The final countdown

This will be my last post about leaving the UK, but I thought I'd cover a bit more about the process before moving onto life in Madeira.

The last two weeks before we left were totally exhausting. We were getting up early and sorting things until 1 or 1.30am before crashing into bed to start the whole thing again a few hours later.  Even though we had packers, we had to make sure that we identified anything we did not want to come with us.  On top of that, some of our stuff was going to our house in Madeira, and some was going into storage for our new house when it is built, so we had to ensure everything was appropriately marked for the packers.  We used a system of coloured labels but I have a suspicion that they were not always followed correctly.  When our stuff finally arrives I will not be surprised if things end up in the wrong place.  I know that some stuff that was meant to remain was packed (for example plumbing spares for the "old" house) and will be turning up where we have no use for it!

The packers arrived on the Tuesday before our flight, and from then everything was a complete whirlwind.  They were incredibly efficient and I suspect that if either of us stood still too long we'd have been packed too!

We had no say in the order in which they packed rooms, so the kitchen and all of its equipment was done very early on leaving us no way to prepare any food.  This meant that the only way to eat was to walk into town and buy something there.  Our lovely friends Tony and Eniko kindly let us stay with them from Wednesday night onwards as our bed had been packed too.

On Thursday, several hours later than expected, a 40ft container arrived outside the house and the packers shifted everything into it.  Well, nearly everything, as they realised quite quickly that there would not be room for the two motorcycles.  Dave ended up having to make alternative arrangements with someone he knows who specialises in transporting motorcycles overseas.

In the middle of all of the packing, on the Wednesday, we finally exchanged on our house.  The process, in hindsight, was pretty quick, but it was none-the-less, very stressful and you never feel it really will happen until you have that confirmation.  It was a weight off our minds to know that we would not be having to sell an empty house from abroad.

The container was packed up and sealed, and it looked like we had filled every square inch of it.  By the time it was done the driver had exceeded his driving hours so ended up sleeping in the cab outside our house for the night, leaving early the next day.  We left the house looking a little desolate (us and the house), but then had a lovely meal out with Tony and Eniko and our friends and neighbours, Robert and Julia. It was a great evening but also a reminder of how much we are going to miss everyone.

On Friday, we returned to the house to supervise the transfer of the last few pieces of furniture to friends and charities and to do as much cleaning and tidying as we could.  Also the purchasers popped around for what Dave called "house training"!  It is a large and complicated house so we wanted to help the buyers know how to operate the various systems and to make their move in as smooth as possible.  They strike us as people who will love and enjoy the house as we did, and that makes us feel a little better about leaving it.

My friend Shreena decided that, as we had never been to an acclaimed local restaurant in all the time we had lived there, she was not going to let us go without doing so.  Therefore we had a great lunch out with her, and got back to the house just in time to supervise the loading of the bikes into a van for their separate journey.  After a bit more cleaning we were picked up by Eniko and went back to theirs for another exhausted night.

Saturday, our last day in the UK, was a very emotional one.  We took the girls out to lunch and (bravely) they came back to the house for one last look around.  Then we waved them off amid many tears. An hour or so later some other friends, Sati and Rob, came around to pick us up and take us to Gatwick.  We had a lovely meal out with them before they dropped us off at the Premier Inn for our last night as UK residents.

And then there were two.....

We have now been in Madeira for 10 days and are getting more relaxed and less stressed as we fit into a new rhythm of life.

In my last post I said that our move has been both physically and emotionally demanding and I'll now elaborate a bit.

By far the biggest and most difficult aspect of our whole move overseas has been the fact that our two daughters have not come with us.  They are both in their mid-twenties so they need to forge their own lives and careers, within the UK or elsewhere, rather than having us dictate to them.  Until a couple of months ago, both were still living with us so our move, and the sale of our house, meant that they had to find new accommodation.  They get on well but the idea of living together was not really an option so both have found rented accommodation which suits their individual lifestyles.  Corina, the eldest, is now sharing a flat with a friend from her church, and Tania is living in a house with the owner/landlady.

Moving the girls into their new places has been strenuous and logistically demanding but we got there in the end.  Corina's move involved "two men and a van", as well as a car load, as she was in the fortunate position of being able to take some of her own furniture with her.  In fact, she even supplied some furniture for her flat mate.  This has had the double benefit of her keeping her familiar and comfortable furniture, and us not having to find new homes or storage for it.  As Corina has previously lived away from home for college and work, the transition, although painful, was not too shocking for any of us.  One victim was Dave's head though, as he ended up with a nasty cut on it caused when dismantling her landlord's old unwanted wardrobe.

