upgrading

tuesday 21st:

a long night of work that ended really badly; the night, not the work.

early argument, a little bit of sleep and a rush to the physio, a quick stop at knead, skipping DoHA, a short nap and lunch and getting some work done before heading out to the baxter theatre to see the first half of defending the caveman which gd enjoyed until a stiff neck forced us to go home early

wednesday 22nd:

my first real progress at work, some comic success, an insanely cold night and it all coming into mr smear's room leading to a solid freakout

a slow morning, a stinky car, DoHA and mr smear (not) pooping while we were in line

a ridiculous threat from our landlord generating immense rage and anxiety, DoHA giving us the run-around (and page turn-around), planning an evacuation, taking mr smear for a walk to the police station, starting to drive to the car rental place but turning around, a productive chat with the illustrator, bathing mr smear and a shopping run and getting him to bed and instant mashed potatoes and electricity usage panic and just trying to hold on to sanity before my first phone call with the big boss since i was interviewed

there's nothing like trying to think intelligent thoughts over a blocked nose

thursday 23rd:

a little investigation, going to bed a little less early than planned, getting up on time to take my mother to the hospital, struggling to stay awake all the way home, not feeling much better after a nap, general tension and feeling sick with stress over our apartment, the optometrist, picking up my mom and not entering my aunt's frozen house, cavendish square; the struggle to find the baby changing room (although it's not a bad one), three complicated lunchers and mr smear and his rusk and a dodgy bill, parking lot feeding before playing in the garden again, nervously sending the landlord the big "release me" email and arriving at the chiropractor slightly late only for him to not show, home time, fixing the improvised window seals, a visit from droo, money management and internet problems and a little bit of work

friday 24th:

but not a lot before crashing early

overall not a bad night between the temperature having risen a bit and the new seal appearing to make an enormous difference

the good news: being released from our contract! initiating the rush to find a new place; viewing apartments with my mom, a rushed shopping and an exhausted evening

saturday 25th:

seeing a great apartment but being concerned about the carpet
mr smear gearing up for his first steps
an incredible sunset run, really bad cardio and a pinching nerve
GoT

sunday 26th:

rushed coffee with a joburg cousin
vaccination: mediclinic is a great hospital, mr smear being woken with a jab in his arm and his shock turning to confusion as it faded to nothing more than a bad dream
the waterfront mission: almost no parking available and one asshole sitting on two bays, learning costs - a contract iphone is actually the cheapest option, and unless afrihost's offerings are better telkom's mobile instead of dsl is surprisingly reasonable - a big lunch to make up for gd sending hers back in disgust
the desperate nap after half my coffee spilled everywhere, missing an amazing sunset

a good dinner, some down time and some work done

monday 27th:

early up for a restless day looking at three great apartments, seeing the chiropractor, and being messed about by telkom as i wean myself off the primitivism of dsl and evolve to home lte

finally seeing awakenings - what a beautiful movie!

tuesday 28th:

mr smear unable to sleep horizontally, beginning to pack, the physio, the weasel caretaker on my doorstep with my post, gd's phone and packing crates part i, lunch and phone and packing crates part ii

the post office, porting gd's number and the amazingly great news - we've been offered our first choice apartment!

more struggling with telkom, eventually calling the third idiot to screw me around in two days. after trying a bunch of different things she informed me that nothing was working because the SIM card wasn't activated. losing my shit.

mom coming over to build boxes, moving her old dishwasher, finally letting go of doing websockets "the microsoft way" and getting excited about node.js running on IIS

wednesday 29th:

being utterly overwhelmed, fighting with telkom and me&you mobile over number porting (they're all assholes) but some good news in the form of our new interface setup finally working (just before i was off to take it back) and it's undoubtedly the best internet connection i've ever had

signing the new lease and paying the rent and deposit and turning down the other amazing offer, trying and failing to connect with the israeli embassy, being grateful for my mother's assistance with the movers, actually managing to nap a little (but not enough by far) and get through most of an episode of GoT while enjoying a delicious gd lunch, trying to get things done at the waterfront and failing abysmally

it turned out to be good that we didn't find what we wanted at the waterfront, a pretty good evening in spite of a difficult bath time experience that included work success, managing to reclaim more aeroplan points than expected

thursday 30th:

getting to bed early(-ish), quite a few wakings and weird dream in between

up early to a wet bed, too early for the telkom store, a couple of missions to my mom's, uninstalling wall panel heaters and removing hooks, mr smear decidedly unhappy about being confined to his playpen and then suddenly the movers were there (arriving early while i was out, obviously), the insane last-minute pack (third time in a row), a bit of a back and forth between buildings and being rescued by our cleaning lady and my mother: moving into a mall is a strange experience... plenty to be done before dinner, putting phoenix to sleep in his room and feeling like we're living in a really nice hotel, a great dinner and a great shower

