Settling in

A picture is worth a thousand words but only if you can find the camera cable and your home computer doesn't spontaneously shut down every few minutes.  As J says, would I rather he spent time fixing the locks or fixing my computer, because he would much rather devote the time to fixing the computer but there is a lot that needs to be done around the home.

So I will have to be descriptive with my language.

Still settling in.  The cats are finally "legal"; the new registration tags having come in the mail.  After a fortnight of whining, they were finally able to go outside, where they gingerly poked around for a few minutes before demanding to come back in. OK...

There are all these expenses when one moves that can add up to a frightfully large amount, a few hundred dollars at a time.  So far they have included carpet cleaning, new locks; new door handles, two ceiling fans, a kitchen hutch/dresser (paid less than half price due to a few scratches and bumps), a new sofa and chair (indulgent, but a worthwhile quality investment that will outlast cheaper models), extra lights and a tv antenna booster so we can consistently access the news.

J's become - much to my pleasant surprise - very house proud.  He's set up the living room beautifully and has even pulled out the vacuum cleaner without me saying anything.  We are eating our meals in a very civilised manner at the new kitchen table, rather than on the couch watching TV (J even seems dubious about the risk of us taking coffee into the living area), and while we have heaps still to unpack and sort out, we seem to be more on top of things in the new place.

I haven't quite worked out the best way of managing all my travel; I have to discipline myself to leave on time from work as an extra 30 minutes of mucking around can mean arriving home up to an hour later than need be.  Sometimes I'm so tired I nap on the train; other times I read or knit.  I think it's just a matter of getting used to my new routine.  I love our new place and the area and don't regret moving for a moment.

And by the way, I wasn't compalining about our new council's green policy - I agree with it entirely - but that doesn't mean that it isn't diffiuclt to change the habbits of a lifetime.  And there is a limit to how much one can reuse all the packaging used in moving.  We will eventually put the cardboard boxes on Freecycle - we'll have to use the general Melbourne site; funnily enough for such a green precinct there is no Freecycle group for our specific region.

In knitting news, I'm getting close to the end of the BSJ.  I hesitate to say this, but I'm finding all the garter stitch a little boring.  But I hate trying to do lace as I have a tendancy to miscount and hate having to either fudge or frog rows of lace.  J is very keen for me to crochet a throw for our couch - I think he has no idea of just how much is involved in this.  He want's it one or two colours but I am seriously tempted by the Babette Blanket - it's one way to burn through some of my stash and will be a lot easier and more entertaining than just doing 100-plus identical granny squares.