A huge fortnight, part one

I just don't know where to start, there is so much to tell.
I will start with the words and add photos later.

• Last week at our house

This was a blur, it was a chaotic mix of wonderful time with family and friends and fiendish packing. I had a accident with cleaning products and have burnt the skin on my hands and arms. Something must of got into my gloves as I was in a cleaning frenzy. My hands are still red raw with these pox like lesions which burn, sting and itch simultaneously. It looks pretty gross. I learnt allot from the professional packers, its much quicker to pack if you don't think, sort or organise. They are so quick because EVERYTHING is picked up and chucked in a box. There was a few times that I was very tempted to ask the men to pack up the kids for a nice LONG cruise with our container....LOL. Because of my hands I had to ask the cleaner to finish off the house (small silver lining!). I went back just as he was finished and it looked great, so big and fresh. I fell in love with my home all over again, I hope the tenants love it as well and look after it.

• Week with Rob

I packed a face mask and a hair treatment for our stay at Robs, thinking that it would be 9 days of relaxing on the deck and drinking champagne......It was a whirlwind of fun, mess and good times with lots of champagne. Rob was listing his house for sale, with an open house 4 hours after we left for the airport. He has installed the most glamours hard wood floors with a lovely gloss finish which could be scratched by toys and children....this was a huge stress for Rob and I. He has updated his web site with before and after shots, he has done a wonderful job. Rob is the CEO of a company that does whizz bang high tech computer stuff. He took me in for a laptop lesson with the owner of the company. I think that Rob had a moment of apprehension after I spent a lot of time with the couple that owns his company. Lola and I got on so well. Their two girls played so well with ours and Lola and I had huge chat sessions. We solved all of Robs problems. We have decided that he needs a new car, it is time to dump the baggage that his first wife dumped on him and move on etc etc. All of this was solved over coffee and wine. The girls were so sad to say good by with their new friends. I can see why Rob would be worried, his boss and closest friends ganging up on him! He must be slightly pleased that we are so many miles apart. I can now burn DVDs....I am so sick of the kids scratching expensive DVDs with in hours of buying them. Robs mate' Ken is seeing a lovely lady with two young girls who happens to be a trendy inner city hairdresser. Rob and Ken dragged me over for a make over....It is basically the same but a lot more edgier. I have had lots of new hidden streaks and am supposed to be channelling the "Victoria Beckham" look.

• The airport

We had the best surprise at the airport.. GJ's two sisters and all the family came to see us off. The kids were in heaven that their cousins came. We all had a lovely loud breakfast before it was time to bid a teary farewell. We had a new person at the check in counter and was confused that we were immigrating to Indonesia, so wouldn't let us check in our cabin baggage. We had 5 cabin bags (luckily on wheels), a pram, a handbag, a back pack, a laptop and three kids to get through immigration and down a narrow isle of the aircraft. I can really understand my blog Buddy's, Ace comment that we would of looked very scary to strangers. We were again fortunate to have exceptionally well behaved kids on the flight (constant supply of lollies and treats works well). We had a two hour stopover at Singapore before the last leg of the journey to Jakarta. By this time we had been on the go for 16 hours...
We got a little uncertain at the airport . We were in one of the many HUGE queues waiting to go through immigration, when a serious guard came up to us and said, "all of you come with me...." It turns out that he was opening a new counter and took us through because of the pram, we must of saved at least 30-40 minutes of queuing.
He got our heart racing again when he told GJ and the kids to go and wait in a corner while I dealt with immigrations. Luckily we weren't up for full body searches etc, he just wanted to make more room as we and all our luggage were taking up too much space. He was being very nice, but his harsh face and barking tone confused us at first. The company forgot to send two cars to the airport to collect us like last time, so the driver and porters had to creatively squeeze all our luggage plus two car seats into the car, then we had to get in. GJ and Georgia shared the front seat, Chelsea, Ben and I shared one seat in the back. We all had to hold the stuff to keep it in place. We finally got to the hotel after an hours drive to find that we did manage to get a non smoking room and that we had a renovated room, which was much nicer than our last visit. We have a three bedroom serviced apartment in a hotel with a few restaurants, gym, pool etc which is very nice.

• Jakarta

I have run out of time, I will have to continue later. We are loving it so far and really feel relaxed about the move. I can't wait to get it all down.