Getting a container for her birthday was not really a huge hit

We started the year off by going to the Belgrave Christian Convention in Belgrave Heights on the 1st and the 2nd of January.  A few people from church were camping at the convention, so we spent some time with them inbetween sessions - and all in all had a great time.  And then all was back to normal - Geoff back to work, and we faced 2010.

Eventually Geoff got the call from the moving company - our container was ready to be delivered - on the 6th!  Mieke's birthday.  And almost exactly a month after it docked in Melbourne.  We were relieved that there weren't any customs or quarantine issues at least, and I was really looking forward to having more than camping pots that just burn your food :-).

Mieke was not very impressed however, and did a bit of complaining about having to unpack her room on her birthday, and not being able to have a nice day etc etc.  We tried to help her see the positive side - she would be getting all her stuff for her birthday! - but that didn't really work so well...

So we waited impatiently for the 6th, Mieke's birthday presents hidden where even a little curious brother would not find it, and eventually the day arrived.  We were blessed with nice weather, so that was great!  Can't be great to unload a container in the rain!  Needless to say Mieke was very chuffed with at least her one present (a camera!), and promptly set off to pester Gian by taking photos of him, while he was protesting loudly.

To save the day, my dear friend K and some of her kids arrived with a huge dish of pasta for us for dinner, and a birthday cake for Mieke, candles and all. 

And then the doorbell rang - our container was here!  3 friendly Aussie blokes with 2 trolleys to unpack the whole thing - including the piano that weighes probably round about 500kgs!  I was quite concerned about the process to be followed to get that thing off the container, but 2 of the guys (yes 2!) managed to get it onto a trolley, and it was pushed down the ramp by one chap (a very steep ramp from the container on to the gravel next to our garage for that matter) while the other one used all his strength to keep the piano from flattening him before taking out our rental house fence or something!  Needless to say my nerves took some testing!

So we went from an empty house and a full container, to an empty container and a house full of boxes in about 3 hours, and the HUGE job began.

Here I am with the list - it was my job to tick off the boxes as they were offloaded.  Every last box accounted for, and happy to report that nothing was broken. 





We were a bit worried when we saw that the container that arrived in our driveway was not the same one that left South Africa!  They actually repacked the entire container into another one on this side - and we have heard stories that your stuff do get damaged during that process more so than while it is sailing on the open seas - but our heap of belongings came out unscathed.  That was a relief.


And this is what Mieke's bedroom looked like.  Happy to report that it has improved a bit since then - with some regular serious encouragement of course... :-).

It took us a few days to finally unpack most of the boxes (the last 4 or 5 in my bedroom lasted for about another month before I managed to deal with them as well).  And then being moved from a humid Durban, combined with living in a container for 2 months, every single piece of clothes, linen and bedding had to be washed to get rid of the musty mouldy smell.  Now THAT was a challenge.  It took some serious 'talking to myself' time to cope with doing 4 to 5 loads of washing every day for almost 3 weeks!  Imagine having to wash every single little thing in your house - from curtains to pillows, to socks, to shirts and table cloths.  It was not fun.  And to top it all, it was blazing hot most of the time, so my feet actually got a serious tan from standing under the clothes line every 2 hours during the day.

Well, I guess there is one good thing that came from that experience - now washing 2 loads every 2nd day is a breeeeeze!  Even ironing is fine after that experience - and coping without Nonhlanhla is actually very do-able.  Actually, any house chore is better than having a laundry that looks like it is the birth place of the washing for the entire town at any given moment during the day! :-)

But so all horrible things come to an end, the musty smells are gone, our worldly goods are all unpacked, and even our school stuff got sorted out in time for our first school day on the 3rd of February.  Took us a month to get our whole house sorted, but it happened!

Next up...Some more happenings during Jan and Feb, and we met some other South Africans!!