Bakker Bugle Blog Say it three times fast. In Luxembourgish.

2 July 2007

Dublin Trash

Filed under: dublin — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Anita @ 9:04

In the comments of my “Two Tugs” post, someone asked if we were saving all this packing material for another move, versus taking it out to the dumpster. I thought a short post on how trash works in Dublin might explain some of our perceived craziness.

We live in an apartment in a building. We are the only people living in the building – the four floors above our home are offices. Since we’re not in an apartment building, we have to pay for our trash removal. Unlike in Gurnee, where we paid a monthly amount for a 65 gallon waste cart, here we have to pay by the bag. Each 80 liter bag of trash requires a prepaid sticker before the City will pick it up.

Recycling is another matter. I’ve been told that if we put our paper in a green trash bag, the City will pick it up free of charge. However, Will and I can’t find that confirmation on any web page. For glass, aluminum and plastic, we have to take the materials to a “bring bank” and sort the recycling appropriately (unlike our recycling in Gurnee, which was a co-mingled container). We’ve been taking our paper along with the other recycling.

Lucky for us, the movers will come back and pick up all the boxes and packing papers we don’t want. Since we had so much packing paper, the only recourse we had was to smooth it out, otherwise, we would have been run out of house and home. It would take over 20 trips with the Micra to get all this cardboard and paper to a recycling center, so we’re thrilled that the moving company will come back and take it away.

26 June 2007

Two tugs, Tina. Only two tugs.

Filed under: expat — Tags: , , , , — Anita @ 22:29

As Will said yesterday, we are really excited to get the sea shipment. There were so many little things that we were missing here in Dublin – little things that would make our lives more comfortable and more like home. We never stopped to consider, or at least I never stopped to consider, that every little thing in our life would be individually wrapped in 1.85 sheets of paper.

The cardboard boxes and paper have quickly taken over our apartment. Will decided to follow the same method I used with the air shipment. Each sheet of packing paper is spread as flat as possible and stacked. Leaving it crumpled would have quickly run us out of the apartment. However, my perfectionist tendencies to get each sheet as flat as possible and stacked orderly don’t correspond with the several million pieces of packing paper currently sharing our living space. Will watched me for about thirty seconds before he declared that I only got “two tugs” per sheet. While I would happy to smooth and straighten for several moments, that approach would mean that we would still be dealing with packing paper come St. Patrick’s day.

Will has found that the last two days have made him an expert on the guys that wrapped and packed our goods back in Gurnee. Each one of them has a style and Will can guess with surprising accuracy which member of the team packed a particular box. I’m not sure precisely how this skill will help him in the future, but he often applies his knowledge in new and unusual ways.

We’re making progress. Another few days of backbreaking labor for Will and the apartment should be in good shape. It’s worth all the effort to have the things that make a house a home back with us.

Seventy percent unpacked

Filed under: expat,mental state — Tags: , , — Will @ 15:40

One of Anita’s friends said that you reach a point of despair in unpacking: You are 70% unpacked, and you have no idea where to put anything that you unpack beyond that. I’ve reached that point.

Plus, there are mountains of wrapping paper in every corner of this place. I think the paper sheets discovered how to reproduce.

25 June 2007

Paper Paper Everywhere

Filed under: expat,mental state — Tags: , , — Will @ 17:31

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So far, the toughest part of unpacking is the grey paper wrapped around everything. If I just toss it aside, I will be crowded out of the house — pushed like Kent from the popcorn house in Real Genius.

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