Phew, what a week!
Well, after a couple of months of going through all of our belongings, making lists about what we desperately want to move with us, what we need to survive for the next few months in the UK and what we can do without we finally had it all packed up and ready to be shipped to Gran Canaria. Because we are going to be staying in our flat for the next four months we weren’t able to just let the movers loose on the flat and pack everything for us, this would definitely have been preferable to doing it all ourselves but it just wouldn’t have worked out as some of our stuff is staying put.
Unfortunately Miguel got seriously sick the week before the move, some kind of flu-like virus which had him totally wiped out and in bed for almost a week – bad timing Miguel! This left me 7 months pregnant and trying to pack up as much as I could and make all the final arrangements with the shipping firm, despite having just told them to do all their correspondence through Miguel!! Thankfully Mig made a fairly speedy recovery by the weekend and we were able to plough through the last few jobs together ready for the shippers coming on the Monday.
The logistics of the move were not simple and although the movers were great, we couldn’t fault the three guys from Hamiltons who helped us pack the final pieces of furniture and get it all loaded safely into the container, trying to park a 20ft container and a large van outside our flat was no mean feat! After several phone calls to the council and knocking on a few doors we were all sorted though and the packing could begin. This was by far the quickest part and it only took the three guys about an hour and a half to load the container with everything we owned!
We’ll be eagerly tracking the whereabouts of our container over the next few days and Miguel will be flying out to Las Palmas next week to welcome it in, before moving all of our belongings into the new house. For now we are living in a much peaceful and minimalist version of our old house! Just the essential pieces of furniture, a few items of clothing to get us through the next months and some baby supplies, it’s actually quite nice to live with less. We’ll probably decide we don’t need half our stuff when we get there!
Rachael x