the slight draft during a crazy storm

friday 1st:

slight draft becoming a serious chill and cause for concern, but a couple of hours later when the wind had died down the apartment was comfortable again

early up, a full day looking after an excited and adventurous little boy who's now practically walking, but very busy with all the things we don't want him playing with; the construction work above us beginning just after getting mr smear into nap mode and proceeding to get louder

fighting with me&you mobile until it was clarified that we needed to hit the waterfront to pick up a new sim card, a great falafel wrap, chocolatiers, discovering wazoogles, home for a couple of missions to print pages, mr smear's bath, getting ready for dinner

a nice dinner, but mr smear was hyperactive and i think it's because he pooped and we didn't find out until we got home - and if we had noticed, it was so cold in my aunt's house we would have really struggled to change him

saturday 2nd:

one degree outside and freezing in, mr smear waking every fifteen minutes so nobody was resting

a pleasant morning, at least the apartment heats up quickly. "it's not a pyramid scheme, it's a book exchange!" is a pyramid scheme i can get behind
picking up heaters from my mom, a framing / hardware store / furniture store mission, picking up my mother's gifted dishwasher and the discomfort of having a strange man kiss my son on the cheek (although the offense lessened a bit when we learned that he and his wife are having trouble conceiving and that she actually gave him a talking to afterwards), brothers-in-law installation, quickly showing off our flat, ordering dinner and some GoT and a lesson in facebook protocol

sunday 3rd:

heaters and duct tape FTW
rearranging the kitchen

a first step towards letting go of nixon, mr smear's pleasant sunday morning nap, buying golf balls, maul people jamming canal walk; a good lunch, home shopping and fleeing just after we both began wearing out. fighting over family values on the freeway home, a harsh winter sun straight into our living room, trying (and failing) some home improvement

monday 4th:

another restless night

our first anniversary morning: the next episode in the pork pill saga
the helpful / not so helpful israeli embassy agent
the cape town post office charges exclude parking and exercise
aliyah department archive fail
a long afternoon, mr smear's first soup and bread, mom's quick visit and gd's delicious dinner, a little work

tuesday 5th:

getting up for work at 4am, 6.30am success and being quite impressed by my experience debugging iisnode once i got over the visual studio quirks

short sleep, the doctor visit ("you're a closet pork piller"), resolution, quick shopping, damp metre, exhausted lunch and vegan lectures, vegan yoghurt in the rain (utopia's cashew nut yoghurt is TOTALLY worth it), big shopping and missing the pharmacy on our return, mr smear getting to bed late, a time tunnel vision revelation

wednesday 6th:

working from midnight, being amazed after learning about the juno spacecraft's successful arrival

wiped out at 3am, but making exciting progress
another tough night with an early wakeup... mr smear's 11 months old!

pram jam, a little dirtier than usual and we were disturbed by the kid whose hair and general hygiene are clearly being neglected
mr smear falling asleep in my arms on the way home, gd describing the older wealthy woman who spends lots of money on her hair and clothing but who won't wash her own hands and probably doesn't clean her genitals thoroughly

the acupuncturist: all good until the end, when he pissed me off by basing an ostensibly medical decision on his pendulum, just as he was suggesting that the FDA shut down bicarbonate as a cancer treatment because it was effective, not because it's dangerous

walking it off, five minute nap before mr smear was up again

a busy afternoon, getting into a work groove and becoming excited about what i'm doing for the first time in a while

thursday 7th:

an easier night from mr smear, compensating with weird work hours

a decent morning, our first dentist visit in ages, getting ripped off by the car guard, the failed couch delivery, a rushed evening (minus bathing mr smear) to prep for my first team meeting, passing out soon after

friday 8th:

for a surprise full night's sleep

the chiropractor, the physio (who's leaving the country soon, of course, now that we finally found someone who can actually help gd), arranging hoisting, a relaxing bath, getting a little work done, mom bringing dinner and mr smear not wanting to sleep, GoT

yesterday:

another full night! waking up by myself (pretty much)
a particularly irritating morning, a drive to game to buy cutlery, a failed furniture hunt and a walk on the promenade discussing baby names and getting my new credit card and ordering a new new one (the new one expires in a couple of months) and helping my mom set up her dishwasher and walking home through a(nother) stunning sunset and doing some shopping (again, a supermarket with bare shelves where our favourite products used to be) and bathing mr smear and getting a little work done (why are "servers" and "clients" the opposite when working with udp?) and GoT and falling asleep earlier than planned