Friday 2 May 2014

An exciting(ly quiet) Easter

After the last few exciting weekends we've had (when I nearly re-named the blog "Altitudinal Adventures because we were off the damn ground so much, or "Alcoholic Adventures", because...well, you know) I am happy to report we had a much more down to earth Easter weekend. It wasn't without its own excitement, though - when I woke up on Easter Sunday, the "Easter bunny" had visited and left the obligatory chocolate eggs around the house for me to find. I suspect I had WAY more fun than is healthy for a 35-year-old adult in trying to find these, especially when I discovered the most valuable, majestic and pleasing of all eggs - A KINDER SURPRISE! I am sure, as a grown-up, I should be expected to say a Faberge egg or something of its ilk, but frankly they don't have toys in, so what's the point of that?!

I was working over most of the weekend, but I had Easter Monday off so we trotted out to the shops again. (On a side note, did anyone else realise Westfield was in fact an international brand of shopping malls?! I got confused when they opened a second in London, but they are all over the place here like a capitalist rash).

The first thing on our list was something we have wanted to buy for, oh, at least three months now and also concerns that good news I've been blathering on about. *Cue drum roll for the announcement of good tidings. Feet thumping or banging the table is acceptable - but don't spill your tea!*. WE ARE UNCLE AND AUNTY!!  Hurray! Due to our little nephew Emil coming much earlier than expected and interrupting his parents' house move, we have waited until everyone was safe and settled in their new house before we sent anything. The new family are all doing well, so it's happy days! Well, happy until Jan rejected out of hand my idea to send Emil a kangaroo costume and make Jan's sister dress him up and send us photos. I mean, come on, that's what babies are there for! So we settled for trying to find a suit with a kangaroo on it instead. And guess what, people?!?! THERE WERE NONE. WE ARE IN AUSTRALIA AND THEY HAVE NO NATIVE ANIMAL-RELATED BABYWEAR. What in the heck is that about? I doggedly dragged Jan around all the baby shops and it was all fluffy bunnies this and giraffes that and toy planes the other. I was singularly unimpressed. I mean just because kangaroos are a pest and given half a chance they will kick you in the chest and claw your face off, is that any reason to omit them from children's clothing? I think not. And double guess what?! NO KOALAS EITHER!!! I just don't know what's wrong with these people. We eventually found a stuffed toy kangaroo, but even that was on the lower shelves of the toy store, tucked away in shame. TUT. Finally we found a souvenir shop full of mainly tacky things, but guess what they also had?!
That's all we wanted, Australia...
A nice alliterative kuddly kangaroo kushion, now winging it's way to Germany...
 Next on the list was a rather contentious item. A previous attempt to buy one ended in me flouncing out of a shop in a supreme strop due to a "communication breakdown" between Jan and I and several pushy shop assistants who insisted on repeatedly asking if we needed help, even though WE JUST TOLD YOU WE ARE FINE, GO AWAAAAAYYYY. Ahem. So this time, we sat down as a mature couple, who can address and work through problems, and laid down the ground rules for what the terms "duvet" and "duvet cover" actually meant. And it worked! We purchased the best duvet set on God's green earth and now, when I am not to be found reclining on the sofa, I am under our new duvet, which has made me the happiest person in the southern hemisphere! (Let's not even get started on the bliss that is the new kitchen bins we found that actually fit in the kitchen! Let's celebrate)!

I have also discovered my new favourite place... Pottery Barn!  We walked around that shop and then tried to put a rental deposit down to see when we could move in, because it's just housey heaven, with twee trinkets and fluffy blankets included. We found a duvet cover for the new duvet, and... wait for it... a clock that looks like a stopwatch! Oh. The. Ecstasy.
My precioussss...
When we wrapped the day up with buying a TV cabinet to replace to cardboard box the TV has been on up until now. I started having palpitations with the joy of it all and Jan had to bring me home. 


Ignore Lara. The big showoff. Look at the shiny shiny cabinet instead...
So now the flat is looking a bit more homey and we are loving it. Since the Easter weekend we have also bought a buffet console sideboard table thing to go in the dining room, but that's not coming until July (because it is hand crafted by blind kangaroos who have devoted their life to carving furniture and the complete destruction of all kangaroo-related childrenswear from the world). We have also bought a SODA STREAM GET-BUSY-WITH-THE-FIZZY machine and another duvet cover which is FLUFFY and.... *thunk*. Sorry. That was me passing out from all the domestic bliss.



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