No more Stair Walks after this evening…
…I’ve been told I won’t have time to do a “lucky last” one in the morning – the removalists are arriving at eight o’clock… I’ll be lucky to have finished breakfast by then! 
So, the packing ladies arrived at eight o’clock this morning and started doing their “thang” – and despite my putting what I wanted packed on one side of the vanity unit in my bathroom, and telling them, clearly, that only the things on top of that side of the vanity unit were to be packed – except for the dyson reversible fan, and the duster bin next to the toilet… they’ve gone and packed everything they could lay their little mitts on, including the bathroom tidy! All I can do is hope against hope that they had the good sense to empty the ruddy thing before they packed it, otherwise I’m going to have a full to overflowing small rubbish bin being unpacked over at Stillwater! Something that I definitely didn’t want! There’s going to be enough junk over there once they start unpacking, what with the reams and reams of packing paper, bubble wrap, and cardboard boxes (thank heavens we’re fairly close to the “Refuse Station” – it’s just down Burwood Highway, behind Bunnings and Officeworks!) So it’s now 3.30pm, the packing ladies have gone, and I’ve done my second last Stair Walk – only one more to go. Julian is on his way home from taking a load of things over to Stillwater – including my wheelchair – and when he gets back, we’ll have a cup of coffee… then he has to load up Flipper and take her off to the Vet, where she’ll be “boarding” overnight, and we’ll pick her up and bring her back to her new home tomorrow evening. Oh, she’s going to be so angry and upset with us – she’s already been wandering around the house yelling and screaming because all her familiar things have been slowly vanishing into “the Nothing“! While she’s at the Vet, we’ll get them to snip out a few bits of matted fur, very close to the skin, just under her jaw – they’re a little bit too close to her jugular for us to feel happy about doing ourselves. The poor old girl is really getting too old and stiff to be able to groom herself the way she used to – she always looked immaculate – she does her best, but… *sigh* …and also, I suspect that it’s not so much that she’s unable to groom herself properly any more, but more a case of starting to groom herself, forgetting what she’s doing, and wandering off, or drifting off to sleep, instead of getting rid of all the little mats and knots – which very quickly grow into big mats and knots! If that is the case, then there’s not much we can do about it, except keep on taking her to the Vet to be de-matted!
My goodness gracious me! We’ve just had a call from the charismatic Carmen! She wants to bring someone around to look at the place, even though there are boxes every which-where, the place is quite grubby, and everything is in chaos! Now, I know what sort of a saleswoman the crafty Carmen is, and I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there’s no way known she’d bring a prospective buyer around with the house in the state it’s currently in, unless there was a very serious prospect of them buying it! So let’s all cross our fingers and toes! 🙂
Well, they’ve been and gone – I guess we’ll know when we know! Julian also had a call from the Coroner in Adelaide – exact cause of death won’t be known until the pathology reports come in, but the body will probably be released tomorrow or Wednesday – Melissa, Julian’s sister has tentatively suggested the funeral be held Saturday week. You know, this has really been a jumpin’ place today – the packers, Carmen, calls from the Coroner… never a dull moment! I rang the people from whom we were hoping to rent a treadmill this morning, but only got an answering machine: “Please leave a message and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!” – so I did, and it’s now half past four, and I’ve heard zilch! I don’t know – perhaps they’re making too much money and don’t need any of ours? The place is looking decidedly forlorn at the moment – it’s so empty and bare… and it’s going to look decidedly strange over at Stillwater, with no books anywhere! Julian used to have a favourite print – it was of a railway station with all the lines branching out from a somewhat grubby and slightly bombed out cathedral – probably somewhere in France. There were different types of trains on all the lines – a steam train, an old “rattler” – sleek modern fast trains… the station platforms had that “just swept” look, scrupulously clean – even though there were a couple of cigarette butts, and a discarded ticket, lying on the railway lines… there’s a composed and serene Nun facing you, a small girl with a lollypop stands on another platform, and a man reading a newspaper stands on yet another platform… But the strangest thing about the painting is that… well, what do you see around stations, where there’s ample shelter and lots of wires overhead? Birds! There isn’t a single sign of a bird, anywhere in the painting! There’s very clean-looking rubbish on the ground, and the whole painting is highly detailed – but there’s no hint of birds, or bird droppings! That print (it was quite a large one!) hung on our wall for years, and everyone who saw it noticed the fact that it was so very “birdless”, and remarked on it! I wonder if we still have it – if it’s still in storage! If it is, I’d like to have it cleaned and re-framed (I smoked very heavily back then and I fear it became rather heavily coated with cigarette smoke and nicotine! ) Anyway, saying that Stillwater was going to look really strange with no books anywhere reminded me of that print… well, they both start with the letter “b”, don’t they! “b” for books, and “b” for birds! 😉 Let’s hope this couple fall madly in love with the place and buy it overnight, then we won’t have to leave all our books over here for the sumptuous Sharron to decorate her pretty doll’s house with! 🙂
Julian has just taken Flipper off to the vet, and I think I’m starting to wish that we weren’t moving, after all! It’s different, you know, when you’re leaving a place that you’re glad to be moving out of, and leaving a place that you’d have been perfectly happy to stay in for many more years, but felt “chased out of” by all the big developments going up all around you, the Council altering their parameters and building regulations to line their own pockets, and the fact that with so many teeny-tiny, small and mingy little apartments going up all over Doncaster Hill, the value of your big, spacious, light and airy apartment is going to plummet. Don’t get me wrong – Stillwater is a beautiful place and I’m very glad that we’re going to be living there – in other words, I’m sad to be leaving this place, but very happy to be moving in to Stillwater – you know what I mean?
Weigh-in this morning. Well, I’m still being surprised! I went down another two points to 77.4kg – goodness knows, the bounce back, or the “go slow” strike must hit soon… This is really only two and a bit kilos off what my intended goal weight was! However, looking at my current figure (would you believe that I’m starting to develop a “waist”, and not a “waste”?! 😉 ) I’m afraid that another two kilos (and a bit!) isn’t going to make much difference, and after all, I still have to hit maintenance and stay on that weight! Which is why I wanted to get down to 70kg – then I’ll have 5 kilos to play around with while I’m trying to get stabilised on real food again. I shall re-evaluate the situation when I get to 70kg… 🙂
So tomorrow is moving day. Tonight we’ll have our last dinner here, and spend our last night in this apartment… At least I still have an operational computer, though I’m not sure whether I will tomorrow night or not – so if there’s no blog tomorrow night – and please bear in mind that it’ll probably be quite late tomorrow night before the blog will be up – don’t despair, there will be one the following night! And that, I’m afraid, is about all I have for you tonight – but look in again a bit later than usual tomorrow night, to see what we’ve all been up to, and how the move went! Were there any bumps and hiccups? Did my weight go up or down with excitement, or did it get bored with the whole thing and stay the same? Have I decided where to put everything yet? Well, I can’t promise that all of your questions will be answered, but a great many of them will be! (if I have a working computer, that is – otherwise you’ll just have to wait an extra night to find out, won’t you! 😉 ) But until then, please try to bee good, don’t forget that small deeds done are better than great deeds planned – always remember to keep warm, to look after yourselves, and to drive carefully – but most of all, remember to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂
My Word! 