End of August
As I sit down to start writing this weeks post, it is two years ago yesterday that we left the UK and flew to Washington, DC. We were stressed, exhausted, and heading into a new unknown - life in NZ.
The previous few weeks had been hectic. I woke on the morning of August 1st having sold my business to Keith (a great bloke), the day before. I still had a few loose ends to deal with from WKDS which took the rest of the week. Then, on the following Monday I began with the two key tasks which had to be done and would occupy me for 8-10 hours a day: disentangling ourselves from the UK, and planning how we were actually going to get to NZ. I seemed to spend the whole of each day just emailing and phoning.
I hadn't realised just how involved closing down the gas, electric, rates etc., would be. It was of course worse than just moving house because we had bank accounts and insurance's and other financial issues to deal with too.
We had already been in touch with a travel agent in Nottingham (on recommendation from friends) as we had decided to travel across the USA. We gave the rep a basic outline of what we wanted to do and a budget, and then did a great deal of "if we have an extra day here and then go there instead..." We also arranged the sale of the cars, lived through the house sale falling through and starting again, and were guests at an increasing number of leaving parties and meals. The fortnight closed with a party at our house, and the following day the removal men arrived to begin packing our belongings ready for shipment. It took us longer to finish clearing the house after our container had gone than we expected, but we eventually got to Farnborough ready for more good-bye's in the south. If we hadn't had the very generous loan of Gill and Patrick's house in Loughborough for our last week there I don't know quite how we would have managed.
We still had use of my car as David, Nicky's nephew, was buying it and he lives in London. We gave him the spare key and then texted him the cars' location at Heathrow Airport for him to collect it. We boarded the plane and were off.
Not long after we arrived at our hotel in Washington, Nicky went to bed, and Claire and I went our for a stroll. I think we were too wound up to sleep just yet. We had finally done it - left the UK. We had been talking about it for 10 years and now we had done it. There was the stress and exhaustion of the last few weeks and getting ready to go, the emotional wrench of saying good bye so many times, and the uncertainty of what lie ahead. There was also excitement at what lie ahead, especially for the next couple of weeks while we were in America. We were now standing on the Mall, looking at the Capitol building, the city noise being drowned out by the cicada's, and even though it was going dark the temperature was still in the 30'sC. Wow.
Two years on I have finally figured out a couple of things. The weather, and good driving music.
Claire and I have had big problems relating the weather to the month with the seasons being the other way round here. However, I have now developed a conversion table, shown below, which shows the NZ weather type and the English month we (Claire and I) associate with it. I am sure this is going to make life much easier for us, though it does now mean the names of the months become somewhat arbitrary:
NZ weather UK month
Cold & wet September
Warm & wet August
Cold & dry September
Sunny, but crisp in the wind September
Warm but cool in the shade August
Hot and sunny August
In short, as far as Claire and I are concerned, it is always August or September. I don't know if this has any subconscious relationship to the time we left England and arrived here or not.
What we still have a problem with, and this conversion table does not solve, is when people say things like "next summer". I instantly think...summer, June onwards, now August, therefore almost a year away...and they of course mean a couple of months away!!!!
When we fist bought Lilly, our lovely green car, she had a tape player. I could only find one of my tapes which worked, with Phil Collins on one side and a compilation on the other. As you can imagine, it didn't take long to get board with this. When Claire started at University, she replaced the tape player with a CD player which was brilliant. So, I have been working thorough my CD's be have only just found the right genre - West Coast, via my Tom Petty CD. It's perfect for sunny days, palm trees and wide roads. I will try some Eagles when I next get the chance.
Anyway, onto this week. It has been quiet on the work front for me. I have done a little but not as much as I would like. Claire has been spending much of her holiday reading course books. Nicky has had another busy work week, and has had a good day today as a volunteer guide at the StoryLines event, a children's literature festival.
Last night Nicky and I had a wallow in the hot pools at Parakai, which was very pleasant. The weather has started getting milder (see Claire's photo below) but we are still getting some rain, especially today.
