I think the phrase of the day is definitely "and then".
But we did manage to pack a hell of a lot of stuff into a ten hour day.
It started with the usual morning routine, me wandering around tidying up the apartment (although these days it takes much less time and effort since my place is generally a lot tidier), then getting ready to start the day.
Ma got down to my place early and we were at the supermarket just before it opened, but a quick trip to Bakers Delight meant that we could just walk straight into the supermarket.
We managed to get everything done at the one supermarket, so by the time we got back to my place it was just around 9am.
Since we wanted to get down to Ikea nice and early I skipped the usual newspaper reading portion of the morning and after I'd put the groceries away we headed off.
While this wasn't the easiest or quickest trip we've ever made to The Land of The Long White Swede, I think it was the quickest trip that resulted in that large a purchase. Essentially we went upstairs, I had a quick look to see if the cheap shelving unit I wanted was back in stock (it wasn't, but there's no rush), then straight downstairs with a quick stop to pick up a couple of new glass storage containers in the kitchen department, followed by a shortcut through the magic shortcut doors and out into the racks to finally get the glass top table she's been mulling over for, essentially three years.
And thanks to the discount voucher I had, the table plus the two glass jars cost $8 less than the table would have cost on it's own. So nice work us... especially since today is the last possible day to use said voucher.
The table fit perfectly into the back of Ma's car (as we knew it would, at least as far as the measurements were concerned) and then we headed off to Ma's place to put the table together.
Granted, the travelling part of that statement took about 45 minutes, and we went a different way than normal. I'm not sure that it took any more or any less time, but it was a way neither of us would normally take, so it was something different.
And then when we got to Ma's place the actual construction of the table took less time than it took to a) get it from the boot of the car or b) get the glass top in the right position. All we (and by we, I mean me) had to do was screw the legs into the circular top support... but we spent a good long time moving the glass tabletop a little bit this way, then a little bit that way, then back the other way, then left a bit... I won't lie, at one point a tape measure did appear, although neither of us were particularly useful at doing any sums.
I'm sure during any of the trips I'll make up to Ma's place in the next month it will probably get moved... multiple times.
But the table looks great... thank god! It'll definitely make Christmas present wrapping, Christmas goodie making and Christmas Day different this year though.
Ma has her work Christmas function tonight and it's closer to my place than hers, so while we were there she collected up her outfit, accessories and associated bits and pieces and we took the more direct route back to my place.
So lots and lots and lots of driving was had during the morning.
After a quick stop off at my place to drop off Ma's bits and pieces and my Ikea jars we headed into the city for Part 2 of the day's adventures.
There were a bunch of errands we needed to run... but the main task was heading into Optus to get our iPhones upgraded.
That ended up being pretty much the last thing we did... and although we did try and start at one end of the Mall and work our way back to the Optus store it didn't work out that... but then it never does.
We weren't necessarily successful in all our errands, it seems that lime green has been replaced (possibly a while ago, who knows) as a fashion colour with turquoise and orange for this summer... so Ma ended up going with the necklace she brought with her... which worked very nicely.
Getting my moisturiser was an easier task and I always like the fact they give you a bunch of free samples of things to try. True it takes me ages to get around to using them, but it's nice to get free things.
We also stopped off to see Josh at Espionage so that Ma could donate some money towards the Save Espionage crowdfunding campaign. And as always we never don't spend a bunch of time talking to Josh when we go in. I always love then he mentions shows that are coming up.... specifically the fact that he's putting together a Lego show for some point next year with a combination of artworks made from Lego as well as artwork inspired by Lego.
So, yeah... I'll be at the front of the line for that one.
There's also a Batman themed show, a Studio Ghibli themed show, a Retro Gaming show and, I think, a Star Wars themed show. Woohoo!
After stopping off for a little bit of Mexican style lunch at Salsa's Fresh Mex, we headed back to the Optus store to see the girl with the groovy hair and update our iPhones.
And then after she'd filled out a bunch of paperwork and Ma and I had signed our proverbial lives away we were both the proud owners of new Apple products... a yellow iPhone 5C for Ma and a space grey iPhone 5S for me (and I decided to move up to the 32 GB as I was very often close to the point of filling up the previous phone.
Of course, I had to keep to the Transformers naming convention that I use for all of my electronic devices (usually related to the cases I start out with when it comes to iPhones), so this one is Bluestreak.
And by that point I think it was about 3:30 or so...
So after a quick detour to the Apple Store to get Ma one of the dotty covers for her phone (because, really, nobody has very many interesting cases for the 5C yet, except for those ones) and a pack of screen protectors to share between us, we came back here to my place.
But we weren't quite done yet...
We still needed to go through the list of Fringe shows I pulled together yesterday and work out dates and times and whatnot.
Sadly not all of the shows on the list made it through this stage... there were a couple of shows that were on way too late (although I did break my own rule for "no shows after 9:30 because they're often of questionable quality" rule for a couple of my solo outings) and there was one show that sounded really awesome that was already marked as "cancelled" which was a little disappointing... plus there were a few that we both decided weren't all that bothered on.
So with that 21 shows became 16... which is still pretty respectable, and we have a nice mix of shows in the line up.
I still need to go online and buy all the tickets though, but that's a job that can wait for a while, or even until tomorrow morning.
Once Ma left to head off to her work function, looking very spiffy in her black and white stripy dress and spangly shoes, I finally got a chance to relax... but then about an hour later I realised my old phone had gone to "SOS Only" and I could start updating my new phone with all my apps and whatnot. It took slightly longer than I thought it might have only because I hadn't already updated to the new version of iOS on my old phone and so after I restored the phone it then had to reinstall the operating system updates.
And that always takes a while and requires you to put your Apple password in about 50 times. But it was as easy as pie, it just took time.
The only problem was that a game that I've been investing a lot of time and energy in recently completely reset itself... and I don't know that I can be bothered going through all of that all over again. But if nothing else it's an easy way to break the "addiction" to the game in question.
Everything else seems fine though, which is good.
Of course, since then there's been a lot of general iPhone fiddling... from turning off all the things that need to be turned off when you upgrade your operating system, picking the perfect wallpaper, all those good things.
Part way through I realised that Ma was probably going to need a little assistance (plus some wifi) to sort out her phone so I left her a message at home to call me.
And that pretty much brings us up to now, more or less.
Like I said... a hell of a day.
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