Tania, on the other hand, had never lived away from home before as she stayed at home throughout her time at college.  Therefore the arrangement where she is in an established house feels more comfortable for her (and us). Sadly she could not take much of her furniture with her.  Our original plan had been to store it for her but that proved to be ridiculously expensive so we agreed that we would bring her bed out here (as we needed another one) so she can use it when she is here, and sell or give away her desk, wardrobe and bedside table.  When she buys her own place we will buy her a new bed and other pieces.  We had one piece of furniture which she particularly wanted to keep, an art deco display cabinet, and some kind friends of ours are looking after it for her, along with a couple of sculptures she had asked to keep.

That brings me onto how generous our friends and neighbours have been as we have been going through the whole move.  We definitely left on a wave of love and support from them all, with practical and emotional support in abundance.  We can't thank them enough for all they have done for us, and for their good wishes and kind thoughts.  We even have a sideboard full of new home cards here as a reminder.

We also had to say goodbye to our extended families, some of whom we sadly may not see again.  For Dave's side of the family we were lucky to be able to see almost all of them over one weekend as his Aunt and Uncle who live in Spain were over celebrating a big birthday, followed by celebrating a milestone birthday of one of his nieces the next day. We got to see his aunt and uncles, sister, cousins, nieces and nephews and even a great niece, plus numerous in-laws and partners. For my side, I arranged a meal out with my three sisters, who all live in West Sussex, plus partners and as many of their children as could make it.  Those who couldn't phoned in for chats during the evening. The only family I failed to catch up with was my brother's as he lives in Cheshire and I felt it was too far to ask him to come.  We did see them all in May so it was not too long ago.

I also managed to have a drink and meal out with most of my closest ex-colleagues. It was great to catch up with them and hear some office gossip.

Going back to the emotional side of leaving, I confess that, although I knew that leaving the girls would be tough, I was not at all prepared for the massive wrench it is turning out to be.  First the pain of them leaving home in quick succession, followed by us selling the house that they largely grew up in, and finally us leaving them behind as we flew off to our new lives.  Although, with communications and transport being so available nowadays we are constantly in contact and we are really only a few hours apart, it still feels like a chasm sometimes though.  Many tears have been shed and I miss them dreadfully.

I'll tell you about the rest of the move in my next post as this is already long enough.  No photos I'm afraid as I don't really have any suitable.  There will be some in the next post.  See you there.

We made it!

Well here I am, writing from Madeira.  We have actually taken the plunge and are now living here full time, as of last Sunday!

The last couple of months have been incredible in so many ways, and have left me with very little time to write up my blog.  But now we are here and things have quietened down (temporarily) I will try to catch up.  It will probably take a few posts to bring things up to date.

My last blog was posted just after we dropped our Lamborghini off in Madeira and headed home to get on with packing up our house.  We had put the house on the market at the beginning of July and immediately got a lot of interest and some offers, although below our asking price.  After around 15 viewings a lovely young couple with a little girl looked around and, within an hour, phoned up with an acceptable offer.  Then it was over to the surveyors, lawyers and estate agent to work through the whole process.  As anyone who has bought or sold a house will know, even the most straightforward of sales is a slow, painful and frustrating process and ours was no exception, even though there was no chain and no major issues.

While the house sale was working its way through Dave and I continued to sort and de-clutter as much as we could.  I ended up selling a large amount of clothes and other items on eBay, which is time consuming and sometimes demoralising, but meant at least I got occasional bouts of exercise dropping parcels off at the Post Office.  We continued to try to place as much of our furniture as we could with people who had need of it.  As we already have a fully furnished house in Madeira, there was only a limited amount of furniture that we planned to take with us.

On occasion it seemed as though some guiding force was helping us, as we often found good homes for items just when we needed to.  For example, when the mechanic who maintains one of Dave's motorcycles was dropping it off in his van, Dave asked him if he knew of anyone needing some furniture.  By amazing coincidence, his son was just buying his first house and would happily take several items.  So the van went away with a wardrobe, bedside table, chest of drawers, dining room table and numerous other items.

We were delighted that the buyers wanted to buy our piano and some gym equipment which would have been very heavy to move, although they didn't want our snooker table.  We had an arrangement for that with the person who supplied it but that fell through at the last minute.  Dave put it on eBay on a 3 day listing and, luckily, someone wanting one just like ours happened to see the ad and buy it.  He's a builder and drove all the way up from Torquay in his flat bed truck, with wife and son in tow, to pick it up within a couple of days.  Similarly, we needed to sell our car (not the Lambo) and there was very little interest apart from some insultingly low offers. And then, when we were about to give up hope, a local couple turned up, loved it and bought it on sight.

We found a couple of charities who were happy to collect other items of furniture which was useful as our car, when we had it, was pretty tiny.  Also some of our neighbours wanted a few items so people staggering along the road carrying chairs, sideboards and cabinets became quite a regular sight.

That is a brief description of the practical side of preparing for our move.  I'll cover some of the more emotional issues in my next post.

The picture at the top is the sunset as seen from our garden on the day we arrived - to explain why this is all so worth it!