Filling the trailer

This is a photo of Ella with the 'small cuddly toy' that her grandparents (i.e. Terry) presented her with when she arrived in Wagga! To say that she was delighted is something of an understatement... Michael and I are just glad that we've now got a trailer for the car!

We haven't over-stretched ourselves on this visit, but this afternoon we went to 'Big W' in the central shopping mall and stocked up with 'essentials' for Coffs Harbour. This included an iron, a kettle, a toaster, three lightweight duvets, accompanying sheets and pillow cases, pillows, glassware, various kitchen implements... to add to the donation of cutlery, other kitchen tools and crockery coming from Joan and Terry.

We've had to re-think a few things since we've discovered we can't hire furniture in the way that we thought. The first change is that we've booked ourselves into Opel Resort, 7kms north of Coffs Harbour, for Thursday and Friday nights because we're not sure whether we'll have electricity and telephone connected by the time that we arrive. We also have the small issue of what we're going to sleep on! Michael has had a waterbed for the last decade, which he loves and I have hated ever since I first tried to sleep on it! It's not intrinsically uncomfortable, it's just that I can feel Michael moving every time he turns over in the night and it makes for an unsettling night for me... The big advantage of it has been that it's heated, but in Coffs Harbour I don't think this is going to be a problem! Anyway, Michael thought he'd found a solution in that he heard of a 'twin mattress' system so that we'd have one bed with two waterbed mattresses in it, and hopefully I'd get a more restful night's sleep, but we couldn't get one delivered within a sensible period of time. We went to a bed shop in Wagga and happened to get a salesman who seemed to know what he was talking about, and basically he told Michael that posturally speaking he'd be better off with a conventional mattress, but one specially designed for chiropractic problems. Michael tried one and - I think to his surprise - found it comfortable, so we've ordered a particular Slumberland mattress that will arrive in about 10 days' time.

Meanwhile we hope that we'll be able to pick up from the shops two standard single mattresses and one double mattress, to cope with our immediate requirements. We need a single mattress for the bedframe Dad gave us, that's currently in the sea container. Patrick's double bed is coming over in the container too, but he'll have to make do with a single mattress for the next few weeks until the container arrives. That single mattress and the double one Michael and I will be using will doubtless be very useful in the future given that all of my brother- and sisters-in-law have at least two children if not four, and they're all threatening to come and stay!

So that's some shopping and the beds sorted out. Michael's also managed to arrange electricity, phone and internet accounts that should all be available to us relatively quickly. We'll have to organise other furniture when we get up there. Terry's recommended the St Vincent de Paul shops as a source of cheap second-hand furniture, and there's no doubt he's found some absolute bargains there, of a type that would certainly suit us for a few weeks. This might be a better - and cheaper - alternative to buying cheap new furniture, and we can always give it back to the shop when we've finished with it!