Bye for now,
Rick
The previous few weeks had been hectic. I woke on the morning of August 1st having sold my business to Keith (a great bloke), the day before. I still had a few loose ends to deal with from WKDS which took the rest of the week. Then, on the following Monday I began with the two key tasks which had to be done and would occupy me for 8-10 hours a day: disentangling ourselves from the UK, and planning how we were actually going to get to NZ. I seemed to spend the whole of each day just emailing and phoning.
I hadn't realised just how involved closing down the gas, electric, rates etc., would be. It was of course worse than just moving house because we had bank accounts and insurance's and other financial issues to deal with too.
We had already been in touch with a travel agent in Nottingham (on recommendation from friends) as we had decided to travel across the USA. We gave the rep a basic outline of what we wanted to do and a budget, and then did a great deal of "if we have an extra day here and then go there instead..." We also arranged the sale of the cars, lived through the house sale falling through and starting again, and were guests at an increasing number of leaving parties and meals. The fortnight closed with a party at our house, and the following day the removal men arrived to begin packing our belongings ready for shipment. It took us longer to finish clearing the house after our container had gone than we expected, but we eventually got to Farnborough ready for more good-bye's in the south. If we hadn't had the very generous loan of Gill and Patrick's house in Loughborough for our last week there I don't know quite how we would have managed.
We still had use of my car as David, Nicky's nephew, was buying it and he lives in London. We gave him the spare key and then texted him the cars' location at Heathrow Airport for him to collect it. We boarded the plane and were off.
Not long after we arrived at our hotel in Washington, Nicky went to bed, and Claire and I went our for a stroll. I think we were too wound up to sleep just yet. We had finally done it - left the UK. We had been talking about it for 10 years and now we had done it. There was the stress and exhaustion of the last few weeks and getting ready to go, the emotional wrench of saying good bye so many times, and the uncertainty of what lie ahead. There was also excitement at what lie ahead, especially for the next couple of weeks while we were in America. We were now standing on the Mall, looking at the Capitol building, the city noise being drowned out by the cicada's, and even though it was going dark the temperature was still in the 30'sC. Wow.
Two years on I have finally figured out a couple of things. The weather, and good driving music.
Claire and I have had big problems relating the weather to the month with the seasons being the other way round here. However, I have now developed a conversion table, shown below, which shows the NZ weather type and the English month we (Claire and I) associate with it. I am sure this is going to make life much easier for us, though it does now mean the names of the months become somewhat arbitrary:
NZ weather UK month
Cold & wet September
Warm & wet August
Cold & dry September
Sunny, but crisp in the wind September
Warm but cool in the shade August
Hot and sunny August
In short, as far as Claire and I are concerned, it is always August or September. I don't know if this has any subconscious relationship to the time we left England and arrived here or not.
What we still have a problem with, and this conversion table does not solve, is when people say things like "next summer". I instantly think...summer, June onwards, now August, therefore almost a year away...and they of course mean a couple of months away!!!!
When we fist bought Lilly, our lovely green car, she had a tape player. I could only find one of my tapes which worked, with Phil Collins on one side and a compilation on the other. As you can imagine, it didn't take long to get board with this. When Claire started at University, she replaced the tape player with a CD player which was brilliant. So, I have been working thorough my CD's be have only just found the right genre - West Coast, via my Tom Petty CD. It's perfect for sunny days, palm trees and wide roads. I will try some Eagles when I next get the chance.
Anyway, onto this week. It has been quiet on the work front for me. I have done a little but not as much as I would like. Claire has been spending much of her holiday reading course books. Nicky has had another busy work week, and has had a good day today as a volunteer guide at the StoryLines event, a children's literature festival.
Last night Nicky and I had a wallow in the hot pools at Parakai, which was very pleasant. The weather has started getting milder (see Claire's photo below) but we are still getting some rain, especially today.
Bye for now,
Rick
Comments