Let the festivities commence!

I thought this past week would never end. Packing up and moving all your belongings is truly heinous (good word!). This is move number ..hmm *counts fingers* .. six for me in the last 10years. It doesnt get any better. I know plenty of people whove done it more than that though. Kirsty at works probably done that many in the last 9months!, perhaps not with quite as much stuff.

First theres the packing of boxes, phase one is staring at your place thinking where the hell do i start, phase 2 after you have done that first box and broken the phychological barrier is not too bad, actually it can be fun - getting systematic and having the opportunity to chuck alot of stuff. Feels a bit like spring cleaning. The last phase seems to go on for days though - the one where you thought youd packed almost everything but the place is an absolute tip with bits and pieces everywhere that never seem to end. You end up just chucking things at random into boxes at 3 am on the night before the removalist is due.

Then theres the actual move, - no matter how little stuff you think you have, this always seems to take at least 5 or 6 hours all of which you are paying for, sometimes ive paid people do most of the actual moving stuff. The only thing with that is although you dont do so much of the backbreaking stuff, you end up doing about 10 car loads on your own with smaller stuff thinking you'll save hours, only to find it takes just as long in the long run anyay. This time I was moving into storage and they supply a driver and a van, your supposed to do the moving stuff your self - thank goodness i also booked a labourer to help as well as a friend or we never would have made it. Somehow I always end up living somewhere that is a bugger to get in an out of. This particular place had a nazi body corporate who disctate how you get in and out and when. I think they chose the worst way on purpose, its not fun hauling a wardrobe the entire length of a car park and up a 45degree slope! Luckily the other end of things being purpose built was much quicker, there were a few hairy moments wondering if my Tutankhamuns tomb of stuff was going to squeeze in, all packed up to the ceiling but we made it in the end.

Next comes cleaing your old apartment to withing an inch of its life, so that you can get your bond money back. A particulary soul destroying task as by this stage you are invariably exhausted and scrubbing away at a place making it cleaner than it ever was when you lived there is like the last straw before collapsing in a worrysome heap somewhere. This time i opted to pay some people - possibly straight of a boat with questionable residency status to do the job for me, it still took them 5hours. Meanwhile my jobs were not completely over as i took down remaining bags of rubbish and things i couldnt get away with leaving there.

No wonder they say moving is on that list of most stressful things you can do. I still had to pack for the big trip, luckily not so bad once i'd narrowed it down a bit. I actually found my self culling T shirts in order of how much they weighed, i couldnt decide other wise! I think my scales were faulty though, i thought id got down to 16KG but turns out was 21 K at the airport this morning,

So here i am in my apartment in Buenos aires, and once ive recvered from the flying and settled in a bit I might start to enjoy myself!. The flight was fine, I always enjoy flying, I like being no where, with nothing to worry about and no one to bother you. Movies to watch, cocooned and fed.

Minor panic on arrival here as i had to call the apartment people which was proving problematical, not quite sure what i would have done if it were not for a last minute interational sim card purchase at the lonely planet shop at the airport in Sydney, and also for a nice taxi driver who hung about at the apartment trying to work out which buttons to press.

So here i am though .. the ''Cher'' apartment. (yes thats right folks). Apart from having no source of natural light in that typicaly latin way of building apartments around a dingy shaft with no window to the street, its very swanky and designer. I shall have to post fotos.

Well.. update over for now..