A Day of Firsts

Well today has officially been a day of firsts for us here in Aus. It’s now September and to the Aussies that means Spring (think Easter Bank Holiday fever). Thankfully the weather got the “Spring is Here” memo as it’s doing us proud. The sky is cloudless blue and the sun is mega bright, so my sunnies have been pretty much permanently stuck to my face – even indoors. Seriously people, I’m struggling to function without them.

The day of firsts started at 8.15am, when Mr S. had his first ride in a real life bona fide Aussie Ute. I say bona fide, because it had a rather large crowbar in the passenger footwell. I didn’t ask. Less than twenty minutes later the Ute Fun Ride was over and we were the proud owners of our first Aussie ebay purchase, a lovely dresser for the bedroom. Well, it will be for the bedroom when I refurbish it into shabby chic heaven. In the meantime, it’s taken pride of place in our living room and is looking rather fetching behind our borrowed sofa, but at least it fills the room out a bit. To use the word sparse to describe our apartment right now would be an understatement.

The Gripper

The second first came in the form of my spring cleaning. When we moved, in the apartment came complete with a couple of breeding pigeons who insisted on cuddling right in front of me on the balcony, and their nest which was tucked away in the far corner of the wrap around balcony outside our bedroom window. The nest was in a bit of a state and the contents of the two eggs had been and gone, probably got sick of the old paint tins which were next to them. So the entire length and width of the balcony is pigeon nest free, has no more cobwebs and beautifully clean decking. If I rudely awoke one spider, I woke up twenty. Some of them were HUGE! Now I will just qualify this when I say that I am not normally bothered at all by creepy crawlies or flying creatures of any kind, however… I was quietly emptying out the bucket when I felt something gripping my thumb. I looked down and saw what I can only describe as a leg - because that’s what it was. Much shrieking, jumping and flicking of my hand later, my thumb was freed and the leg, along with its owner, was nowhere to be found. Maybe it wasn’t a leg after all, I thought. Until I saw it mountaineering up my very special tea cosy (yes, yes, I have a tea cosy, but it’s very trendy I’ll have you know). Anyway, Mr S. dutifully took a picture as my heart was beating so much it was causing the camera shake. If you are an expert in indigenous flying insects of Australia, please identify the said creature and confirm if it is at all venomous (it's approx. 2cm long from head to tail). As my thumb is still the same size as it was before the gripping incident, I would suspect not, but when something has red and black iridescent stripes under its wings you can never be too careful. So after all of this excitement, I decided not to clean the windows and made a plan to look for a suitable subcontractor. Hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day and I wouldn’t want to put anyone out of a job. Plus, there was by now, tea to be drunk.

The third first was my new Flexicar membership which passed user testing today. If you’re reading this and you live in a city and often think it would occasionally be handy to have use of a car, I would strongly recommend looking for a car share scheme. It was easier than an easy thing on an easy day and Lewis (our lovely navy blue Toyota Corolla) was a cracking little drive. We even managed to squeeze into it our new balcony furniture which we’ve just purchased in Bunnings (another first, our trip to Bunnings). The prize of the day goes to the clever people at Bunnings who thought it would be a good idea to offer van hire direct from the Bunnings store, so you can take your oversized items home with you immediately, then bring the van back and drive off in nippy little car. Those clever Aussies have thought of everything.

So, after a very exciting and most productive day, I’m now typing this from the comfort of my new bar stool and table combo, on my very clean spider, pigeon and gripper free balcony, in the late afternoon sunshine. Sunglasses and tea are of course obligatory.