The Cone of Silence

Wow!  It's been a long while since I've posted any musings, as my mom so eloquently put it.  A week ago yesterday (has it really only been a week?) all of our worldly possessions were delivered to our humble flat in Kirribilli.  It's been interesting.  I remember well the comments that the packers made when they came over to our house in Ansonia to load everything into the container for a voyage around the world.  They warned me then that we would have trouble.  The Australian movers weren't very positive either.  And they were correct.  We just have way too much stuff.  In fact, the thing we have entirely too much of...  picture frames.  We have enough framed photos and artwork for about 4 flats.  LOL!  So now I'm taking most of the pictures we have out of the frames.  I need to find photo albums to store them in.  That's my current project.


We have donated some items to the Salvation Army (aka Salvos).  We have given some items away.  And, alas, we have thrown some items away.  Almost everything survived the trip.  Mr. Smith's rolling tool box was heavily damaged.  The moving company has agreed to reimburse us for the replacement cost.  He tried to get the same one from Sears shipped here.  The Sears website actually had a very large ad that popped up saying, "Now delivering to Australia!"  But when Mr. Smith put the item in the cart, they changed their mind.  Neither one of us understands it.  Why offer in the first place?  Was it the size of the item?  Who knows?


Oh!  Mr. Smith just got the tool box open.  We thought he might have to buy a crow bar (the one we have is in the tool box), but I guess that's one less thing we have to buy now.


So we're up to our eyeballs in STUFF.  It's a pretty crowded apartment, but I'm starting to get used to it.  We still have to hang up more pictures, but mostly we are done.  We found out while signing the lease for the apartment that we are not allowed to put nails in the walls.  What?  Who doesn't allow people to hang photos? So Mr. Smith decided to use those Command strips.  So far it's working.  We only had one ceramic fish leap to his death in the bathroom.  I'm thinking that perhaps it's due to the humidity in there?  Not sure, but we haven't given it another go in there yet.  I took the other fish down just in case he was depressed about losing his friend.


The problem with the Command strips is that they are required to stick to the back of your frames.  Well, a few of my frames are covered in velvet on the back, so we haven't figured that one out yet.