God damn… what a week it has been. The last week has just been sheer bedlam. The two weekends were so full on it was almost a blur. Just flat out both Saturday and Sunday on both weekends that this is the first opportunity I have had to actually sit down and relax. I have finally got everything together. After spending the first two days in a blur of building Ikea furniture it is good to finally sit back and relax a bit. Lets recap a little… going back in time to the night before the move….

Friday 22nd June

Finish work, miss bus (as usual), feed cats (as usual) and then the packing began. I had planned to spend all Friday night, getting my clothes packed away ready for the Saturday morning. I didn’t really have much stuff out, but it was about a suitcase’s worth. I had also been waiting all day for Ikea to ring me to tell me when I would be recieving my stuff. They never called and around 730pm I was starting to worry a little, So I called.. and got told “well we cant guarantee any times, and we deliver till 10pm at night.” I was livid!! That was not what I was told. Then I was promptly informed of the additional cost of $50 if I would like to guarantee my time frame. Well it was the only way I could guarantee my bed that night as they wouldn’t even set the schedule till the next day… So I ponied up the $50. And in my angriness I began Tweeting about it (see previous blog post about that resolution!).

Saturday 23rd June

Manage to get myself up early enough to go for a run, pack the last few things, have some breakfast and walk into the old apartments office dead on 9am to pick up a package. 15 minutes later I was walking into the Office of my new apartment to pick up the keys, and this is where it all just became a blur. Within 45 mins I had a delivery from Ikea, the delivery for my Mattress and Couch, I had carried up all the stuff from my overflowing truck into the apartment. It was just a mess! But first things first. Bed. I managed to knock the bed out within 90 minutes on my own with no help. I was happy with that.

Next up it was off to walmart to pick up some stuff that I had on order and get my shopping done there, all the stuff I had spent a solid week preparing the 4 lists that I had made (adding on a hammer cause I forgot and needed it for part of the upcoming builds. Thankfully by the time I had finished the Walmart shopping, I had some help arrive in the form of Linda, freshly off the plane from Australia. With her help that afternoon we managed to knock out a heap of stuff, leaving me around 8pm to grab some Take Out Teriyaki and some Jelly for dessert.

Sunday 24th June

Started the day off with plenty of fog during my morning run, first run from the new apartment. Felt good! Managed to get the kitchen all cleaned up and the mess subsided prior to heading to breakfast at Pattys Egg Nest. That kind of diner style place you would expect here in the USA just not as full on pretty cruisy. The portions were HUGE! I had some Pumpkin pancakes and they were yum!!!! Pumpkin Pancakes with Syrup, Butter, Banana and a touch of Cream on the side. Bliss! After breakfast Linda again gave me a hand this morning as we hit the road to Frys for some purchases. The morning was spent at Frys, Loews (like Bunnings) and also getting the License plates for my truck. Big morning. Managed a number of bargains at Frys (24″ tv with a DVD player in built comes to mind, good enough for the bedroom, a project for a few weeks times, getting my AV setup fixed) and by late afternoon, that had all be done. So then it was off to the Fred Meyer in Alderwood because they had the better store than my new local which is undergoing renovations (still ok for the weekly shop, just not such a full on one the first weekend). $300 and a full Trolley later I had gotten enough to stock my pantry and my weeks worth of groceries. I cooked my first meal in the house that night. Tasty++! Felt good to be able to do that.

During the week It was more setting up, more adjusting, parcels arriving, appliances arriving, waiting for my computer to arrive. And arrive it did… late 🙁

Saturday 30th June

Usual saturday morning routine but no run this time as it was raining, so I hit up the gym for a 6 mile stint on the exercise bike before 9am. I drove the truck down to the leasing office to pick up my new computer, all 5 boxes worth of stuff 😀 Yep thats right 5 boxes!!! Even the girls in the office were suprised and said “did you bring the truck down?” to which i answered “of course.” Loaded the truck with my new baby and dropped it off at the apartment before reloading it with other stuff and hitting the road. A Busy morning with stops again at Frys to return something that did not work and get a refund, to Macys to pick up a coffee machine that has gone on sale this weekend and figured “why the hell not!” Then it was off to my first photo assignment here in Seattle working for Airline reporter (but thats a blog post for later this week). From there it was onto Ikea for a 2nd round of Mal vs Ikea on his own. Thankfully this time I came out ahead o and ps… Ikea Frozen yoghurt 110 calories… yum!!!

I picked up the last of the big furniture stuff I needed to finish off my “office” and thankfully it all fit in the back of the truck. What I did not count on however was it bucketing down rain the minute I drive out of the undercover car park at Ikea after deciding not to cover the boxes. Rookie move. Pretty much my afternoon after this point was much the same as last weekend. Build build and build. But thankfully once I had done the Ikea builds, it was time to build the new PC. Something I had not done in quite some time. The apartment was full of rubbish by the end of it so a quick tidy down and off to the store to pick up a few things for dinner (btw Ben & Jerrys Oatmeal Cookie Ice cream == AWESOME). I spent the rest of the night getting the pc up and running to the basics, thankfully I had set all the back ups of programs etc before I left Australia so I knew that the minute I had the new pc, I could get it going. I had also christened the new PC that morning. In my usual tradition, I called her Dee. As in Dee signer, as in Dee Layed. So its appropriate I think.

Sunday 1st July.

Not to much in the way of apartment set up etc but I needed to get things working on the pc so I was up super early (couldnt sleep anyway) to make sure I had the stuff for the blog post ready to go asap in case it was going to run tomorrow. With nothing else done apart from that, I managed to get a lot of it pumped out. Hell it felt good to actually be sitting at my pc again. Did my weekly grocery shop along with picking up more stuff for the apartment I had forgotten about and managed to get it all done and now here I sit… in front of the pc, with a fully set up apartment and actually being able to relax… finally!

A few photos to keep you all happy.. more at the folder link at the end.

From Expat Life

From Expat Life

From Expat Life

From Expat Life

From Expat Life

Expat Life