commenting when I’ve had the chance. Above is how my bookshelves look now. I can’t bear to pack my Aromatherapy stuff until the last minute, and I’ve been burning oils and incense every day this week. Click any of these pics for a slightly bigger image. This is how my desk currently looks. It’s a lot messier than I like and I can’t wait to get into the new place with new ways of organising things like pens and stationery - I have plans for how I’m going to do it. Above you see my daily checklist, which I have been sticking to and finding really helpful especially in the midst of apparent chaos. I’ve been trying to do the reply to comments daily this week and I’d have to go back and check but I believe I have achieved it the next day after a post is posted. I used to find I’d put that job off and tend to do it twice a week or so. If it doesn’t get done the tick doesn’t get put there until it does get done, to remind me. The Art/Dining room was the first room we completely emptied, and we have now filled it with packed boxes and furniture ready to be moved. Here is a view of the art/dining room from another angle and you can see my favourite cabinet, the tall red one with glass. I think this was the best bargain we ever bought, it was just over $100AUD at an import clearance of furniture from Bali. There’s a smaller one which matches it, which we had bought in a different state at least a year before, you can see it in the previous photo under the lightning picture. We were lucky to find these! This is a photo of the kitchen/pool table room. The pool table is the first thing to be moved, it is costing us an absolute fortune because it has to go upstairs. Please cross your fingers that they can actually manage to get it up the stairs. You can also see our outdoor setting, which all needs washing off before we move it, and the lanterns in the gardens are ours as well, they’re going to need a good spray with spider spray. At our new place, we are “borrowing” my parents water feature because they can’t use it where they are now. It’ll look great on our balcony. Here you can see my packing area. This is where anything glass, ceramic, or generally breakable gets packed. This is the other part of the packing station and let us state for the record, I am a genius. It was my idea to put sticky tape on the clothes horse like this. It saves you time and a lot of grief from trying to wrap something and then cut tape. This is many of my sentimental much loved knick knacks, which take a lot of time and effort to pack. The ceramic castle I made myself, when I used to do ceramics as a hobby - I also did that lovely green candlestick holder, which is going to have pride of place on my dining table - which will be used for *dining* in the new place *shock* *boggle* *awe* rather than art. The dragon you can see the back of with the big copper wings, The Other Half did that himself at Ceramics. We used to do it together once a week. No, it’s not girly! It’s creative art! Nothing you see here cost over $10AUD. I love collecting glass and you can probably tell blue glass is my favourite. The tall red and black thing is actually fortune telling sticks which my parents brought back from Japan many years ago. I love them. Some of these items, though inexpensive, are my most treasured things. Another empty room, Yay! A not so empty room - this is The Other Half’s office. He is refusing to pack it till the last minute. Can you tell this is somewhat.. annoying to me? I mean sure, leave the computer there, but the little stuff which he’s not going to use, surely he can pack?

Today three potential tenants toured this house, including a family with two kids, said kids were amazing. The younger one was wearing a superman outfit and he was getting excited about each room of the house. They mentioned they would be putting in an application and I am very hopeful they are the ones to get it.

Thanks to all my regular readers for hanging in there with me during this time of upheaval and chaos, but I am hopeful it’s going to be worth it in the end - for me because I’ll be walking every day and attempting a healthier lifestyle - and some menu planning, and for you because you’ll get a lot more beautiful photos, and more community orientated kinds of tales. I do intend to become involved in the community down there, getting out and meeting new people and being a part of things. I may even begin selling my art at the markets from time to time.

So, it’s not much longer now. I will be around a bit during the week but there will be at least one day I will be at the new house cleaning for most of the day.