DZ Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 ...before we move to France!It's weird right now sitting on garden chairs in the lounge, turning around to check the time on the clock, just to realize that the clock is now in France. And all the books. And all the pictures, and half of the clothes (as I wasn't sure how long my contract at work would be at the start of the year, we booked a self-drive van to take most of our possessions to France for the start of June. Now my work will continue till the middle of July!).In just one month's time we will be on our way! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callie Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 Enjoy your move - and your new life. I hope you get the pleasure from it that we have done ! ![:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Katie Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 Tell us more DZ, I was unaware you were going until the other day. Also, how old are your children and what are you planning to do with them in France? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerdesal Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 [quote user="DZ"]...before we move to France!It's weird right now sitting on garden chairs in the lounge, turning around to check the time on the clock, just to realize that the clock is now in France. And all the books. And all the pictures, and half of the clothes (as I wasn't sure how long my contract at work would be at the start of the year, we booked a self-drive van to take most of our possessions to France for the start of June. Now my work will continue till the middle of July!).In just one month's time we will be on our way![/quote]Its a frightening prospect packing up everything, after 17 years in the same house its amazing what "rubbish" you accumulate, especially when the cost of taking said rubbish 4500 miles is considerable.It doesn't help when the 'boss' is away, no instructions - us men NEED instructions.42 days tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Katie Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 Steve, what is 42 days tomorow? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 Can't you contact the boss and ask for instructions?I must say, Steve, it's a bit remiss of the boss not to have left the instructions in the first place. If I were her, you'd have had instructions of several pages with the most important details picked out in highlighter with less important items underlined, etc.And then, I would have followed all that up with a phone-call to see how far (or not) you have got, whether you have any questions, whether you have understood absolutely everything and then given strict instructions as to what to do if you couldn't follow the original printed out list of instructions.Some bosses place much too much faith in the underlings![:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gluestick Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 It's called bossy paranoia, Sweets![:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony F Dordogne Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 Round here it's called marriage Gluey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerdesal Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 [quote user="Just Katie"]Steve, what is 42 days tomorow?[/quote]42 days tomorrow is my last day in Sharjah.When "the boss" left for her European holiday, we were not leaving Sharjah. Now we are so no way to leave the highlighted / underlined, multi sheets of specific instructions. I guess I will have to "Project Manage" everything without assistance - Oh woe is me and thrice woe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gastines Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 I'll agree that my better half is more organised on the home front than I am,so much so that when working on a contract in the West End I left our flat in Bournemouth 5.30.am on a Monday .to return at 6.30pm on the next Friday to a different house. All packed/moved and legal side completed. She did tell me by the way. Our flat buyer who flew over from Tenerriffe,bought the flat on condition he could move in by Friday. Luckily the next house was empty and bought from a Bank.Just shows it can be done quickly.Mind you after 14 moves in 20years she is getting plenty of practise.Regards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerdesal Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 17 houses in first 23 years, now 18 houses in 40 years (we slowed down), covering 5 countries, 3 continents and that does not include our house in France which is No 19. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nectarine Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 cripes, what have you done, a bank robbery that you need to keep on the run from the police? You must travel very lightly ...We are moving in a month, after 30 years in the same house!!! And our French house is already furnished, etc., so really we could sell or throw most of the stuff away but, for some reason, I cannot!! Oh that declutter woman off the telly (can't remember her name) would be knocking my head against a wall to beat some sense into me. Anyway, the removal quote that we are getting on Tuesday should be sufficient to frighten us into decluttering and minimising what we have. However, Mr. Nectarine insists on keeping the petrol tank for a motorcycle that he hasn't owned for 30 years "just in case". Likewise, I have a bunch of old keys that have never fitted this house nor anything inside it, but I cannot throw them away in case the move unearths stuff that the keys fit. Hopeless, aren't we? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 Blimey, is this a competition?Before I got married (at 19) I had lived in 14 different houses. Since then, 3 - an average of one every 11 years. Getting my o/h to move (sorry, be moved - like he joins in?) is virtually impossible. I'm often amazed I got him out of the country for a holiday - let alone to live.All the best, DZ. I well remember sitting in our drive when the removal lorry had gone, on an old armchair, having our last cup of tea in our old home where we'd been for over 20 years. We drank up, put the mugs in the car, then tipped the armchair into the skip and left. It was a wonderful feeling and we have never looked back.Nectarine : I certainly relate to the key thing. You just never know... