Flying Friday.....Help!!

[vicks5721 18]

Pahhh. If you want real stress move out of your house the night before your flight !

My house sale had not completed and although I seemed to have stripped the house and done everything I was still packing up stuff and cleaning the damn living room at 8pm the night before my flight. I finished the night with the hire car completely and utterly stuffed . And THEN i discovered the bag of cleaning products.

I have memories of trying to clean the inside of the hire car by the light of my mobile phone torch while it was raining. I may have had a tantrum at that point.

Other random memories of the last couple of days ?

• Down at the local skip chucking stuff in the recycling while it was raining and everyone else was sheltering in their cars. Must have thought I was mad.
• Fixing floor boards in the garage the day before.
• The boiler packing up two days before I was due to leave - had to get it fixed as a condition of house sale - 400 squids...
• Waving my dog off to the pet shippers

I did all of this on my own ....

So for anyone planning their final steps - move out of your house and sleep on your friends sofas . Much more logical.

The actual day of travel by contrast was wonderful. After countless trips to the US at the back of a 747 on my "last" trip I actually ended up sitting upstairs - still economy but much more fun. I sent a photo of my hound to the flight deck with a note asking the Captain to check the heating was on (as I'd arranged for hound to be on same flight as me). Just about all the crew came back during the flight to re-assure me my hound was fine and that her photo was pinned on the flightdeck :-)

I arrived at San Francisco just as the sun was going down. Quite a memorable day. Not regretted one moment (apart from that last day!).

Good luck with all those making the move....

how stressful that must of been, I am thankful that I got rid of loads of items I don't need months ago starting from early 2014 in fact as I was already deciding to have a big clear out. I will say though what I find hard to figuring out what to pack and how into my suitcase and what to leave behind until we can collect it when we visit England in the future. I know things like family photos and such are a must to bring with me the first time.

[rjm_cmyk 75]

Ermm - given how sodding expensive extra bags are I'd ship stuff sea freight.

I actually started clearing my house over the previous year before I left. I'd even had all my stuff collected for shipping a week or so earlier. The stuff left in the house was either heading for skip or back to friends. In the end I left very little stuff to bring over. Like a few work folders, which after three trips home are still there :-)

Just a reminder folks - when you move out of a house you really do have to move every last bit out and there is ALWAYS a last bit !