Monday, 17th May, 2010

One step at a time......

We have been here a couple of days now.  We visit 'home' (our caravan at my brother's place) every day, while I continue the marathon washing.  While I was there I literally kept the machine going day and night, filling the clothes line, taking the items off when they were dry and already having another line-full ready to hang out straight away.  Fortunately the days are warm and sunny and things are drying quite well.  Today is the first day that rain has been forcast, and it is supposed to last all week, so it is fortunate that most of the linen has been washed now - finally!  Also my brother has a large carport with lines strung underneath so I can hang things there if needed.  I don't like to use the dryer unless absolutely necessary.

And those things I knew I packed?  Well, they were there at the caravan all right!  Peter had moved them from where I put them, and covered them over with other things.  Men!!!  So of course he didn't see them.  But now after several trips around there we have the basic necessities such as toiletries. 

We have located the everyday crockery in the shipping container, not all of it but at least enough to eat from for now.  When Mark (our nephew) started packing up our things while we were away he started on the easiest things first of course.  That included the kitchen china, our clothes and my miniatures, at least the ones nicely stored on shelves in plastic tubs,  among other things.  Unfortunately he didn't label most of the boxes he packed.  So to find things we have to open a carton and check.  But the things we need the most (like winter clothes) are packed right at the rear of the container, probably at the bottom.  That's a lot of cartons to move.  The container is about 20ft long and is packed to the brim, 3 cartons high right to the ceiling.  Did I mention we have a lot of 'stuff'?

So far I have put the linen back into the linen press, put lots back into the workroom, found the cutlery and sorted that out, found about 1/5th of my patchwork, located one of the three sewing machines and brought most of our things around from my brother's garage.  Most of those were miniatures that I have bought over the net since we have been back from our trip (all 1:48 scale) and tools and things that I took away with me, as well as some gorgeous things I bought from Kathy B in WA.  Also a lot of scrapbooking stuff that we took away with us and even more that we bought on the trip.  So already the pristine workroom is looking cluttered - I am sorting those things out.  I am trying to put things away as I bring them around, but that is proving harder than I thought it would since we tend to bring a car-load around late in the afternoon when I have run out of energy vbg.

It is still quite complicated to do simple things at times.  My brother bought some work trousers and was going to take them to get them taken up - and pay for it.  Not on your nelly, brother dear -  I will do it, says I glibly.  So I bring them to the house, along with the sewing machine.  I knew I had brought the little box of sewing accessories from the caravan back here several days ago.  So: first challenge, clear a space for sewing machine.  Done.  Second challenge: find sewing box.  Can't find it anywhere.  Okay, I have enough thread to circle the globe several times, so find some the right colour.  Can't find any thread anywhere.  Or for that matter, pins - bought some new pins just the other day, but they are in the sewing box.  Still can't find that.  So next day it's a trip to the shop to buy yet another box of pins and yet another spool of thread!  I need both like I need another headache.  Preparation time:  hours!  Time to actually hem the trousers: 5 minutes.  I was determined to do it by machine because they are work trousers and will lead a very hard life.

And I can see quite a few new winter clothes on the horizon too - the only time I am warm at the moment is when I am in my winter pyjamas and dressing gown (all newly bought, dressing gown is my Mothers Day gift from Nathan) and people do tend to look a bit askance if you go shopping in those vbg.

Meanwhile we are wading through the endless miles of boxes vbg.  It is a great feeling when I get one emptied and that particular space cleared.  It doesn't last long unfortunately because Peter immediately fills it with yet another box, but each one is one more done.  Perhaps I should draw tally lines on the wall somewhere vvbg?  One we haven't painted yet, of course!