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DZ Posted June 26, 2008 Author Share Posted June 26, 2008 [quote user="Just Katie"]Tell us more DZ, I was unaware you were going until the other day. Also, how old are your children and what are you planning to do with them in France?[/quote]I can't actually believe what we are doing: the youngest one is 12, the middle one 16 (and the eldest is going off to Canada for a year anyway). All very much looking forward to this adventure but also totally realistic about the school situation quite possibly becoming hell very soon. I was very impressed with the local college, however. They rang the rectorat to seek their advice on our 16-year-old and I was amazed with the flexible solutions offered. Depending on the results of the exams he will take in August in all subjects (in English) he will either be slotted into a lycee (with language tuition provided), half college/half lycee (the latter for his better subjects), or if he fails miserably, just go to the college. Well, that's the theory anyway. We'll see what happens in practice. I am fully aware that we might hate this experience. At least we are not selling our house in the UK, so can return. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerdesal Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 [quote user="nectarine"]cripes, what have you done, a bank robbery that you need to keep on the run from the police? You must travel very lightly ...We are moving in a month, after 30 years in the same house!!! And our French house is already furnished, etc., so really we could sell or throw most of the stuff away but, for some reason, I cannot!! Oh that declutter woman off the telly (can't remember her name) would be knocking my head against a wall to beat some sense into me. Anyway, the removal quote that we are getting on Tuesday should be sufficient to frighten us into decluttering and minimising what we have. However, Mr. Nectarine insists on keeping the petrol tank for a motorcycle that he hasn't owned for 30 years "just in case". Likewise, I have a bunch of old keys that have never fitted this house nor anything inside it, but I cannot throw them away in case the move unearths stuff that the keys fit. Hopeless, aren't we?[/quote] If I had done a bank job I wouldn't be on this forum [:P]6 of the 17 were at the 'behest' of HMG, 3 times in one year !I have quotations for a 20ft container expected on Sat and Tuesday - I'm not looking forward to the price, or the possibility that a 20 footer will not be big enough. Looking round the house, its difficult to think what to dump other than one fridge/freezer and the cooker. I still have to go out and order the granite work tops for the rest of the French kitchen as well. Not fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DZ Posted June 26, 2008 Author Share Posted June 26, 2008 I know the pain of decluttering! Various wise people on this forum advise to start decluttering early, but this is one job that I just didn't fancy after getting back from work, so we had one major marathon weekend at the start of June when I had to become ruthless and unfeeling and just divide the stuff into what we really needed and what would be taken away by a man with a van (cheaper than a skip!). I am proud to say that I packed the house in just about 50 hours (with maybe 3 hours' sleep in between) - but what has remained will NO WAY fit into our car (5 people + 2 mice). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gluestick Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 HmmmmmmmmThus far, no one has mentioned two crucial elements: lofts, garages and sheds. Well, that's three actually, but who's counting?And in our case, rather like one A Daley Esq, the Lockup! I am rather hoping that before this year is out, the French house will enjoy its planned extension of the garage, which is really part of the original old barn or cowshed. Take yer pick peeps!Now the loft is a rather interesting place which owes its shall we say, cluttered reality to the fact that circa 30 odd years ago, Mrs Gluey was in the antiques biz.And the sheds, well probably owe their cluttered reality to Gluey's penchant for tools and equipment!AKA, according to Mrs G anyway, "Men's Toys"!Still, starting as we mean to go on (Ho Hum: famous last words!), the French house, our next demesne in the very neat future, was acquired from a charming elderly Frenchman who could have taught hoarding, to lapse into Black Adder Speek "This Hoarder, Baldrick, is he a horder who has accidiously studied hoarding for many years and now has a doctorate in hoarding from the University of Hoarding and plans to be a lecturer in hoarding?"Suffice to say, year one, when it was September and 80 deg C and the 30 M long loft, here read sauna, was probably 130 +, with the kind and invaluable assistance of a very accommodating French builder and his two assistants, plus myself and number one son, we spent 2 and one half days chucking all manner of stuff down, for loading into builder's large truck and next the decheterie. With Mrs G, myself and son having spent half a day before, roughly sorting into two lots: reserve: jettez !Perhaps the piece de resistance, was an old fridge door, replete with ripped seal which itself was going nastily mouldy!Perhaps there is a quaint French custom that has escaped me somewhere along the line..............However possibly one of you nice people well acquainted with idiosyncratic social French customs can kindly enlighten me.What the bloody hell does one need old barrels filled with bloody sand for in a loft? Inducing hernias?And then there was the workshop: the dear old lad had saved each and every set of old sparking plugs from his cars going back to 1954, at a guess: and of course the fanbelts.Took three good sort outs; a high degree of ruthlessness and a good bonnie!Mowers and strimmers: well anyone wanting to start a biz restoring and reconditioning antique motoculture would have been quids in!Having saved up some energy after a few years, last year we tackled the garage