The final days in town...

I'm taking a chance here.  My internet connection is currently anything from 3.7 - 400kbs (upload) and a whopping 1 - 10kbs (download)...  Not the easiest way to blog, but I'm missing it and I'm missing all of you :)  I am also trying something different.  Normally, with the ADSL line I would just write this online.  Now, I have opened the page, disconnected from my connection, and I am typing it off-line, and I will try and post it when I am finished.  Let's see if it works? :)


Very disgruntled, unable to send out quotes for the business, barely able to check e-mail, too scared of the slow speed to try and even blog, throwing a good portion of my toys out of the cot, and following a call to the service centre, we have had our (new) service provider (Vodacom) send a technician in order to see if we need a booster aerial (duh!).  He came all the way from Cape Town (a three hour drive) - did all the tests - has returned to Cape Town and will give all the data to the network technicians.  He says that they will do the necessary, drive all the way here, install a booster aerial so that I can get a 2Gb edge connection (the best edge connection) - and this service and the booster is going to be no charge????  I will be amazed if that is the case - and I know of at least 6 other houses here who will make use of their service if this is successful.  Clever - marketing with a difference.  Because they know that if it does work I will  take out a two year contract with them - and that is still a plus for me, as it will be cheaper than the only other option available to our area.  It looks like at least one company in this country is cottoning on to pleasing the client - as they do in 1st world countries.


But, all that aside, getting back to the move.  The last few days in town were were hectic - more hectic than even I thought they would be.  For all my "organisation" I felt helpless and out of control.  I guess moving the business to it's new premises didn't help much.  But it's finally all over :)


RMan was a star with his help - he even cleaned the electric oven shelves for me - well, his wrists are stronger than mine, and his thumb pressure - immense :)

As you all know the mover took the bulk of the stuff a week prior to the transfer going through.  

I was amazed at the size of the truck, not
believing that we would fill it - but we did!

They were amazing - it took them just over 4 hours to load everything in the truck - with most of the space having been taken up by our pot plants LOL

6 busy guys - 4 hours - all  sorted :)

As we approached the storage facility, RMan called the driver and asked him if he would be willing to make a small detour - if he would willing to possibly try and drive along our rutted sand road (if you can call it that - more like a dirt track) in order to offload the pot plants - and he agreed :)  But getting that enormous truck in our gate was another thing all together. Never mind - getting to that point was an immense help.  We offloaded all the pot plants and RMan whizzed them up to the house in his trailer.  Even that took 6 trips - just as well the movers accommodated our request - six trips from the storage facility in the closest town to the house would've taken hours! 

The moving truck - all the way down at our gate

We decided to clump the plant altogether - to give them some moral support LOL  Just until we have time to decide where exactly we are going to place them.  Sadly, a couple of my big pots didn't make it - but I will still be using them - I'll show you how in a later posting :)

We piled all the more tender plants
within the circle - to give them time
to acclimatize. 

Then - it was back to the storage facility.  The size of it was perfect - 35mtrs2.  Everything was carefully stored inside, including the boxes - they even had the number on the box facing outwards, so that if I needed to get anything out of one, it would be no problem.

All of this fitted into a 210mtr2 house - and this is
only 35mtrs2 with space to spare?!

So sad to see our complete "past" together packed into such a small space.  I commented to RMan that my de-cluttering obviously worked.  But, even I was amazed at how little space our possessions took.  Never mind, it wont be in storage for long - the builder has said that all the works should be complete within 3 months - weather permitting...

MKid's wellies - where he left them in front of the TV

A week later, after transfer had been confirmed and finalized, we loaded, or tried to load, the very last of the stuff from the town house.  We had underestimated the amount, and the combined space of the company van, RMan's car and the trailer, were not sufficient.  We had to temporarily store some at the new business premises.  The picture above amply portrays the scene at the house for that last week.  MKid was with us for that week, together with his new wellies, and calling him for dinner (eaten on the floor) he leapt up from watching Top Gear, leaving his wellies behind.  So sad and empty - just a shell of the home that had been.  But, I am not heart sore - it was a move we had to make, and it is affording us both a new beginning - with a clean slate.  That is worth more than memories - which we still have time to make in our new home.

After a final clean-up (wiping out the last of the cupboards, the last wipe-down of all the wall tiles, vacuuming all the carpets and scrubbing all the floor tiles), and waiting for the new owner in order to hand over the keys, we finally walked out of the town house door at 3.30p.m.  We arrived at the storage facility at 7.00p.m. - unpacked what we could, and then it was time to finally head for the farm to offload the rest...