2 Weeks and 4 days in Poland, and I owe you all a post!

So we left Dubai, flew on some airplanes and arrived in Poland. With a gazillion suitcases and 2 rental cars we made our way to our new house.

Now let me tell you, the thought of moving to a new place and arriving at an empty house – a clean slate – and getting to buy everything new might seem like every woman’s dream, or at least mine. The reality is somewhat different. Not so much a dream at all actually, more like a nightmare. We arrived, the drive had taken longer then anticipated, kids were tired and cranky, me and hubby were tired and cranky after night flights with no sleep. The house which was meant to be clean was not clean (to my standard) in the slightest. All we wanted was a coffee, a shower, and to sit. All we had, was empty and dirt.

The plan we had was pretty much out the window immediately. Hubby went to IKEA and got us 2 mattresses while me and little miss laid down on top of all the coats and slept. Big brother played with his lego (don’t ask where he gets all his energy from!). When hubby came back he took care of everything bless him, I had to take a migraine pill because the tiredness and stress together with the paint fumes in the house had made me vomit.

In the morning we had petrol station coffee and milk and snacks from our hand luggage. We unpacked a few things (on to the floor) and hit the shops. It wasn’t this wonderful shopping experience at all. It was more like something out of a TV gameshow, you know the ones, ‘find everything on a list in 3 minutes or loose’ type thing. Finding everything fast may have been easier if descriptions were in English, but obviously this is not the case. Enough time has passed now that I can smile about it. Not laugh, not yet!

We got a vacuum cleaner and minney mouse single use plates and planes cups. We got coffee and sugar (!!), some cereal, and plastic cutlery. Cleaning products to satisfy my obsessive need to always keep everything super clean (a need that is already sort of not so important now that I don’t have a maid! Either that or Im just choosing not to see the dust).

Then there was the IKEA speed shopping, pretty much the same thing. Half way through hubby says ‘in half an hour we have to be at XXX, so you best hurry’. Hardly the blissful shopping experience I had imagined. Pretty much every shopping experience during the first week was like that. We had to register me in a million places (ok, fine, 2, but it seemed a lot at the time).

Even buying a car was the same thing. With 2 days left of hubbies time with us we drove 2 hours to see the car we wanted…. the car, obviously, had some kind of engine failure during the test drive. Back we came to the house, car less, with an awful lot of cash in my handbag knowing we had to find a car NOW. We found one, took it without a test drive ,with warranty from the dealer in our defence. The Dealer must think we are crazy, we pretty much walked in, looked at two cars, pointed at one, ‘That one’, ‘Where do we sign’ and walked out, lol.

When hubby left all the maddest craziest stuff was done and I got to go to Ikea and buy some candles and other bits. That was the ‘a woman’s touch’ thing people are always talking about, that was the buying I enjoyed. Who knew 4 candles and a vase could mean so much?

Spare grandparents came and helped us put together furniture, helped make our house a home, then kids started school, the dogs arrived safe and sound from Dubai, the week flew by, I was able to get lots done while the kids were in school. So here we are, its Sunday. We have been in Poland for 2 weeks and 4 days. Yesterday was the first time we did stuff just for us. We took a walk and did some driving in our area to explore. We saw cabbage fields being harvested and some amazing nature. Came back to a rich chicken casserole.

In all our speed shopping  something that has stood out to us every where we have been, is the colours! Something as simple as the street outside the bank looks pretty when its all orange and red and yellow!

I have obviously been to almost every food shop in our end of town by now, but I think this will need to be a separate post!

-Linda