Moving On

In my youth, I moved around a fair deal being the eldest child of a career Air Force man. Not as much as some people, but more than others. When I was little, I don't remember having much to do with the physical move myself. I think my main job was not antagonizing or provoking my mom. A task I am not sure I accomplished. When I became an "adult", I was in charge of moving myself - although that mostly entailed roping friends with larger cars or better yet a truck or two to help me with my few boxes of meager belongings. When I got older and had a little bit more money in the bank, we could afford to hire professional movers. I like that quite a bit more but it is a bit nerve racking watching people take your possessions off in a truck and hope they end up in the same place as you.

Moving internationally is definitely a matter that requires much faith. It starts out pretty much the same as much as the other moves, someone comes to your house - gives your belongings a once over and then guesstimates how long it will take to pack and load your stuff. In my case 1 1/2 days to pack and another 1/2 day to load. Our movers showed up bright and early (about 1/2 hour early) to pack our stuff and found that our street has parking restrictions. Only stickered cars unless you make prior (about 21 days prior) arrangements. Which apparently, the estimater did not do. So how many tickets does one moving truck get in 2 days? Answer at the end of the blog. In an international move, no food, or liquid, no open containers of anything, moisturizer, soap, anything like that gets packed. Everything else is boxed or crated and then put in the shipping container. They bring the container right to your house. Which I was amazed at! Somehow I thought they would truck the stuff to the container and then load it up. Not here. Loaded and sealed here.

Our moving crew consists of 2 guys about 50 years old, Bill & Tom, and a 19 year old girl, Lauren. Bill, the crew manager, keeps calling her Laura and she keeps correcting him "LaurEN". About 20 times an hour. I am fearful Tom is going to have a heart attack on my shift, he huffs and puffs up the stairs, turns bright red and goes "Whoo" alot. I am not sure why. Tom strips down to his undershirt, one of the sleeveless varieties called a "wife beater" in some circles, which LaurEN finds very upsetting. I think I am with her, how come the guys who always strip down to tank tops (or wear speedos) are the very guys who probably shouldn't? My friend who is also moving, tells me her movers are 20 year old boys who spend more time flexing around her 16 year old daughter than actually moving. So I guess the grass isn't always greener. My 2 50 year olds and 1 19 year old are dismantling my 3 bedroom flat in about 15 hours. Her crew of 3 20-somethings have been there 4 days and she is hoping they will finish today. LaurEN is definitely the junior member of the crew in age but in stature as well. You can tell that because she gets all the "bad" mover assignments, like the kitchen. Professional movers hate the kitchen because there is just so much stuff, and lots of pieces, cutlery, glasses, plates, coffee mugs, etc. LaurEN also got the attic assignment, which requires climbing a ladder and working in a pretty hot area. She listens to her MP3 playing phone all day long with headphones and periodically sings along, out loud. So far I can tell she likes Madonna, Justin Timberlake, Spice Girls, and some other stuff. She and I have chatted a bit. She told me about her last holiday 3 years ago, with her parents, her brothers to an island off Spain. She enjoyed it quite a bit and they were supposed to go back but her mother "fell pregnant". "Fell"? I think that is an interesting way to classify it. So that brother is now 2 and they were planning something for this summer but guess what happened? More falling. What's a girl to do? I would kind of like to meet LaurEN's mum. We know she has one 19 year old, a 2 year old and one on the way at least. And we know there are others in between because she said before the two year old was born was her last holiday with her brothers. Yikes.

Our crew works pretty hard and nothing seems to faze them. Since the estimator forgot to get the parking clearances, Bill isn't sure what is going to happen with the container when it arrives. If there is no parking, and the container will require about 3 spaces, they are going to park it in a church parking lot about 6 blocks away and ferry all the stuff to the container. How will they save their truck parking spot when they are up at the container? LaurEN will stand in the parking space. No lie. The moving gods are with us and about 5 minutes before the container is due to arrive and does arrive, 2 space open up right behind the crew's truck. LaurEN is dispatched to stand in the spaces while the container comes up the street. She does and seems resigned to her fate, all in a day's work.

Everything is all done now. It is kind of sad. I have always loved this flat and even all empty, I can see why we liked it to begin with - it is bright and airy and cheerful. We had a good 2 years here and have lots of good memories. I hope the next people, an American couple with two small children, enjoy it as much as we did.









***By the way, the moving truck received 5 tickets in the 2 days of the move and the container received 3. Now you know how Westminster council makes its money.