Counting Down and Moving On

In less than 40 days we depart China and start our next adventure. It's a lot easier this time as we don't own an entire house of posessions, a house or 2 cars. Impressively we are only taking one cubic metre more than we arrived with and most of that is probably my mid 20th century hand made and painted chest with a revolutionary poem on. I may happen to love this item of furniture a little more than you should. It came from a little shop known as "Frank's". I fell in love the moment I saw it sitting on top of a wardrobe. I then saw the price and assumed it was wrong as it was so cheap. Apparently it was right and included free delivery. Who doesn't love a bargain?

I don't know if moving gets easier. This is our 3rd overseas move and we are hoping that my wandering feet and I can put down some roots for a few years this time. It should be easier for me to settle living by the sea, but the surf may impact on my ability to stay. 

As this is my second international school I had some things I was really looking for in my move and I also had some expectations for what I would receive support with. Juggling flights and shipping between two different companies in two different countries is difficult. I am a little concerned that the shipping company gave me boxes when they are the ones that do the packing... Working with countries that have very different work speeds is not particularly easy either. The perfection levels of the visa paperwork also seems to vary a little. I'm used to jumping hoops these days and apparently I may not have to jump quite so perfectly through the centre these days.

We are doing things differently this time. We aren't using a pet shipping company. My husband has been organising all of this and it is literally saving us thousands. It does make you wonder what the pet shipping companies are charging us for. We are flying with an airline that offers more luggage allowance and my husband's beloved bike is coming along for the ride. We don't get picked up at the airport. We don't get school accommodation because we have a dog and we apparently miss out on the welcome pack because we aren't going to school accommodation. We don't get a housing agent to look after us, but the Principal is giving up his first weekend of the holiday to look after us. 

We're still arriving early to take our time with house hunting. We're looking forward to no longer haveing to live beneath people that roller blade in the apartment when we are trying to sleep. We have seen a rather nice complex with a gym, swimming pool and hot yoga studio and that's where we will start our search. So many rental properties are beige, understandable, but I had an extreme reaction to our current beige apartment and brought ridiculously bright soft furnishings. Considering I've never really gone for bright colours it was a bit of a surprise. I somehow need to restrain myself this time.

It seems funny that in 8 years I have set up home in 3 different countries. Starting again can certainly be expensive, but the adventure is worth it as are the amazing people. 

So, over the next few weeks we are hoping that we will get the correct documents to get our visas, Bella's export license from China and her import permit from Thailand, our belongings packed, we'll spend time with some great people and get the bond back for our apartment.