Packing Madness

Nightmare

Packing must be like childbirth, if you remember how long and painful an experience it is, you wouldn't do it again. Mind you the last two weeks will not be forgotten in a hurry.

To start with it was hot, very hot, pushing 30 degrees for the most part, not making working conditions easy. Two weeks sounds along time but it very soon disappears and everything becomes one big rush.

We started on our books, that probably accounted for the first three days, I didn't realise we had so many! Piles of them being crammed into boxes which we then found difficult to lift. That's without the two large holdalls full I lugged up to the cancer shop.

With Karen's assistance (supervision) week one went fairly well, at the end of each day we would look around the house, nod sagely, and proclaim "we were getting there". How wrong we were.

At the start of the second week it was obvious we were getting behind. Karen had to return to work leaving me on my own franticly packing and transporting and stacking all our stuff into Lok n Store. But at least the size of our storage unit looked to be about right. that assumption proved to be a little off the mark as well.
More troops were required and in the shape of my esteemed brother in law, Mr Terry Abbott and a very good friend Norman Drewitt I found them. Also Karen driving to Tesco at 7am every morning to keep us supplied with fresh boxes was crucial.
So we worked and worked, and on Thursday evening, having rented another small unit, we finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel. The packing did become a little frenzied towards the end and box labelling went out the window, but needs must. Good thing too as we had to be out of Melrose by lunch time the following day.
So on Friday morning we took the cats over to the cattery that was to be their home for the next eight weeks or so. Dismantled  the bed and took it with the last few bits down to the store. Even then, when we finally packed the car to leave we could barely get it all in.
But it was done, we were out, with about an hour and a half to spare, and it wouldn't have happened without the help of Norman, Terry and Mr. Colin Newton who drove the van for the large pieces of furniture at the beginning and looking after our bicycles and a double mattress that wouldn't fit in storage.
Well that's it we are now homeless and will spend the next part of this adventure dossing with various friends and relatives. I hope were not going to be too much of a nuisance.