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Published: November 15th 2007
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Dougie and Winnie
Doug and his gran outside St Luke's in the Lakes where we were married in 1999 Well my last few weeks have been a complete and utter blur.
We had the 6 weeks planned and ideally wanted to have lunch / tea with as many of our friends as we could ... but literally have run out of time .. we thought that the time would be really relaxing but has turned out to be quite stressful.
Up to now we have had 3 holiday homes fall through and have ended up staying in a hotel in Perth for our first few days as we didn't want to end up on the streets!
The dogs went for the blood tests on the 15th October and we assumed all would be ok but we got a phone call from Airpets to say that both dogs had tested positive for Lepto so would have to undergo second blood tests. They went for these last Monday and thankfully the second time round they came back negative so were given the all ok to fly.
So on the 5th November we set off at 6 am to Heathrow to drop them off at Airpets ready to fly out to Perth the day after. This was by far
St Luke's at Haverigg
The lovely little church where we were married :0) the worst thing I have had to do as my dogs have never even been in kennels and also I realised that there was now no going back and the reality of it all it hit me there and then.
The journey down there was really strained and I am sure the dogs knew something was up as they were really quiet. When the time came to put them into the kennel I couldn’t even speak to say goodbye to them as I was crying so much and did a bit of a drama queen turn where I nearly fell as I tried to get out of the kennel before the dogs saw me upset. This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do and literally fell apart when they shut the kennel door on them .. I couldn't even look back at them as I know that I would have ended up going back for them ... awful.
The dogs flew out on the morning of the 6th November and to keep me going I tracked their flights on the internet so that I knew exactly when they landed and took off at each stage
Doug and his long lost twin
Looking good - doug's the one on the left!!!! of their flight from Heathrow through Singapore onto Perth. Thankfully they arrived safely on the 7th November and spent a night at the animal reception area at Perth Airport before being taken out to Byford Quarantine station on the 8th November. Once I knew they were in Oz I just wanted to get there as quickly as possible to see them.
We spent a great few days in the Lakes with Doug’s sister Sally and her family and did the touristy thing of visiting the local Barrow Ship Museum where we found a large statue of a head that bore a striking resemblence to Doug .. maybe a long lost twin?! On one of the nights Sally’s husband Pete organised a firework display for us with some monster fireworks and of course lots of booze! I woke up on the final day with the worst hangover I have had for years so Sally made me a special breakfast of dried toast and paracetamol ... yummy!
We also visited Doug’s gran in the Lakes and she took us back into the church where we got married where she is the church warden. It is a lovely old church and
Please sir can I have some more ...
'small' portions at a restaurant in Barrow brought back all the memories of our lovely day when we got married in 1999. We then went to the local fish & chip shop in the village and went back to Doug’s grans for tea talking mostly about Australia and our plans ... as she is 99 she talked about when travel out to Oz took ages and she found it fascinating that now it is literally only a day away!
The last few days were hectic as we rushed around buying last minute things and saying final goodbyes to friends. We spent the Thursday night frantically packing everything we needed but me being the typical woman and my ‘just in case’ mentality packed like a person possessed! Finally I was finished but had doubled my baggage allowance and now had 4 suitcases totalling 80kg where we were only allowed a maximum of 20kg each! I rang BA & Qantas and explained that I had gone over on the baggage allowance as I was migrating to Oz but they still said that excess baggage had to be paid for so we decided to go with it and pay at the airport any excess there would be.
The
Friday morning was manic with friends coming round to Doug’s mums house with pressies and to say final goodbyes and I also managed to grab a quick visit into my old works to say a final goodbye to my friends (trying not to cry!). We then went into Warrington with all our family and spent a lovely afternoon having a final family meal together before we finally got on our way over to Manchester Airport along with our dads. I used to work at Manchester Airport opposite the Radisson SAS Hotel when I worked at Air 2000 and everyday would walk past the hotel thinking of exotic locations and always dreaming that one day we would live overseas so thought that for our last night in the UK we would stay overnight there as it seemed fitting.
So sat here now at the start of our new life I am excited and scared of what lies ahead for us and the dogs but know that every journey in life starts with small steps ...
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