Monday, June 19, 2006
On a Freight Train Somewhere...
The Big List
Luckily I have a bit of free time this week, so I can do all the running about to the bank, the insurance office etc. so that everything happens the way it's supposed to. I'm also in charge of supervising the actual moving out of our stuff here, and I'll be home all day Thursday and Friday to make sure that everything that needs packed up gets packed up. The 'Packers' are coming first, on Thursday, to pack up the whole house. We enquired what 'prep work' we have to do before they arrive (assuming as good Norn Iron people that we would have to more or less pack up all our stuff so it's neat and tidy and ready to be lifted when they arrive) and the company said "no dirty dishes, no dirty clothes, apart from that, we'll pack the house up as it stands"! So it should be interesting to see the whole house packed up before my eyes! We're out for a farewell dinner with Walley Temple on Wednesday night, but we can't stay out too late as we have to gather up our 'Survival Kit'. As we'll be living in an more-or-less empty house from Thursday night - Monday morning (and then again in Edmonton until our stuff arrives next Wednesday), we have drawn up a list of essentials which shouldn't be packed up, so we have to gather these together before the packers come and put them in the cars, so that we can more-or-less say to the packers - "right, pack everything else up"!
The packing crew will leave on Thursday evening with the whole house packed up but with nothing removed (should be a very odd night for us). They're leaving our bed in place until Friday morning, when they return with the 'Moving Crew', who will dismantle our bed and then lift all our packed goods into a big lorry and take them all away. The house will now be actually empty, which is when we bring out the Survival Kit:
2 Ikea Plates
2 cereal bowls
2 glasses (big)
1 wine glass
2 denby coffee cups
1 frying pan
1 kettle
some dishwasher tablets
squeezy
instant coffee
tool bag, paintbrush, paint, polyfilla, screwdrivers
passports
2 knifes / forks/ spoons
corkscrew, bottle opener
small TV
table
2 fold-up chairs
Roomba
Hoover
DVD & DVD player
A few shoes
A few coats
Cleaning materials
Blow-up bed
Pillows
Duvet
Bed sheets
Alarm Clock
Books
Clothes for 5 days in a suitcase
Tolietries for 5 days
2 towels
1 face cloth
Hairbrush
Laptop & airport & modem & laptop stand + webcam
External HD
Pens
PSP & games & accessories
Personal papers in a box
Chief amongst these are the blow-up bed ($ 60 from Canadian Tire, just a big blow-up mattress with a built in fan which blows up and sucks down again at the flick of a switch) and the stripey camp chairs ($ 14 each from RONA, a bargain, good for the deck too). We take some more pictures when they're set up so you can see just how sad they look!
Key elements of the kit
It's going to be rather an odd weekend, but at least we'll have a TV to keep up with the World Cup (watch out for an upcoming blog about this) and a few DVDs to pass the time. We're going to be quite busy getting the empty house cleaned out and touched up with paint and Polyfilla, but we're taking a break on Saturday to have dinner with the HERBs. And we might get a wee run out on Sunday, weather permitting.
And then we say "Goodbye to No. 48" on Monday morning at 8am, when the rental agency comes to make the final inspection and give us our deposit back, and we head off to Edmonton, where the story will be continued...
Regarding this post's title - the stuff we packed up from home in May got packed into a lorry, and thence into a container which travelled from Belfast to Liverpool.
Our stuff, Island Park
More stuff
The Big Yellow Moving Lorry
It sat on the quay for few days and then got loaded onto a boat headed for Montreal. 
Container ship
Port of Montreal
That boat arrived last Tuesday and the container was moved to a rail yard where it sat waiting for a train to Edmonton. We checked on Friday and it hadn't been assigned a train yet. But we got word today from our agent that it is now somewhere on the plains of central Manitoba, heading west on one of those impossibly long trains that we see all the time here.
Impossibly long train
The upshot of all this is that the container is expected to arrive in Edmonton tomorrow, and Customs insist that we have to go in person to clear the shipment within 2 days of arrival. Which means that I might be spending another 7 hours in the car driving up and down to Edmonton tomorrow! (I was up again last week to interview for a secretary, who we have now employed).
This is going to be some week...
J
