Unpacking....little by little.

Well, it sounds nice to say that, but it really isnt little by little, lol. It is more like...how many boxes can we empty today without totally ruining ourselves!
I admit to being a slacker today. I spent a long time doing not much at all, and when I felt tired, I just stopped. Good thing too.
Waz, on the other hand has been a bit of a maniac. Shite! You should see what he has done downstairs in the basement! Very organized and I'm sure he can tell you exactly where everything is. Good thing too, because I have no idea! I try not to go down there!

The pink room still looks like a disaster area, but I did manage to empty about 5 cartons from this mess today. I was rather pissed to find some of my favorite glassware in absolute shards...one of which went into my thumb, of course. This box was dropped very hard from very high, I would imagine. Here's what is written on the box....

I have messaged the shippers and asked that they instruct their handlers to READ THE BOX INSTRUCTIONS! Where it says FRAGILE, it means FRAGILE! They have taken it under advisement, they say. We witnessed rough handling by two of the packers on the ground in Auckland and brought it to their attention and told the company rep handling our case also. What we dont like is that we didnt see our goods placed in the container. They were trucked to the company depot and then placed into the container. We didnt see the container filled, or put the seal on it. Not good, but they wouldn't have been able to get a 40ft container down the driveway at the storage facility. We wouldn't do that again, BUT, we are NOT moving house ever again! I promise!! I will walk out the door with suitcase in hand or in a cardboard box!

Everything was packaged really well...rather overkill, in fact, by us a long time ago. We stored everything just so in the locker, and what happened to this box is unforgivable....not to mention the loss of the glass bowls, one of which my dear sister gave me for my 21st birthday!

Moving right along....

We have been 'at it' for the last day and a half. We went out this morning, which was good for us, and gave us a much needed break away. We needed food too, so there was real incentive, lol.

Our quest first thing was to buy a trailer. We are getting a bit desperate, in fact. We know exactly what we want, but do you think we can find it? Blimey! Waz is a fantastic researcher, and found what we were looking for and on Promo...promotion/sale. This is the time of year for SALES!! 'Soldes' (Sale) signs are everywhere!
We turned up at the trailer place in Chateaubernard...we are liking this town more and more....and went outside where we had seen the trailer we wanted. It doesnt have the 'cage' on the top, which we want, but we were sure they had one somewhere.
Enter the business, wait a few minutes, apologize for the French language (mine) and manage to get across that we want to buy this trailer on promo. Do they have one? One moment....on the computer, and asks what size cage do we want?? 60cm, thanks. Well, we dont have one of those in stock, but La Rochelle store does. It will take a week to get it here....hmm...Well, we need it today. We can drive to La Rochelle to pick it up?? Oui. Peut etre...perhaps! Not today, I dont have the energy. BUT...instead of selling us the trailer that is clearly in the yard, and ordering the cage to be delivered, they leave it at that...no sale!!! WAAAAT??? Crikey, we are not in Kansas now, tonto!...hmm.:)
So we leave sans trailer (Remorque).
Being a lovely day, we were happy for the drive towards Cognac which is down out of the hills where we live, and onto the wide alluvial Charente River plain. Down there it is much hotter than where we live, and the crops are multiple and varied.
This is the view as we descended.
There are often no other cars or vehicles on the road in these parts, so I dont mind slowing right down, having checked my mirrors and the road ahead, and taking a photo of our whereabouts. If you look closely, on the left middle side, you can see a ribbon of yellow....

 Amidst the maize and cognac vines, are fields of sunflowers. Gosh, I just cannot keep a grin off my face, when I see them.

Absolutely gorgeous!

In fact...THE very first thing we hung on the wall today was this! Thank goodness it didnt break.
The sunflower is a NZ Morris and James (Matakana) sunflower. It is about 6 inches square. The actual colors are much richer than they appear here.

 I was ecstatic to unearth my NZ pie tins. Today at Auchan I bought enough minced steak (steak hache) to make some good kiwi pies. The rectangular pastry is ready rolled and waiting in the fridge. Maybe tomorrow I will have a pie baking day!! Unpacking be damned!

 The kitchen is a relatively orderly mess. I hate having to clear everything off the counters when we need to eat, but food is important, so I do it. That pile of boxes containers things I have no space for. This kitchen has very small storage, even with the new cupboards. Can you imagine what it was like before those?? Shocking!

 The pile of cardboard in the background has continued to grow and is now a mountain at our front door. Heres hoping it doesnt all blow away in the night. We enjoy a much needed break on the front terrace. It is a great place to watch the insects on the lavender and to chill out.

 It took Waz most of yesterday to put the wall unit together. The only reference he had for the parts, was a photo I took when our previous house was for sale. He did a fabulous job of solving the puzzle.

The green leather chairs are now on the bases, having found the necessary pieces, and the sofas unwrapped. They were a bit moldy still, so they got the anti-bacterial wipe treatment, in the hope that it wont come back. I will clean and condition them tomorrow with some proper leather cleaner.

Just as we came up the hill to turn into our road, we spied the combine cutting the small field of Barley opposite the intersection. I pulled over to get the photo, doing a little curb hopping in the process. We imagined that the drivers must get a bit pissed off with these small fields, having to drive that huge machine around it. Over in a flash!
We toddled off home, had some lunch...finished off the duck, which we had found rotisseried in  Carrefour supermarket, Angouleme, an absolute age ago...it is a wonder it hadn't quacked out of the fridge. We have enjoyed it's various parts over the past week. Good to have instant kind of food available when you are busy.

Dinner was quick too. Again, having instant kind of food in the fridge saves the day. Pasta with pesto and traffic light peppers (Red, yellow and green). The peppers are so sweet right now. At 1 euro a piece, we eat a lot of them. How nice to sit at our own dining table and eat our meals. Cool outside today, so we sat inside and enjoyed our own things in this space.

I was enthused to find the one items I had missed so much, in all of our travels, especially on the boat. I bought this 'chaise' just before we left NZ 6 yrs ago, and I enjoyed sitting in the late afternoon sun for a short while, enjoying the calm of evening.

  We always have lots of kiwiana around us, and these cushions have come around the world with us. You can take the folks out of NZ, but you cant take NZ out of them.
We love being kiwis, introduce ourselves as Kiwis, and today at Auchan, as I was signing up for a Carte Fidelite ,the ladies behind the counter did an impromptu  Haka! lol. They LOVE the NZ All Blacks Rugby team and LOVE the Haka, the war dance and challenge that the All Blacks issue to the opposing team. Gives me goose bumps every time I see it, too.

Well, the sun has gone down and now it is getting dark. At 10.30pm, it is now dark half an hour earlier. We are on the downhill slide to winter now, I guess.

My hands need some lotion after wringing out so many wiping cloths and cleaning mold off so many items. Books, bookcases, all wooden furniture, leather, almost everything. I have done more than a few loads of laundry, discovering that there is no easy way to get the smell of mold out of anything. You just have to give them the whole 59 minutes at hot temps to rid of that nasty smell.  I tried the quick wash, but it was a waste of time and resources.

Tomorrow is more of the same. Unpacking, trying to find places to put stuff, repacking the things we cant and dont want to accommodate, and storing them somewhere else. I need to go through the kitchen utensils, as I have 4/5 of everything. I havent unearthed the cutlery and plates yet, but that is more of the same. I will have to be a but ruthless, dont you think??

A bientot. We will sleep well!!