House Hunting 2

Today we crammed ourselves into a suzuki swift. Wanted to see if we could do it. We can surprisingly - wonder if we can put a Thule box on top. We headed to New Farm market again - I told Cyp to take Ellis and Rowan to the fantastic playground, but just as I was putting my new favourite yoghurt in my bag (lemon curd - tastes like lemon pie - delicious) - I felt a tap and looked down and saw Ellis. He wanted to come to the market (I think cause of the free samples). Rowan was pouring sweat (it was 9 am - about 34 degrees, though our car said it was 37 outside and steamy - Aussie for muggy) so I told Cyp to take him into the Powerhouse arts centre and I'd try to be quick. Ellis is good at sticking like glue amongst the hordes (he'd eyed the lemonade stand and wanted to make sure I stopped on the way back to get Cyp). With most of my money gone, I went back to find Cyp. Barb - this is no trout lake market - $20 would not go far here. That said - I do buy most of my dinner meat here. Tonight we had fantastic lamb chops that I barbecued - very tender and juicy - they were from the meat truck at the market. $13 for 6 chops - not bad.

I powerwalked back to the car so we could get to the open house - squished shikabob back into the car and hopped in, programmed the GPS - ready to go.... traffic. It was horrendous. Really bad - and I think this is a typical Saturday. There is only one way out of New Farm it seems. Decided I couldn't live in New Farm. Although, we would like to live in New Farm so we don't have to drive as much, but if you do...

Made it to the open house with minutes to spare. I ran in - loved the house, so sent in Cyp to have a look. Unfortunately, it's kinda far from the Uni.

Decided to go to another open house closer to the Uni - stuck in more traffic. Again ran in with minutes to spare. Imagine bad 70's suburb. House was bleak, yet amazingly, there were quite a few groups of people there showing interest. Bizarre. Sent Cyp to have a look then called him on his mobile to come back - wanted to check out another house a few blocks away. Went - neighbourhood had bad feng shui and the agent didn't show up so I said - let's skidaddle.

We stopped for lunch and had fish and chips (what else - see picture above) and then went to a house in Chelmer, which is the posh area. The house for rent is right next door to a new house that was being auctioned at the same time (they sell by auction here). We wandered down to look at the auction house. http://www.myhome.com.au/buy/qld/brisbane-central/chelmer/house/p000zyeu/

Cyp wanted to stick around, but I wanted to look at the rental. The rental was nice - available now though and kinda remote. We spent about 10 minutes looking. When we came out, the auction for the other house was over - $3.5 million. Yikes. That's a quick way to spend money.

There was an enterprising lad that had set up a lemonade stand at the auction entrance. He suckered us in a few times. As we were driving away Ellis said "let's have that kind of picnic mommy." meaning I now have to help him establish his lemonade business. Apparently we will have to mix up some chocolate chip muffins to sell too.

We now had two hours to kill before seeing a house we had actually made an appointment to see. We were going to go home, but all that lemonade meant we had to find a toilet. We found one in a park and Ellis decided he wanted to play. I don't like to discourage these rare moments, so we got out. We stuck around for a while (no one else was about - it's too darn hot) so it was too late to go home. We drove around and Ellis decided it had been a bad day. "Why?" I asked. "no treats." "WHAT" He has a short memory - lemonade, fish and chips, lemonade, chocolate chip muffin but as he was falling asleep 10 minutes later (and 20 minutes before our next open house) I said "don't fall asleep or you won't get your treat." So I found myself buying ice cream at coles. It worked though - he didn't fall asleep. Afternoon naps are a disaster - especially when we are about to see a house.

I really liked parts of this next house and is a five minute walk to the Uni. However....

It is right on the bush - the main level is built on a cliff - so you walk straight through out to a fabulous deck overlooking jungle - and about a 50 drop. With a flimsy little railing (or it looked flimsy to me). No where for the kids to run around, so we nixed it. I could just imagine Ellis and Rowan wrestling on that porch in a couple of years and going right through or over. Sigh.

We drove home and I took Rowan for a swim to cool off. Even though our pool is cold (freezing by Tracey standards) he was still hot after I had immersed him for 15 minutes.

Tomorrow is our day off and we are going to the zoo.

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo, how about you you you, you can come too too too, we're going to the zoo zoo zoo.

and now I'm off to watch the Santa Clause III - sureal