moving to High Level

oki my peeps,

a long awaited update, I assume...
I left you, wondering if I would have the keys in time and if the moving company would come. Well, they did. Everything went according to plan, in spite of it being plan B obviously.

After a couple of calls and a fair amount of driving around in taxis, I held the keys to the flat in my hand at exactly 9h23. At 10h the movers would be there. That's about as close as it can get, isn't it? But it's the end result that counts, so I headed to my flat with a big smile on my face. The guys from the moving company were in time, which only made me feel more elated. So I joined the guys, basking in the sun, waiting for the truck to arrive with my stuff. After a while, still no container, the leader off the pack received a call. He broke lose of the pack, headed my way, holding out a phone. Was he holding is head down? The leader of the pack, showing signs of defeat? The voice on the line confirmed my feelings, something was wrong. They forgot to pick up the container.
One doesn't need to know much about container shipping to understand that having the actual container in the place it needs to be (preferably on time) is the essence of the whole thing.

I left the guys waiting for the container whilst the moving company (not Maersk you cheeky reader) rectified their mistake to pick up my things at the apartment I was happily abandoning. I even squeezed in a nap I think. And then, surely enough, the container arrived at 13h00 sharp and the movers could start working their magic. Well, "magic" is a massive overstatement because it was a simple matter of dragging heavy boxes up 3 flights of stairs. But I was the elated one, remember, and I saw all these things coming out of the cartons just the way they were stuffed in there, in Mechelen, thousands of miles up north and several weeks ago. So it was magical to me.
You have to take the part "just the way they were stuffed in there" very litterally. These mover guys in Mechelen did not ask a lot of questions, they just executed. So if I said "everything on this shelf", everything on the shelf
was put in a box and shipped. That includes a bowl of half eaten hazel nuts, a cup with -now moulded- tea, receipts from supermarkets, an envelop with 100 EUR worth of meal vouchers (maaltijdcheques),...

So now I am a resident of the Mazoli building, on 129 High Level Road, appartment 15 in 8005 Green Point (virtually the same as Sea Point actually).
Although the movers unpacked a lot of things for me (including the ridiculous number of glasses I had with me), still not everything is unpacked. Mainly because I took an unfurnished apartment and need to buy a nice cupboard still. And a table and chairs, couches and maybe something else... good thing it's the shopping period.

Now the next big thing to get in place, and actually the crux of any type of free/social life, is a car! It looks like I will have one next week. And I will tell you much more about it then. And I will also tell you about how I claimed the title of Nonkel Wouter because a little baby girl was born this week.

Please check out the pictures I uploaded on the move here