Gap-alicious!

Yesterday, Poppet and I worshipped at the shrine that is Gap. Of course, Gap has arrived in Australia now, but the prices are a little *ahem*...

In North America, Gap is very reasonably priced and the quality is hard to match IMO. Poppet will no longer be wearing a school uniform every day, which means a constant stream of fashionista-type mornings ahead of us. So we have stocked up on some gear for Fall. 

This is what her pile looked like...

And then there was my pile...

The jacket was only $100! Should be great mid-season wearing. It's still fairly warm here, around 20 degrees, but that cold snap is on it's way. For sure. Can't wait!

I think it's fair to say that Poppet's favourite part of the shopping 'excursion' was the chocolate muffin...

 

 On a more serious note, it hasn't all been shopping and sunshine this week. While we managed to secure a cute little apartment in a great area, we also had to tackle buying a used car. Big vomit! 

Husband said he found the best approach was to pretend you were in a movie. Salesman says there's just no way he can drop the price, you threaten to walk, he says "hang on, I'll just talk to the manager" then returns and says he can squeeze a little off but not what you've asked for, you threaten to walk, he disappears again then returns with another tiny drop in price, you threaten to walk.....AAARRGGHH!!

Even once the price is agreed upon there's about a 13% addition to the price in taxes and fees, so it's never the price on the label. Still, it's done now and we've bought a zippy Nissan Versa. Bright red which should make is easy to find in the car park. Once you buy the car and pay the deposit, you have to tootle off to the bank for a certified cheque for the balance. We did a series of transfers into our Canadian account from Oz (glad we kept that account open!) to cover the cost of the car but it's always hard to watch that bank account dwindle. And we haven't furnished the apartment yet!

This week we also had to renew the hire car. Nightmare!!! The GPS does NOT work at the airport, there are too many tall buildings and car parks and overpasses and underpasses and 'she' just gets lost. And so did we. Probably, we did about 6 laps of the same crazy route before figuring out that we needed to try 'Terminal 3' and suddenly there were signs indicating car rentals were up ahead. *insert massive adrenaline rush and plenty of snapping at each other to the mix* It's just a nasty nasty feeling when the GPS crashes. We joke that we'll end up in Niagara, but it's very stressful at the time. Still, we got there and survived another mini freak out.

The week ahead involves many boring purchases such as kettles, toasters, coffee machines, beds, couches, cutlery, plates. Lucky Poppet gets to come with me to get it all. Groan.

On Friday we can register her at school to start the following Monday. And Saturday we get the keys to the apartment. It's pretty fiddly trying to get delivery organized for one day but I'm sure it will all fall into place.

No doubt after a little more adrenaline gets used up.

Interestingly, I haven't had much alcohol since we landed, maybe soon I'll get to the liquor store and try to figure out that whole thing. For now I think my list is long enough...

J.