bethlet.net

Last Stretch

Our flat is more than half empty. Somehow, we managed to finish sorting stuff out last night and the movers came this morning to finish up the job. They're disassembling the big stuff now. The little stuff is already in the container, ready to be shipped.

We left pretty early, to get out of their way and also to use the internet at our local Starbucks. We were there for a few hours, then came back to see how the movers were doing (wow - they'd already started loading the container, by then).

After that, we went to The Shepherdess for lunch. It's a cute little cafe on the corner, run by a South African woman who's been here long enough that you can now hear the Hackney in her accent. She was very friendly (as always), and surprised we were moving away. She shook our hands and told us it was nice knowing us. And it reminded me of how much I'll miss our neighborhood.

It's a completely wretched day. Gloomy and rainy and very dark. Quite Londony, when you get right down to it. The last couple days have been punctuated by visits from friends. Some last visits, some meant to be last visits, but not actually turning out to be. I'm so sad to leave everybody, more than anything else, and it makes me feel very loved that my friends are sad to see us leave, as well.

We've finished the most tedious part of the move: the customs and insurance paperwork. We had to fill out two forms: one for air freight, one for sea freight, and list out everything we owned and how much it was all worth, should we have to replace it. The figure was surprising. It's mostly electronics. Our projector TV. The computers.

The movers think they'll be finished around 3:00. We need to check into our hotel at some point, and I should continue calling utilities and such and canceling things.

Then, tomorrow, we go.

25 Sep 06 13:29 - Comments (1)

Categories: Expat , London