My Year of Meaningful (2011)

Every time I write a post, I don't know if it will be the last one or not, for however long. Each time we seem to hit the packing trail, something else gets thrown into the boxes that won't be making another appearance until the end of the road on the other side. Who knows when my trusty laptop will be one of those things! And time on the 'net just seems to be so precious and few and far between these days.

IT'S JUST TOO DAMN BUSY AROUND HERE DAMMIT

I have a lot of things on my mind these days so chances are, I won't get them all written down. But I wanted to try, this morning, this freaking cold december morning, the beginning of my last week in Ireland.

Where to begin?

How about the part where our house sale contracts fell through less than 10 days before we're scheduled to leave? Typical. It was a developer we were dealing with, and we all know developers are full of shit and not to be trusted. Lying, cheating, F***ing scumbags. I won't even start to describe the 3 months worth of lies this coward spun out of his mouth, because it's not even an issue anymore. But the end result is that we have 10 days left and the house ain't sold. Right, so. The very next day became a very typical "shit or get off the bucket" day. We're very good at these kind of things. Making snap decisions made at the drop of a hat that have the potential to be life-changing, is what I was put on this earth to do. Got the only property manager in town over to the house, walked him through it, got his thoughts, signed contracts to have him look after it and rent it out for us for the next 13 months. Now we aren't able to cut all our ties to this country when we walk out the door, which is what we always wanted to be able to do, but who knows. I think it's fate. At least it'll be an income for us (in euros) over the next year. The property value will only go up. Plus we didn't have an investment strategy for that house sale money anyway. So it's fate. That's the end of that story.

Then I suppose there was dropping the puppies off (see "The BIG MOVE" blog for more). The whole thing worked like a charm. No hiccups, and they're now safe and sound in their temporary digs in Johannesburg. Dropped them in Dublin airport (Lufthansa cargo) on wednesday, said our goodbyes, and went out to dinner at Saba, a new swanky vietnamese restaurant in the city. The city was so charming that night, warm temps and christmas shoppers and atmosphere and lights and. . . ahhhhh. It was good medicine for a stressed out soul who hadn't even realized it was christmas time yet. We had a nice romantic evening wandering the streets and eating dreamy food.

Next up was oh god I dont know, my last physio appointment and massage with Tim? That was divine. The knee is still not sports-worthy yet, but the fact that we'll have a pool when we get to BW means I will be taking up swimming whether I like it or not. Plus there is a gym membership in my future so I'm just going to start doing low-impact stuff regardless. It's just the way it is. Man I cant believe massage was never part of my life til Tim. I really need to make that a change in my future.

Thank god for the mp3 challenge and good friends who deliver your favorite christmas songs straight to your internet door for you, in times of need. Otherwise I honestly wouldn't have known what month it was. honestly. Thanks CSK you are my savior santa for the year and I love the shit out of you.

I guess my christmas lunch with favorite subcontractors yesterday would be next. These guys love me because I was the first person in Cork to give them a chance with the fledgling business they set up 2 years ago. Then with our company on board, they were able to get up and running and they've been flying ever since, since we're in their portfolio. So they took me out to a swanky lunch to say thanks and get me drunk. My favorite pub afterwards for beers and the Mr. joined us later for the end to a perfect afternoon. The fact that they're hilarious, like-minded, cute boys didn't hurt the experience. And the fact I took a half day off work. I'm gonna miss those guys. I'm also gonna try and throw them a bone from the new company in BW. Because they pretty much rock.

House in Gabz-city? Check!! We found it a few weeks ago, kept our fingers crossed, and it looks like it's gonna work out. But why wouldn't it? Everything else has worked out great, with the one exception of the house sale. To which AGAIN I say: Everything happens for a reason. So we don't even think about it anymore.

Today the best husband I ever had (hehhehe) woke me up with what'll probably be my last latte from Costa that he snuck out and got me, turned on the xmas music channel for me to listen to while he went off and got his last haircut from Donna (the best haircutter ever!) and left me here with about 25 minutes to write this blog and check email before the packing fiesta starts again. The fact that we haven't even started the downstairs yet freaks me out, but there's nothing more I can do about it than keep plugging away. It's not so bad, it's just tedious. And takes time away from stuff that I really need to do before we leave. A good start to a day though, so I'm gonna make the most of it. Here goes...