Moving is Messy

What a weekend! We got a lot of things accomplished, but it looks like a hurricane blew through our place. It was also not a weekend for healthy eating, as you will soon see. Right now, I feel very YUCKY.

Out of all of the things I did over the weekend, I think the best part was discovering new editing features on my Picasa (the program I use to upload and edit photos). Do you like my work of art? I don't care if you don't, because I sure do!

Backtracking to Friday morning,  the Parade-the main road two blocks from our apartment-had barricades all over the roads. I took this photo as I was walking to my bus at 7:25 in the morning. They were getting ready for the Tour Down Under to pass through later on in the day. I sort of wish I had taken the day off....

We signed the lease for our new place during lunch (YAY!), and then we went by Le Cornu to look at furniture after work. We already have a lot of things, but we need a dining room table, a new TV stand  and some other odds and ends. We tested out some of the couches and chairs for fun. I took an interest in this chair, because it looks like it's smiling! 

For dinner, we walked up the Parade to Pasta Go Go for a quick and cheap bite to eat. Since I will almost always order gnocchi when given the chance, I got that mixed with red sauce, veggies and parmesan cheese. 

It was still light around 8 pm. PLEASE stay like this forever!!! 

Saturday, we picked up a portable cooler/heater for our new place on the west side of town. Since we were right by IKEA, we whizzed through to take a look at what was around. Then, we passed by Bunnings-our favorite hardware store-for sausage. Let me explain. If you are familiar with sausage sizzles, you can certainly skip my description. Otherwise, read on!
Many furniture stores (and Bunnings) in Australia have 'sausage sizzles' during the day. Organizations often do them to raise money for charity, sports teams, etc. On Saturday, the sizzle was done by the Adelaide Vikings Football Club. They brought the food and cooked it, and they collected most of the money at the end of the day. 

I've been hooked on sausage sizzles ever since I moved here. We used to get them almost every weekend, but I swear it's been over a year since my last one! They're the same everywhere you go: a grilled sausage on the barbie (BBQ) place in white bread. This, my friends, is the only time you will ever witness me eating white bread without protest. 
I always get tomato sauce (ketchup) and grilled onions as well. I won't have it any other way. 

Another thing you see a lot of in Australia is lemon lime & bitters. If you go to a pub with a bunch of girls and they don't get alcohol, chances are that they'll get this. I've never had it before, but we had a bottle sitting in our fridge. It tasted like pink ginger ale. Not bad. 

Al also took some things apart today. We've slowly been moving things out of our place and into his parents' house. Today, Al dismantled the bed frame. Now, all we have is a mattress!

Here is our bed frame now.

This is our hurricane-logged bedroom! If you think it's horrible to look at, try imagining getting from the bed or desk to the bathroom. 

It looks like we threw a big party, doesn't it? I'm not sure why we'd  have an apple at a party like this, but you never know. 

So, here is what our next few weeks are going to look like:
Monday and Tuesday, we leisurely pack up our things.
Wednesday is a public holiday (Australia Day), and we will move everything out of our place and into his parents' house.
Thursday, we come back to our place after work and clean every surface until it sparkles. Then, we leave for good.
We stay at Penny and Jamie's until our lease for our new place begins on February 15th. 

That seems like a long time to stay with the parents, but I'm looking forward to it. We get around three rent-free weeks to save money. We'll probably save money on food, although I do intend to do my own shopping. We also get our own room and bathroom, so it will be just fine.

Three more sleeps in this little apartment...wow!

I hope you guys watched all of Oprah's Australian episodes! We'll have a second bedroom soon for visitors (since I know it makes all you non-Aussies want to come here!).