Today was boxing day. So, basically, there were a lot of boxes and we filled them up. There was also the beautiful Italian tea trolley to disassemble and pack carefully for its return trip to the northern hemisphere. I also bubble wrapped and packed the fugly tea set that Mirinda insisted we take as well. Sadly, it survived the procedure.
At one point, Simon the Realo paid us a visit while a chap from the Men’s Shed inspected then happily took away a pew that had been loitering in the back of the shed for years. As well as packing, I also had to organise a ‘kerbside cleanup’ only to discover that there’s a purely coincidental planned one this weekend. We need to get rid of a load of plastic chairs and the council is happy to take them.
There was a steadily growing stack of boxes against the leather lounge room walls until Mirinda announced that a carpet cleaner was coming tomorrow. I set to and moved all the boxes into the non carpeted study.
Finally, I was able to sit down with a very welcome beer and stare pointlessly out of one of the uncurtained windows. There’s a lot of uncurtained windows these days. It’s what the house stylist requested. Outside the bedrooms, I’ve started closing the shutters to ensure that Mirinda and Fi are not woken up by the sunrise each morning.
It was then time to visit Gail and Geoff for one last roast. They’d invited us over (they live across the paddock) last week and we’d chosen tonight.
As odd as it sounds, we drove next door. Given the length of the driveways, it’s almost a kilometre plus, of course, Mirinda’s back meant she couldn’t comfortably duck under the fences for the much shorter walking route. It was a shame because I was looking forward to staggering across afterwards.
And we had a lovely, raucous night with some delicious roast beef, far too much wine, which was full of affectionate chat about both Bob and Claire. It was exactly what Mirinda and Fi needed. The whole house clearance has not been easy for either of them and tonight was a glorious celebration.
The selfie above was the result of about 40 tries before getting one that was deemed reasonable. This is the one. There is one with Fi wearing a pumpkin on her head but I wasn’t allowed to include that one. Maybe I can sneak it in tomorrow.
The title comes from Gail’s question when we arrived. I had the option of red or white wine either in a stemmed or flat bottomed glass.
