Moving House

Who would have thought that we would have been living in shared ‘student type’ accommodation now that we are (almost) grown up, property owning adults? I certainly did not think so but then I always thought I would be married by 25 and even remember saying in a job interview that I wanted to be a deputy headteacher by the time I was 30. And yes, before you ask, I did believe in what I said back then.

Anyway, our time at Somerset House was good (not as good as two years ago but isn’t that the case for most revisited things?) and it certainly has helped us settle here in Christchurch. Not only did staying there mean we did not need to have any household equipment (remember our possessions were boxed and travelling the high seas) but we have also made new friends and acquired contacts through living there.

Our room in Somerset House Emptied of Our Possesions

You may think that after the various moves we have made over the past few years, we should be used to it by now. Well, let me tell you, packing up your belongings into boxes and then having to unpack them again really is not much fun. Having said that, fifteen of those boxes were still unpacked and just stacked in the corner of our room.

We moved out of Somerset House, on Saturday 24th June to house sit Darren & Jen’s house in St Albans, for six weeks. Of course, as prepared as we would liked to have been, it was still a last minute rush. No surprises there then, for most of you.

All those good intentions of packing up throughout the week leading up to our ‘moving date’, just did not materialise. There were just too many things that got in the way. Especially work! Anyway, after shifting two carloads of stuff on Friday, after work, it still left us to do another five trips on Saturday to move all our belongings from our bedroom in Somerset House over to Darren & Jen’s house.

There's always room for one more thing!

When you start to pack things up and have to move them, it is amazing to see how many possessions one has. We couldn’t believe how much (junk?) we have collected over the last five months here. As we would, eventually, like to buy our own kiwi house, we have started to buy pieces of furniture. All courtesy of Trade Me, of course. Our motto: ‘No expense spent!’ has not been left behind in England! Not that we have much furniture to speak of, yet. To date we have: a dining table that can seat ten – with seven non-matching dining chairs, a coffee table – but no settee, and many other useless but wonderfully nice things! Not quite sure how handy my wheelbarrow is going to be just yet, but I am sure it will serve its purpose in many years to come! And a parasol is very useful at this time of the year, not!

Making Ourselves at Home at Darren and Jen's. Of course it is very important to set up the stereo!

Luckily, Darren & Jen have a big house so we can store all our belongings and things we will be buying, until we move again (beginning of August). Yes, we have to do this all over again in the not too distant future! The box(es) room at Darren and Jen's House