Ummm, where to start? Well, we have a long term let all sorted, our container is actually in Fremantle (and not en route to Egypt like I thought it was. Stupid tracking system), we survived a trip to Ikea, I've become a MasterChef addict and we got ourselves a free TV and set top box courtesy of Gumtree. We've been pretty busy.
First things first, the house. It isn't what I thought we would live in. It's modern. Only a year old. It has a theatre room for God's sake. It is huge. At least, compared to our two bedroom Oxfordshire cottage anyway. We could fit our old house in it probably five times. No joke. Okay, maybe only four times but still.
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| Image: freedigitalphotos.net |
We had a really easy time of getting a rental - the rental market in Perth is fierce, so we were very lucky. Instead of having to bite our nails waiting to see if the owner chose us from twenty other families via an estate agent, we have rented privately. Not purposely though.
We were at our first viewing (highly disappointing. Minging, to be brutally honest) and I told the estate agent it was too small for us. It wasn't. It was just horrible but I didn't want to be rude thinking we might need her in the future. When we stumbled out into the light from the dark and gloomy house, there was a guy hovering around who approached us saying he was leaving a 4 bed, 2 bathroom house soon and it was his brothers, would we be interested? Yes, we certainly would. He gave us his details, we called him the next morning, went to see the house, prayed that Lady M would be as cute as hell, attempted to schmooze him without being weird or crossing any boundaries and then went home to anxiously await a phone call.
That very evening, the mysterious brother phoned to say we could have the house if we wanted. YES PLEASE!!!! Then I spent a week worrying about whether we were being scammed. I'm pretty sure we aren't. But, onto the house itself.
There is a double garage, a utility room with tonnes of shelving, a wok burner on the stove, a 900mm oven and a double shower in the master bedroom en suite. Oh and the living area is massive. We need more stuff. Stuff and furniture and so we took a trip to Ikea, which was surprisingly stress free and fun. Yes, actually fun. Helped in large part, I think, by the promise of $1 hot dogs at the end.
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| Image: freedigitalphotos.net |
Not much furniture was purchased but we did come away with 75 cent tea towels (I know! Amazing!), some gorgeous plant pots, a pack of butterscotch chocolates, some lovely sheets for Lady M and a box of French style stackable tumblers for the Chardmeister as well as a bright red TV cabinet. We are going BOLD in this house. No more pastel colours or whimsical florals here. I really want vivid reds and oranges, bright pinks, in your face greens, maybe even almost-fluorescent yellow. No, let's not get carried away. That's probably a step or four too far.
I foresee another couple of trips back to pick up a good sized three seater sofa, also bright red (don't worry, this won't be in the same room as the cabinet), a freestanding kitchen island - I need somewhere for my Kitchen Aid mixer, blender and other baking accoutrements - plus some lovely little glass bowls and mugs I am coveting.
Then it will be off to Masters (kind of like B&Q) for a dishwasher (hurrah, no longer will I be forced to wash up four times a day. Also, there is the bonus of shopping for crockery so that it isn't all in the dishwasher forcing impromptu washing up for that sneaky hot chocolate before bedtime. That would be bad) and a gorgeous floor lamp which will curve over so that the huge solid circular shade hovers above the vintage Habitat tubular chair kindly given to us by my parents. On the way through, we'll pick up some troughs and herbs to get the herb garden going. Admittedly, the dishwasher and lamp may have to wait a few weeks but the herbs can be planted and in situ the very day we move in. I'm excited. Can you tell?
Finally, MasterChef Australia and spoiler alert if you didn't see last night's. Oh, how I love thee. I never watched this in the UK really. I don't know if the format is hugely different here but I feel like it is. They show an episode 6 nights of the week! I think my favourite are the invention episodes - the dude food
one was awesome - Kylie's bacon doughnut sandwich things? Inspired.
Properly creative. I would never have dreamt that up in a million
years.
I was really sad to see Tregan go, I thought she was really good, but I wasn't fussed about the recent eviction of Amina and Jules. I feel like we didn't really get to know Jules that much so I wasn't sad or outraged at all. I suppose I should have been disappointed to see Amina go but, given the last few episodes, it seemed like the MasterChef editors were getting us ready for her departure so it wasn't the big surprise it probably should have been.
I'm going to make a prediction for the top three now that we're down to ten: Kylie, Wade and Julia. The G's seem to be quite enamoured with Wade lately (although that doesn't seem to count for much, they were in love with Amina a couple of weeks ago), Kylie is just super creative and Julia is, well, maybe I have stuck my neck out a little here. She makes great desserts but maybe that won't be enough...
And speaking of food and creativity, here's a few goodies to salivate over:
- Delicious looking cookies from heartbreak pie
- A Perth-appropriate winter salad
- And these ridiculously sensational looking s'mores cookie bar things
I've been busy geeking out about all the wonderful stuff posted up on Craft Gawker the last couple of days. Such creative people out there! I can't wait for all our things to be delivered so that we can get all set up for some fun artsy stuff for Lady M to do. Does anyone have any recommendations for inspirational websites for crafts and arty kids stuff?
