Pinot, Bretzels, and Cathedrals

Here are some things I have taken note of today while our Centurion house was unpacked into our Sellenick apartment:

1. If you move to Europe, the chances are you will only need, and have space for, HALF your shit.

2. You WILL HAVE to take off 2 days before the removal company arrive.  In SA, my fridge was unplugged, defrosted and packed 2 hours after I turned it off.  It arrived today filled with mould, and tainted with the faint reminder why I am glad to be rid of Dinah.

3.  Following point 2, you really need to pay attention to stripping beds of linen, and washing it the day before.  After the truck left here at 16h15, we have re-made beds with the linen that was taken off when the removal company arrived.  Because we need to sleep tonight. 

4. Don’t bother ironing (your linen) before you pack.  Anton will spend all weekend re-ironing all of his work clothes that left SA perfectly ironed.

5.  Consider making of a list of what you have packed, in the event you visit IKEA (or wherever) for things you think you left behind.  We now have double wash baskets for dirty clothes, and double cutlery drying thingy. (Perhaps the 4 laundry baskets will be appropriate this week).

6.  This goes without saying, (unless you live in a new city (with only one friend to bail you out)).  Try have meals already prepared that you can pop into an oven.  My poor babies have eaten cabanossi today.  Anton and I have eaten beer.

7.  Your baby girls WILL turn out EVERY SINGLE toy box that they can open.  Don’t get angry.  “More is nog ‘n dag“.  You can add it to the list of things that need to be packed away.  Again.

8.  The young semi-hot guy who lifts and carries those boxes might need to access your Wi-Fi.  That’s alright. Your older, hotter husband has access to Wi-Fi as long as he’s home.

9.   Keep a box/carton handy that you can discard the random things that accidentally got packed that you really should have thrown out 6 months ago.

10.  Relax.  If you use British International Removals in South Africa, and Euro-Group in the United Kingdom , the packing and unpacking is a breeze.  Thank you to Mark, and his crew in SA, and Gary and Dan in the UK.  To the rest of you, sitting behind desks, computers and telephones (I think, I worry about them actually owning a telephone), your really need to get mentoring in customer relations.