Moving in and other random life stuff...

Sorry for the silence... Last week we had one little dude with the chicken pox . He was a bit unhappy for a couple of days, and then was a box of birds and more than pleased with himself for having a whole week off kindi. Each morning he would inform me that he wasn't going to kindi as his "spots were still working". 

He was definitely NOT impressed that he had to go back this week: "but my spots are still working!" . "Sorry dude, your spots haven't finished working and have gone home...." Big points for creativity though :)

I thought I would post some photos of where we live here.  As you know, finding this apartment was a huge headache, but a massive relief once we signed the dotted line. I can't remember if I mentioned but the normal rental agreement here is for a 3 or 9 year lease! and if you leave within the first 12 months, there is a 3 month forfeit, as well as a requirement to give 3 months notice. Not a very pleasant arrangement for us nomadic types :(. Needing to keep 6 months rent to pay out at the end is not something that I had counted on needing to do. Goodness, we barely can organise what we do a  month in advance, fancy having to know 3 months in advance that we will be moving!!! 

Anyhoo, here's our apartment: 

I had a LOT of reservations about living in an apartment with 4 kids. Particularly since, our holidays in hotel rooms and small serviced apartments had felt squishy and difficult. We were used to living in a large 4 bedroom house, with a yard, lots of toys and a whole cul de sac where the kids could roam and ride bikes at will. I did try and look for houses, but there is really nothing available in the areas that we wanted to live. I think it must be because the population here is very stable and/or a lot of house ownership as the commune does have a lot of houses, just noone wanting to rent them out. Finding a 4 bedroom apartment is bordering on lunacy, so we were really restricted to finding a 3 bedroom apartment and coping with a smaller living and sleeping space and no outdoor space. And as I mentioned before, this was the sole 3 bedroom available in this area. 

But, after 2 months of being here, it has not been terrible at all. The kids have settled into sharing rooms, and so far none of them has killed any of the others. The beautiful surrounds and the calm area as well as the very easy access to all sorts of public transport and shops has made it a perfect place to live. 

 Here is the place less than 20m from our apartment where we catch public transport- buses and trams. There is even a real cafe almost like what we are used to NZ/Aus.  Now that spring has arrived, the flowers and blossoms are coming out, and it looks spectacular. My iphone novice photos really don't do it justice.








This is the church directly opposite our apartment.
Another beautiful old building that adds to the ambiance of our quarter.

And this is the amazing Basilique church which is one of the largest from its era in the world. We have yet to explore this one but it is just up the road from the kids school, and is a landmark that can be seen from a great distance. 

So back to the moving in.... No huge dramas when we moved in except slight oddities that we just had to roll with. For example, it is only possible to move in on the 1st or 15th of the month. Don't ask me the reasons behind this? I guess we would have had to pay an extra two weeks in a hotel if we had missed the 1st of the month... thank goodness the timing was perfect.  There was the usual inefficiency in organising anything. I had to call the electricity company to arrange the reconnection - no electricity would be a disaster of course. I opted to visit the shop in person which was a very smart move. The real estate agency had given me the meter readings and assured me many times that this is all that I needed. I arrive at the shop, and hand over my meter readings and relevant details, but then apparently, there is another number that I need to provide too. I am given a number to call. So I hop next door to McDonalds for some caffeine for strength and make the call. I am informed by this company that they cannot give me the number I need as it is in the name of the previous tenant. Sigh... here we go again.... I call the real estate agency to find the name of the previous tenant. Oh actually Madame, we have the number you are asking for. @$FWUGMW@$* Oh the frustration... why oh why then did you not give it to me IN THE FIRST PLACE WHEN I ASKED LIKE A MILLION TIMES instead of me wasting a couple of hours of my time on a merry go round??!! What's new. Since the ID card saga and the car saga, nothing surprises me much these days :)!

There is a lot  more involved to moving in than what we are accustomed to.  We were very lucky that this apartment had an oven, fridge, stove and kitchen cabinets. Yes, this is not necessarily standard. Unfurnished in europe can mean none of these, just a shell of a building. As it was, we had no light fittings (bare live wires dangling from the ceiling) or curtains, although they had left the curtain rails.  The moving in day was a Saturday which was spent frantically shopping at IKEA to get some bare essentials and enlisting the help of friends to bring over mattresses and bedding.  When we get to the apartment at 5pm, it is a bit of a race against the sun setting to get at least some lights fitted.  Spending the evening without lights was not going to be a pleasant task with 4 kids! Another European oddity, is that the shops are all closed on Sundays. Which is lovely and nice in principle, but terrible in practice. Whatever we hadn't managed to buy on the Saturday, was now going to have to wait until the next weekend. 

So we survived the week with 2 lights and no curtains, camping on mattresses on the floor. We got excellent news too that our furniture would arrive 10 days after we moved in instead of the 3 weeks they had estimated.  The next hurdle was how on earth to get our furniture inside the apartment?!!! Although we are only on the first floor, there is actually no street access to our entry lobby nor to the balcony. There is a small lift that holds a handful of people and windy steep stairs. The moving company had not considered how they would actually get the furniture inside. This caused a few days of extreme stress as we imagined having our belongings stranded outside.  (The company did actually suggest that they hire a ladder lift from the UK for the princely sum of 1000 pounds - um NO THANKS!).  I visited the apartment manager who incidentally lives just down the hill and as it turns out, I can see directly into his office window, for advice. Yes, he says. This is a big problem. And that was that.  But he made a lot of sympathetic noises and was a very nice man so I don't begrudge him for not having any solution. 

After many many hours of research and google translate, I finally found some possible options for us.  As per usual Ponky style, we are a little more difficult than the norm, we love a challenge apparently. You see, moving into apartments is fairly standard for a city full of apartments. This is how it is usually done: 

A truck parks in front, mounts a ladder and the furniture goes in over the balcony. Our problem was that there is no access for any vehicle below our balcony, it actually overlooks a lovely garden/grass area, which is all very scenic and nice, but not all that useful for moving furniture. In addition, access to the path and grass area is through a 90cm wide gate.  In the end I found a company (the day before the furniture was to arrive) that used portable ladder lifts (minus the truck below) and that is how it was done. All very easy and straight forward for a quarter of the price that the moving company quoted us. 

And that is probably the end of the main dramas... We are now fairly sorted, although stuff is still in boxes and curtains are only rudimentary still. We may have unpacked completely by the time we have to give our 3 months notice ;). 

Speaking of ladder lifts - this sight greeted me one evening when we were living in Ixelles. Both sides of this very busy street had been blocked off, three buses were queued up at a standstill and we were told to get off the bus. When you live at the top of an apartment building and cannot get out, this is what happens- a fire engine, several ambulances and police cars to try and take someone out of their apartment on a stretcher.  The things you don't think about when moving into an apartment....

And just a few random pics: This is what happens when we take

 the kids to Haagen Daz

And that dear friends, is all for today.... dinner making is calling and there are unpleasant noises in the background that I must attend to. (Note to self- do not try and write a blog post while the kids are home, hungry and tired...)