Moving Out

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Well, today is the day that we finally moved out of our house in Chandlers Ford, it has been a long time in the planning, yet all of a sudden it seemed to be upon us and the pressure was on to vacate and allow our tenants to move in.

Although we had done a lot of packing, throwing away and selling in the previous months I was still shocked about how much we had left to do in the last couple of days,not to mention making sure that the house was perfectly clean for our tenants to move into. I even washed the towels and hung them on the washing line.

Last night, Dad took the family out for a meal at the Balmoral (Nursling), it has been exceptionally difficult to get everyone together because of work and other family committments, so Mum and Dad, my brother Steven and his family came along to bid us farewell. Sadly my brother Andrew and his wife were unable to be there, so I hope to catch up with them a little closer to leaving.

Andy got up at 5.00 this morning to carry on with cleaning. He had done both bathrooms before I had eventually surfaced at 7.00. I am not a morning person so there was no way I was going to be up at 5 also compounded by the fact that I had been out last night at Boomerang in Hamble with my girlfriends, I crawled in to bed at 2.00 this morning, only slightly worse for wear, I could not really afford to have a hangover and cope with finalising the packing, cleaning and moving out.

I realised this morning how much I missed the estate Andy used to have, officially known as the Panza wagon it held rather a lot of gear, but now we are down to a hire car and a hatchback at that , there was no way we were going to fit our remaining belongings into the hatchback, so we have to make one trip back to collect our remaining belongings and that is it, we are finally out of the house.

Andy wanted to wait until tomorrow before collecting the remainder, however phsycologically I need it done today and of course out of courtesy to our new tenants, they really don't want us hanging around, it is their home now and they need their space and privacy.

We stopped off at my parents on the way to Romsey and dropped off some more bits and pieces for them, including a Singapore Orchid and a money plant which now need to be fed and watered (it will be better looked after than I ever managed).

Then we arrived at Pauncefoot House to stay with Len and Sarah, it is so tranquil here and a far cry from the hectic chaos that we had become so familiar with. Len and Sarah made us a superb lunch with gammon, mash potato, leek and carrot, delicious and very welcome after the junk food that we have eaten so much of recently.

This afternoon we needed to rest a bit so Andy is fast asleep in bed and I have showered and now feel very refreshed, if only a little tired - that will catch up with me later.

My 'Last Supper' with the girls last night was wonderful, it does make me realise how much I am going to miss my friends. We drank champagne, had a marvellous meal, I even had a cake shaped like a boomerang with my name on it - oh and 3 candles which I had to blow out of course. Sadly I had to have 2 go's at it. Last night was not so emotional as I thought it would be, but that said I do wonder when the realisation will hit me of what we have done, I may then be a bit of a wreck for a while.

At no point during the last 20 months have I thought that 'this was not the right thing to do'.... I can still say today that I feel very comfortable with the challenge that is lying ahead and I fully intend on grasping this golden opportunity.

I had wondered when the adventure truly begins, did it start when I finished work? Did it start when Andy finished work? Does it start now we have moved out of the house? or Does it really begin when we are on that flight in 12 days time (I am counting the days now)? Maybe the reality is that the adventure started when we decided to apply for the visas, what we have encountered in between have been challenges that we had to endure in order to make this adventure truly a reality.

In the meantime we have a lot of people to try and see before we fly and we will endeavour to see as many of our friends and family as we can.

Time to wake Andy up, he has slept for long enoug.....

Until the next time
Caroline
x

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