And so the big day arrives. Stefan, the chap tasked with carting our worldly possessions a few hundred miles, arrived 5 hours late, though through no fault of his own: his truck was sabotaged by some mindless cretins trying to steal some of his diesel. This set him back and that in turn meant we left our house 5 hours later than expected and had thus to rearrange our crossing.
I hadn’t planned to mention this albeit large hiccup. I wanted to blog about my reasons for going and the sort of emotional and physical setbacks and successes others might find with this move. But of course, any sort of move like this might entail its own setbacks. The trick is to recognise there is nothing you can do about it and simply accept the inevitable consequences. Because of that, though slightly frustrated by the delay and problems caused (though not, it has to be said, as frustrated as Stefan was), I was able to take a deep breath and formulate a modification to the plan.
So. Stuff packed in the truck. Several trips to the tip (thank you, Tim, for helping on Sunday with your trailer – I could not have done it without you). Car (large Passat estate and roof box) packed to the gills. And off we go.
As with most endeavours, practise makes perfect. I mention this here in the help it might help others with such a move. I would visit each room and area of the house with the simple rule:
If it is not in a box or suitcase, it isn’t coming and should not be in the room!
This sounds simple, and maybe it is, but I found it hard to do initially. It took a long time to focus in this way. I guess the enormity of the undertaking got on top of me and reduced my proficiency. Distilled to the above rule, packing becomes a lot easier. Put everything you want to take in a box or container and remove everything else to a staging area, in may case the garage. In the garage I further split the contents in two: stuff I thought might be useful for someone else (i.e. the charity shop pile) and everything else (to the tip with you!).
As for feelings, well, I currently have none. After the roller coaster of the last couple of weeks I am emotionally drained. I am currently in the train under the Channel, feeling numb, acting on impulse, waiting for a soft bed somewhere in Belgium.
Let the adventure commence …