Interior Design 101 - The bed

According to various sources, interior design experts suggest that you decorate one room at a time, buy only things that you really love, develop a personal style and page through magazines collecting clippings of ideas you would like to re-create.

That's all good and well if you have two years, an infinite budget and easily accessible transport but this approach wasn't going to work for us. We had nothing and we needed a more basic plan. Step One: list the priorities - easy ... Bed! TV! Couch! Step Two: find bed, TV and couch - okay... Step Three: get them to the apartment - here's where it gets a little tricky.

We decided that the bed would be our biggest expense. We were not interested in a pre-owned option that most students pick up from garage sales... eeeuuuwww!!!!
We visited Mattress World (one only needs to take 2 buses to get there from our apartment). It was a blast lying on every bed we could find, testing for firmness, comfort and poofy-ness (under the ever-watchful eyes of the salesman). We even tried out all the beds that were seriously out of our budget just for fun. Who pays R 20 000 for a bed????????

We needed to choose the right size, in SA there are 5 sizes: Single, Three-Quarter, Double, Queen, King. In America there are only 4 sizes (they don't even bother with the small single bed): the Twin, the Full (this is a double bed but they don't want to offend the 'larger individual' who needs this size so they just call it a 'full' bed) and then Queen and King.
We decided that we wanted one of the mattresses with the extra comfort layer in a Queen size from a shop that delivered and we needed it soon - the blow-up camping mattress was not quite cutting it.


We found it ... the Simmons 'Beauty Sleep' Carmel EuroTop Queen mattress and base set, and that beauty sleep is really working - Ivor is looking more stunning with each night's rest!!! It has proved to be an amazing bed and the delivery was free and speedy. YAY!



We got our pillows, sheets and pillow cases from Walmart and on our search for a luxurious duvet (we were hoping for a duck-down duvet) we came up empty handed! They don't do duvets in this country (Note to self - don't say I'm heading to club duvet - no-one will get it). In America the norm is to use a fitted sheet on the bed followed by another flat sheet and then on top you get a colourful comforter ... what is a comforter? I'll let wikipedia explain ...
"A comforter is a type of blanket. Comforters are intended to keep the user warm, especially during sleep, although they can also be used as mattress pads. Comforters are generally large and rectangular in shape, filled with natural or synthetic insulative material and encased in a shell/covering. Like quilts, comforters are generally used with a set of sheets."
Our comforter is a nifty reversible black and grey number! Very mod!


The side tables come in a box from Walmart and were cleverly put together by Ivor. Finally we got to follow the interior design hints and add the things we love - a picture frame, 2 beautiful lamps and a micro-plush grey blanket from Target et voila ... a beautiful bedroom! Task 1 complete!

Shopping and Fireflies

32 hours of cars, planes, buses, taxis, walking and a pile of rotten cabbage... Home Sweet Home at last and all I wanted was to be whisked over the threshold of our new home, given a hot bath, good meal and a glass of Chardonnay. Alas 76 kg of baggage and an Ardmore carry case took priority. This little pack-mule was forced to carry herself over the threshold.

Completely empty! No Veuve Clicquot on ice, no bite-sized caviar snacks... no toiletpaper! We needed supplies. Luckily the brains of the operation had insider information, the local supermarket Giant is open 24/7 and is just up the road... he was wrong. To get to Giant you need to walk one and a half miles (what the heck is a mile anyway) down Circleville Road till it meets Blue Course Drive, turn left, continue for another half a mile further and then it's on the left. This little excursion took us a little over half an hour and after an extra hour of ambling up and down various aisles in our zombie-like state, struggling to multiply all the dollar prices by 8, we left with all the essentials; laughing cow cheese wedges, crackers, dish-washer tablets, frozen pizza, tinned tuna, and yes ... toilet paper. Obviously we were on fine form because we had no plates to wash, no tin opener and no baking trays. The cheese and crackers would have to do.


On the way home we walked on the bicycle path and although its scenic and rather lovely we were now laden with baggage again and it had started to rain. Just as my grumbling and whining turned supercritical (ask a nuclear engineer - that's a bad stage!) we saw the first of America's little gems ... magical, sparkly, exquisite fireflies - glowing unpredictable dots all around, amazing - enough to make you believe in faeries.
It was enough to get me home in a great mood where we showered, snacked and prepared for bed...


For our first nights rest we had come well prepared with a blow up camping mattress and... oh dear...
We hadn't quite got so far as to think about bedding so with no pillows, sheets or blankets we had to make do with a South African flag, some now wet towels, and a couple of rolled up jerseys. Shear sleep deprivation was enough to make up the difference. We were lights out squatting in our bedroom and it was heavenly.


Day one was over. Tomorrow we were to start building our new lives.

Its a looooooong way from home

Anyone who has traveled from the Southern tip of Africa to North America knows ... this is not a short trip!!!!

I can't believe that there are thousands of people taking this trip everyday ... in economy!
I'm more of a 10-hour-flight-kinda-gal. I have a well rehearsed flight routine; take off, settle in, order drinks (usually gin and tonic), choose a movie, eat dinner with at least 2 bottles of wine, watch movie, order post dinner drink (usually a Baileys's cream), start second movie, fall asleep, wake up feeling very dry, order water, take unfortunate but unavoidable trip to the airplane toilet, apply moisturiser, drink more water, begin descent, land!
On this trip from O.R. Tambo to J.F.K. on 10th August 2009 I executed my normal routine but at the point of 'waking up feeling dry' I discovered that we were about to descend into Dakar to refuel and I still needed to stay on that Airbus, in that tiny seat, for 2 hours on the ground plus another 8 hours in the air before arriving in New York. This is not a good experience for someone who is already feeling dry...

Nonetheless, after18 hours, we arrived safely in the United States of America, our home for the next few years. Actually we have arrived in New York City which is still many miles (who knows how far a mile is) from our final destination of State College, Pennsylvania. Add to this our 76-plus kilograms (who knows how many pounds that is) of luggage; 3 large bags of clothes, 1 deceptively heavy hand bag and an Ardmore vase (thank-you to all who contributed to our beautiful wedding gift) packed in a specially-made, awkward-to-carry, wooden box.

State College is known for being located equally inconveniently from every major city in the North East. We thus begin the second leg of the journey. First up is getting from the airport to China Town, in downtown Manhattan. We took a shuttle bus which is surprisingly similar to our mini-bus taxis. Although I have never taken a taxi in Jozi, I recognised many similarities; the driver had his arm hanging outside the window and raised it when pushing in front of other cars, he changed lanes more than necessary, drove at a faster speed than required, nearly caused numerous accidents and stopped where he thought appropriate.

We got a really quick overview of NYC as we dropped passengers all over town; near Broadway, 5th Avenue, Avenue of the Americas and finally, we were dropped in front of a derelict and condemned building with cabbage crates piled on the pavement in a not too classy part of China Town. Here we were to take the infamous China Town bus direct to State College. The china town bus is the cheapest way to travel between New York and State College and if you can handle the slight aroma of tuna fish, the non-English speaking driver and the fact that the bus is so old that trucks were overtaking us on the highway, it's rather effective.

It dropped us on South Atherton street from which we took a yellow taxi - (so American) to our new apartment on Farmstead Lane.

Total travel time from Westcliff, Johannesburg to Green Leaf Manor, State College: 32 hours!!!!!
Its a looooooong way from home.

Stay tuned for scenes from our next episode......

So after 32 hours of 'journey' (whoever said 'life's a journey, not a destination' obviously never traveled 32 hours straight!), we're in a new town, in an empty apartment, no food, one roll of toilet paper and a blow up mattress ...