Moving Shopping Marathon

We finally moved into our place on the 14th which was the signal to go into overdrive for the shopping marathon. We pretty much camped out in our new place from Saturday to Wednesday on borrowed air mattresses because there was nothing and I pretty much mean nada, zilch, zip in the way of furniture or appliances in the apartment. We "moved" in as in carried our suitcases to the 3rd bedroom and then took off to buy the appliances and get towels and sheets and $500 Aussie of other stuff (it's all a blur at this point).

The appliances arrived Tuesday the 17th. The delivery "subbies" (their word for subcontractors) were an interesting pair. Apparently I changed my name at some point because everything was darlin' this and darlin' that. Unfortunately, they were telling darlin' something that she did not want to hear and that was they weren't so sure they were going to get darlin's refrigerator up the stairwell. This is the point where you realize you are nearing true desperation because Eric and I were saying things like "so long as it works once you get it in there and you try not to scratch the front, we don't care how many dings it ends up with". We did care, but not if it meant we were going to be without a refrigerator for another day!

In the end they got it in there without any dings, but it definitely wasn't easy and darlin' endeared herself to them forever by giving them a big fat tip for their trouble. Since Aussies don't normally do any tipping, I'm sure they walked away thinking it was their lucky day. We were feeling pretty lucky ourselves and raced off to the Woolworths grocery store to de-Mother Hubbard our kitchen and refrigerator.

On Wednesday the mattress and couches arrived. A real bed! We also got to graduate from lawn chairs to a couch and recliners to watch the 5 channels on the TV perched on a box. We graduated to a bigger box a few days later when we bought the pots and pans set, but it still seems way too close to the floor. We have ordered a TV table along with a dining set, coffee table and a couple end tables, but they have given us the dreaded "3 weeks" for a delivery timeframe. In fact, what we have discovered from talking to others is "3 weeks" really means they have absolutely no idea when it will be available for delivery. Great, just what we wanted to hear!

Another one of their quirks is the stores keep next to no inventory. The refrigerator, dryer, couches, and bedroom set were all "floor models". I guess I should count my lucky stars, though, because I'm sure the alternative would be delivery in "3 weeks".

We got our home phone on Wednesday. It's not like we have anyone to call and especially not at 50 cents minimum for a local call, but we were excited anyway because that started the ticker for the internet. Aussies are very into processes and especially into following their processes to the letter even when they are woefully inefficient. The phone had to be connected on one order. This would cause another order to be created to check the line for DSL compatibility. If the phone line quality was sufficient, that generated a third order to ship us the DSL modem. Eight days after the phone went in we felt "processed" out, but we finally had that modem in our hands and even better, the magic of the internet at home.

This is why I have been so kind about not boring you with the gory details of our lives for the last two weeks. Things like the torturous shopping that I would have whined about incessantly since I'm not one who likes shopping. I'm sure I would have talked about the dichotomy of cheaply made stuff at outrageous prices and how it made it nearly impossible for Eric and I to pull the trigger on many purchases. Or the dolphins swimming by our house. You know, boring stuff like that! Guess I'll just have to save the wildlife for later.

Cheers!