loft: why on earth save papers and kindling: to light fires I know.Five thousand?Why save the displaced huge, heavy and unwieldy fence picquets when you are having new ones installed? Half an acre is a lot of posts!My hernias are much improved, thank you: I'm hoping that my voice will drop back to its original dulcet level, eventually.Just in time for me to tackle the UK garage; two sheds; large loft and of course, the lock up!Oh dear!Suddenly, I do feel tired[blink] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callie Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 [quote user="powerdesal"]If I had done a bank job I wouldn't be on this forum [:P]6 of the 17 were at the 'behest' of HMG, 3 times in one year !I have quotations for a 20ft container expected on Sat and Tuesday - I'm not looking forward to the price, or the possibility that a 20 footer will not be big enough. Looking round the house, its difficult to think what to dump other than one fridge/freezer and the cooker. I still have to go out and order the granite work tops for the rest of the French kitchen as well. Not fun.[/quote]Know the feeling, though we didn't move as much as you, Steve. Just let me reassure you that there is a life afterwards of SHEER BLISS ! No longer at Pusser's beck and call..... At least the moves keep some of the clutter down, though by the time we got to move over here.......the removal lorry wasn't big enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 Nevermind, folks, just think of that lovely, warm, virtuous feeling you will have when it's all done. The Virtuous, also, shall inherit the earth! Or even, as in Gluey's case, the Old Boy's antiques collection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybananasbrother Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 And I am counting that this is my 35th address so far. and I wanananananan get going already.....By the way, set a rule. Never move with more than half what you had before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacqui Too Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 [quote user="Gluestick"]Still, starting as we mean to go on (Ho Hum: famous last words!), the French house, our next demesne in the very neat future, was acquired from a charming elderly Frenchman who could have taught hoarding, to lapse into Black Adder Speek "This Hoarder, Baldrick, is he a horder who has accidiously studied hoarding for many years and now has a doctorate in hoarding from the University of Hoarding and plans to be a lecturer in hoarding?"[/quote]We bought just such a house, only it wasn't the house it was the barns and outbuildings![:-))] And we could see just the same scenario as you describe happening to us, so we had the foresight to include it in the clause suspensive that all the building were cleared of all the rubbish.Two weeks before the completion we phoned the agent to find out if the clearing had taken place. Oh yes he had personally been involved!! Apparently the owner (not the original hoarder) had arranged to have the place cleared out by a group of gypsies on the cheap, well this group of gypsies did not turn up so he went and hired another group of gypsies, after 10 lorry loads of rubbish, 2 days of bonfires, one near riot when the first lot of gypsies turned up to find the second lot had had all the 'goodies', the owner phoned the agent on a Saturday afternoon to come out and bring out the men some beer to keep the peace as he did not trust them and leave the place himself.Needless to say we now have wonderful empty barns to start our own hoarding[Www] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 Declutter, don't make me larf [:'(]I'm conviced that what we lived in in UK, which we thought for 20 years was but a 2 bedroom country cottage without loft, but with a double garage, was in fact Dr. Who's spare Tardis [:-))]We inintially estimated maybe 4/5 trips with my big (8cu/m) box trailer in the end it was more like double that spread over the 8 months it finally took to sell, and we DID throw loads away.We've been here now for 10 months and discounting any 'stuff' we've accumulated since then (not an inconsiderable amount), if we decided to go back now we'd need at least a 4 bed house (with loft) and triple garage. Mind you, with the parlous state of the UK market, we'd probably be able to get one for less than we got for our cottage !We sometimes look around our 4 bed house, with big garage AND 300sq/m barn and say "where on earth did we keep all this suff in UK and why!" [blink]The answer of course is an extension to Parkinson's Law - 'junk expands so as to fill the space available for its storage' Good luck DZ and to you Steve, bit sudden there BTW, wadappen ?PS: Wooly, your rule is perverse - surely you mean 'never move with less than half as much again' [6] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerdesal Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 Good luck DZ and to you Steve, bit sudden there BTW, wadappen ?Ernie, check your e mails Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 Steve, whatever the reasons for your sudden move (just got truly fed up with the purposeless life of idle luxury in UAE, didn't you?), I just want to say that I hope everything goes well and smoothly for you and Mrs Powerdesal.Forget the jokes and legpulling, my good wishes are genuine and serious. And I promise not to wind you anymore, not until you are settled and happy here in France![:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerdesal Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 Many thanks for your good wishes Sweet, the jokes and leg pulling do not bother me in the slightest, niether does being wound up. In fact it is quite difficult to seriously wind me up (I think), unless you happen to be my Director General [:@]It is true that a life of idle luxury can get pointless and purposeless - or at least so I have been told, maybe I will experience it one day [:P]Mrs PD is already in France and would violently resist being moved, I on the other hand still have to find a job to earn a crust or two and to keep her in the manner to which she would like to become accustomed. Tunisia looks interesting [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.