Sorry for the shortage of posts recently - a combination of a bad cold, and something I will reveal to you on Friday...
Whenever I am struck down by a cold, I have a desire to sort out.
Boxes, cupboards, drawers, you name it: I have a sore throat and feel as though my head is stuffed with tissue paper - I need to sort.
Boxes, cupboards, drawers, you name it: I have a sore throat and feel as though my head is stuffed with tissue paper - I need to sort.
We don't have all that much clutter (moving always helps with that, especially when you are paying per cubic metre...), and we had been briefly through the files, but that had been a last-minute token sort. Papers which needed some thinking as to what to do with had been swiftly returned to the file; as had scraps destined for the bin.
I had been meaning to sort some files for a while. T had put them in the sitting room as I seemed to be 'forgetting' to do them when they were in the office. We then had to clean the sitting room for the landlord to visit, so they were moved back to the office.
It was a very nostalgic hour as I was transported back to Germany, Spain, and Montreal. Snippets of memories bought back to life in full colour on the sight of an invoice or business card.
The receipts from furniture bought when we first arrived in the Canadian city: the sofa receipt - bought before we really understood Sales Tax, and that it wasn't included on the ticket price. When it came to paying we very much understood - as 15% of a price of a new sofa is quite noticeable!
Paper receipts for Medicare, as an interim solution whilst waiting for the proper cards to arrive in the post. We drove quite a bit out of town to register for Medicare. It took a whole morning. It wasn't until I was helping others register that I realized there was one a ten-minute bus ride away in the city centre.
The receipts from furniture bought when we first arrived in the Canadian city: the sofa receipt - bought before we really understood Sales Tax, and that it wasn't included on the ticket price. When it came to paying we very much understood - as 15% of a price of a new sofa is quite noticeable!
Paper receipts for Medicare, as an interim solution whilst waiting for the proper cards to arrive in the post. We drove quite a bit out of town to register for Medicare. It took a whole morning. It wasn't until I was helping others register that I realized there was one a ten-minute bus ride away in the city centre.
Our little - big - car - truck. All that performance we had with our first car, and having to basically swap it for one that was...beige. I soon grew to love that beige car - although I don't know if I will ever be fully converted to the colour...
Papers from Sevilla - mostly to do with the annoying mobile phone company that would not accept we had moved and demand money. When we paid up, thinking we had settled the account, they would always ask for more. For two years.
We learnt to always check when entering into a phone contract there is a quick and easy escape plan. Whatever the language - this needs to be clear. Also, if they say you can get out, do not simply believe them, it is not always the case.
We learnt to always check when entering into a phone contract there is a quick and easy escape plan. Whatever the language - this needs to be clear. Also, if they say you can get out, do not simply believe them, it is not always the case.
Seville oranges really only lend themselves to marmalade. So many streets were lined with orange trees, I thought it a waste not to use them and connected a marmalade-style pie, but without the huge amount of sugar.
It was not good at all.
It was not good at all.
A little bit of German in the form of an old gym contract. Many fond memories of the Friday evening Bodypump class, travelling home from it on the trams and usually stoping off at the grocery store on the corner where we had to change trams, in November and December buying huge lebkuchen and devouring them later on with a glass of red wine or whiskey. They gym class clearly cancelled such treats out.
Thinking how cold it was outside - I mean, it was sometimes -5 degrees! And when it got down to -15 degrees one week, thoughts entered our heads why anyone would want to live somewhere that cold...
Thinking how cold it was outside - I mean, it was sometimes -5 degrees! And when it got down to -15 degrees one week, thoughts entered our heads why anyone would want to live somewhere that cold...
Police check certificates from all the countries we lived in - before Montreal - for our Australian visa application. The fact we paid the Spanish police and they refunded the money, which we feared would mean no certificate, but a few days later they arrived in the post.
I stare at it all, covering the spare bed, and realize how much we have experienced and learnt over the past - pretty special - 7 years.