MOVING HOUSE – THOSE FINAL, FRAUGHT HOURS 🏠

Psychologists say that moving house is one of the greatest stresses in life…up there with the death of a loved one and divorce. In my experience this  is absolutely true. Not that I have been divorced, but I did come close during our recent downsize, No matter how much planning and decluttering precedes moving day, it is still dreadful at the end.

Sometimes it’s  the  smallest things that  create unexpected dramas.   The shoes in the following photo were the only pair I kept aside in our recent move from the Blue Mountains to Sydney. You may notice that the laces are strangely short. 😎

Here is what happened.  One of the white  laces was muddy after I’d  weeded  our waterlogged garden for the last time (it rains a lot in the Blue Mountains). I carefully washed it and laid it out to dry on the living room floor. When I went to put my shoes on that final morning I realized that ‘someone’ (OK, my partner Rob) had thrown it out. OMG! All I could do was cut the sole lace in half and roll sticky tape around the cut ends to replace the metal sheaths. Thank goodness there was just enough length remaining to tie  two truncated  bows.

TEA – THE ULTIMATE SOURCE OF COMFORT IN THE CHAOS OF MOVING HOUSE

We all know that a kettle should be the last appliance packed and the first un-packed at  a new property. I had  kept our kettle and two cups out, plus a small ziplock bag of sugar. Our final meal was to be scrambled egg, so I also left a little plastic bag of salt on the kitchen bench. Well you  cannot eat eggs without salt, can you?  Talk about efficient, if I say so myself.  Anyway, when  Rob made us a quick cup of tea, mine had the most bizarre flavour.  Due to the pressure he was under I didn’t like to complain. However, when I went to cook the eggs, I discovered the salt had vanished. It was then the penny dropped. Sometimes my super efficient Rob outsmarts himself.  The wretched man saw two bags of a white substance and thought, ‘Silly Pauline has left out two bags of sugar, I’ll just tip them into one.’  Oh for heavens sake, salt has much finer crystals than sugar! There are worse meals than unsalted scrambled eggs, but not many.

DOWN SIZERS HAVE PARTICUAR PROBLEMS

Moving from a large property in The Mountains to a small inner-city apartment meant that we had sold our car. We had to catch the train down to Sydney (a journey of over two hours) and be at the new place  before the truck arrived. This was to co-ordinate everything with the loading dock and service lift etc. Very tricky when traffic conditions vary so much. We just hoped the movers didn’t get too clear a run.

All aboard for central Sydney!

Would you believe…halfway down at Lapstone there was a medical emergency with a passenger. This led to a  long delay as the poor person was taken off and placed in an ambulance. The one time in 25 years of  making this  journey that such a thing had happened to us.  Both Rob and I almost needed an ambulance ourselves before we finally got going.  Then, just outside Central Station we came to a stop and were told that we had to wait until the Indian Pacific train was shunted off our platform. That is more than bad luck don’t you think?

And yes, we were late, but fortunately the movers and the building manager were patiently waiting for us. Oh the relief. It was all too much for me though. I went off to have cake and coffee while Rob handled everything, bless his heart.  ❤️

By the way, the first thing I cooked in our tiny apartment’s kitchen was…..scrambled egg, with a decent dash of salt.

NOTE – UNPACKING A FEW DAYS LATER I FOUND THE NOW USELESS, BUT VERY CLEAN  SHOE LACE. IT WAS IN WITH THE KITCHEN CUTLERY.

For a useful link on preparing to move, click here.