Ever had a weekend so busy that you wished for a workweek?

I did. And here I am sitting at my desk in my lunch hour blogging about how good it is to be sitting at a desk instead of running around the city organizing things for the house.

Our weekend was heavy duty running-around-packed. The lift is back to normal service. We went for a riverside wind & drizzle–swept Barbeque on Friday evening and came back to a fully operational though ill sounding lift just past midnight. Being swept up to the 7th floor instead of painful trudging up and wheezing is akin to angels singing in my ear. I cannot emphasize the strength of the YAY rushing through my exhausted veins when we reached our floor and casually walked the short distance to our door.

The lift being functional does mean that all the mundane tasks that could have been spread over the whole week of evenings was to be compressed into two days of hectic activity. I could not be more tired if I had run the half marathon.

Numerous trips to myriad stores - supermarkets, electronics superstore, furniture showroom, sound specialist. Numerous taxi rides with big bulky boxes and bags. Numerous trips up and down in the lift. A whole new path worn into the corridor carpets. A layer off the soles of my aching feet.

As if we didn’t have enough boxes and junk we have added more stuff to the little spare floor space. As with Mars-Venus, women-men, this stuff is essential to me and V on whole different levels. For me there is an ironing board, dishrack and dustbins. For V there is surround sound speakers, amplifier and unending high tech measuring tape. I’m glad there are two of us though because it made running around less tedious and carrying stuff much easier. Also in retrospect I think that different ‘essential’ lists are helping us choose, co-ordinate and buy stuff that will give us a complete house all the quicker.

We are still weeks away from a complete house. Our whole Home Theatre experience is yet to be set up. We have no real storage till the sets of drawers, sideboard or bookcase arrive, staggered over the next 4 weeks. We have open overflowing suitcases, towers of books threatening to topple over, and unattractive bin bags/ boxes of stuff in every corner. We have sheets tacked up with duck tape masquerading as curtains.

On the positive side we now have super cool spotlights shining on down in every room. These are brilliant and outshine the gaping holes still in the ceiling, left on purpose to enable wiring in the Home Theatre (when that happens!). We have a fully functioning kitchen and are getting used to the different shapes and sizes of appliances. The shadows and uncertainty of a space not mine will soon disappear.

It is not easy, this setting up of a home from scratch. There are lessons to be learnt each day. How the hot water boiler works. Which direction the key turns to open the doors to our heavenly abode. Where to store the cleaning products so they don’t mistakenly poison us. Where to place the dustbins so as not to trip over them. Where to place all the furniture that fitted so beautifully in the showroom and our minds. How to eat a meal balanced on ones knees without dropping some food on the newly cleaned floor.

We are getting there. Bit by bit. By hook or by crook. People visiting in the meanwhile will not be impressed.

I'm so tired I'm going to have a mini nap with my head balanced precariously on my keyboard. Toodles!