Howdy! So when we last left off, I was climbing the walls in excitement to move. I have since moved and in short, it has been nothing short of...tumultuous! I discovered that there are two sides to moving - the practical side and the....emotional side. Now, the practical side was surprisingly fun for me! It would appear I quite enjoy calling movers, getting quotes, packing boxes and that sort of thing. After dreaming of moving up the hill for so long, I was not expecting to completely fall apart by the time I got here! I still can't put my finger on one specific thing that triggered the tears...rather, I think it was a bunch of things compounding from not having a bath anymore to getting completely lost on my first drive around the hood. Thank you to the taxi driver who told me I was driving into oncoming traffic! You don't realise how comforting your routines, habits and familiar places and faces are until you're so far-flung from them. So let's list them all, shall we!
Things I miss
Everything familiar from knowing where the bathroom switch is in the dark to the guys at my local Clicks who used to greet me as "Beep Beep!" because I was always setting the alarm off for some reason. (FYI, I am not a shoplifter.) I miss smiling hello to the guy that makes beaded animals outside my old Spar. I miss my local Woolies even though I always regarded the parking lot as the seventh circle of hell. I had to pop in there before a housewarming last night and I could have hugged everyone behind the counter! I miss my besties living nearby to me...I miss my short drive to work and I miss how neat and new everything was in my flat from the basin to the kitchen cupboards.
I was asking some guys in our new hood to direct me to a place that sells car wiper blades, and they were like, "Just go past the Portuguese restaurant, next to the Standard Bank" and I was like, "Where the hell is that?" I couldn't figure out where to order our garbage bags, I kept taking wrong turns and it took me half an hour to find the toilet paper at our new Spar. ALL OF THIS will naturally come in time but it's a little overwhelming at first. I suppose it didn't help that I had a haemorrhaged ear drum (long story) and was lacking about seventy hours of sleep.
This led to irrational breakdowns of epic proportions!
Somehow, not being able to find the garbage bags led to thoughts of commitment and "What happens next? Will I ever be able to have a child one day? How could I - I have no time or money to even buy a vacuum cleaner!" (Thankfully, Jon got us one!) Then I clicked on an animal-cruelty link on Facbeook which led to me watching every tragic video on the internet which led to me deciding on immediately becoming a vegan! I cried for all the animals. I cried for my old kitchen cupboards. And, I cried at the realisation that I am in fact, a crazy person.
Let me interject all this crazy with this: Jon, aka Tall One has been AMAZING! I never in a million years thought he would be interested in buying curtains and bed-base covers but he has taken to domestic life like a duck to water! He's gone out of his way to make our home feel homely, and he's endured several psychotic episodes from me. I cannot thank him enough for his patience, understanding and infinite kindness...thank you Tall One!
So we decided to do something positive
On Saturday, we figured some fun outings 'round our new hood would do me a world of good. First up was the Shongweni Market, followed by the Denny Mushroom Farm and a bit of dish-rack shopping! Now, this is what my dream weekends are made of. Instead of skipping through the aisles of home stores, I just felt waves of inexplicable sadness. We are living in one of the prettiest suburbs in KZN and here's me just, crying at every corner! Once we were home, Jon tucked me into bed with tea and sent me lots of helpful links about dealing with moving stress! Oh, it's also been flippen freezing every day.
Then, the sun came out!
This morning, we woke up and it was sunny for the first time in seven days! I'm not usually phased by sunny weather but today, I was ecstatic! We headed out for smoothies and at 10am, I exclaimed, "Hey, I haven't cried today!" Jon was like, "This is true! Are you sick?" Ha. After a drive around town to figure out what shops live where, we headed to the park to do a fun shoot with family. Then, we went for a walk around our hood (which is like something out of the Truman Show - the houses look like they are painted monthly and everyone has cute swing sets and about five Golden Retrievers), strung up some curtains and I felt normal for the first time in days.
My goal right now is to focus on the positives and be grateful for all the newness in my life like a garden and a ridiculously picturesque neighbourhood. I swear, it's like Pinterest central over here. Jon says I should knock on the doors and ask the owners if I can blog their homes! I'm sure that I'll settle down in time when things are a bit more familiar and we have a couch - and chairs - and a table to sit it at! Jon also said, "If you leave this place in a year, you are going to be crying because you miss the new Spar, and the gardener, and the trees..."
There is sooo much more I'd love to write but I better leave it at that. Here are some pics from our Saturday morning excursion before the waterworks kicked in! x
PS: That is not our place below! Just a random house I liked.
PPS: I realise there were a lot of South African references in here. Sorry, buds abroad!
PPS: I realise there were a lot of South African references in here. Sorry, buds abroad!
