It's official! Our home of many years is no longer the place we'll call home. Yesterday we handed back the keys and the three of us moved to our temporary accommodation.
In fact, the move began on Thursday, but things didn't exactly go smoothly. I had spent the day packing up the last bits and pieces. and at 6 pm, three friends came with a van for the big move. We loaded up half of the furniture, together with lots of boxes and suitcases, and off they went to where my things were to be stored.
You won't believe it, but when they got there, there was some kind of power cut and so the remove control for the big entrance gate wouldn't work. There was no way they could drive onto the property to offload my belongings at the basement storage space. As time was limited (two of the helpers were recently-arrived African refugees who needed to be at their Spanish class by 8.30) all they could do was leave all my things sitting in the street while they came back to get the second load.
The second load of furniture and boxes made its way to the new house, but the gate could not be opened and so a second pile of things was let on the street in the new neighbourhood. There was little time left before nightfall, and my helpers needed to leave to attend their class and return the rented van.
With a sinking heart, all I could do was phone a couple of church friends to see if anyone was available to help at such short notice. What a relief and a blessing it was when four people arrived to carry things through the smaller gate and all the way down the slope to the basement storage area.
It meant, though, that quite a number of things got left behind at the old house, and there was no time left to move the dog and cat over to their new and temporary home. We ended up having to spend Thursday night "camping" in the old house - all three of us sleeping on an old mattress on the floor.
Read on below for day two of the adventure...
