Moving Out

Good Friday saw me going to Church first thing and then it all started.....the packing.  Little did I know that it would end up taking 11 hours!  I had help from Lucy, a lovely work colleague who gave up a couple of hours to help pack up the kitchen.  It was then Jude, organiser extraordinaire and all-round fab person, and myself.  There were times when I thought it was never going to get done.  There was stuff everywhere.  I was having to think of where things were having to go.... 'can it be packed away for a year?'...... 'do I still need that out for work?' (I've still got 2 weeks left until my career break starts)...... 'will I need this in Chad?'.  Packing up was strange.  It was different to just moving house as I had to pack some things away for a year and keep other things accessible.  However at 10pm it was all done, we'd packed everything and put a lot of stuff in my attic already.  Jude, being her usual very organised self, had also written copious signs detailing what was to go where the next day and a two page list of jobs to be done!  This was a great help on the Saturday as various people arrived asking 'what needs doing?'



Boxes

Boxes




More boxes.....

Saturday arrived.  I didn't want to get out of bed because then the day would start and I would be moving out, something I wasn't looking forward to in some ways.  My flat has been my home for over 10 years (minus 9 months in Cameroon) and it's my haven.  However I did get myself out of bed and at 10am people descended to help me move things to various locations in Torquay, sort a few DIY jobs, put yet more stuff in my attic and clean the whole flat.  Thank you Mark, Gary, Neil, George, Jude and Mum :)  So my flat is now empty, apart from furniture as I'm letting it furnished. 


 

Empty lounge!

Empty lounge!

Empty kitchen!

So that's it.  I'm now out of my flat and staying for two weeks with my friend Julie (aka MJ Groovit....long, and actually-now-quite-old story!!)  It's a weird feeling not having my own home.  Don't get me wrong, Julie has made me very welcome and I treat her place as I would my own (thank you Julie, you're a star!).  However it's not my home.  My home is 5 minutes up the road, standing empty and awaiting tenants to move in on Wednesday.  It's all a bit surreal to be honest but a wise friend gave me some advice on Saturday which helped a lot.

It's strange, because on one hand I'm feeling sad to have left my flat, but moving out is part of the journey, the process of to going to Chad, and I'm excited about that and the adventure it will be!  I can't have the trip to Chad without the sadness of leaving my flat.  That's just the way it goes :)