Egypt4u

BREAKER BREAKER - LLL here.........It was awful - the move but it is done done done and I'm done done done and soooooo tired! At least the truck had a bench front seat. I'll be on the phone to the Company re: driver + helper as it is a KNOWN Company but it is really defeating to have to deal with a kid on a counter (I'd guess he was probably 21-ish) with no authority and really no knowledge. He hands over rental trucks, collects keys and checks the gas gauge is full. Everything else is done online and/or via phone so when there is a glitch there is nobody direct talk to.

Part of the problem is/was the house sold in 6 days with a closing April 8th. It needed to be staged (furniture left in and the house all decorated up) as part of the sale strategy and who figured listing papers signed Wednesday, onto the front of the weekend newspaper Saturday, open House Sunday and TWO competing offers Tuesday.

The battle between the 2 lasted 2 days but then it took another 10 days to satisfy what are called the "subject to's" i.e. Subject to a satisfactory building inspection (which showed they wanted an evaluation of the hot water tank (OK - it is 9 yrs old ???) and an inspection on the furnace. Apparently there was a hole in a pipe (I dunno really cause I only ever had it serviced and made no attempt to understand). The Building Inspector viewed it as a deteriorating pipe but in reality it was OK as it was the hole used to probe the gas (something like that I don't know). Then the Buyer's Bank had to do an appraisal of the value which took another few days after the Building Inspector.

Once the Subject to's were Satisfied I felt confident enough to have the Stager Woman take out all her stuff but I still had 2 Sofas and 2 Beds, chests of drawers, super large entrance mirror - all the yard stuff (few concrete statues) and lawnmower, rakes, lawn chairs and boxes. It all fit into a 12' x 8' storage unit. I'd rented a bigger truck than needed but wanted to have space to move and believe me I had moved out almost everything I could over my trips. There isn't much left it was more a function I just finally had to get it out.

Anyway - in the end it only left me a few days to get the stuff out. A moving company to move international (even needs booking something like 3 months out cause they insist on containerizing everything and insist on their own people coming in and wrapping every single item as it all has to be inventoried for the Customs Inspection at the Border. A value has to be assigned to every item so I can pay appropriate IMPORT tax (or some such). I couldn't do that. I did get a "guess-timate" from one Company that STARTED at $8500 (and the stuff I had left definitely didn't warrant that at all)

NOW that I have what I have located 30 minutes from the Border each and every trip over in the Prius and I can bring it back here. My son in law's older sister lives just minutes from the border and goes down to shop all the time and comes over here so a few boxes of books, ornaments, 3 lamps (stuff like that) is easily brought here. On April 18th the son in law is going over to the mainland for a 2 week course and he'll bring back stuff (i.e. they want my lawn mower as their present one is dying) and all of this is 'second hand' so easy(ier) to bring back vs if you're just running down for the day buying new stuff.

As for finding the guys - I would not have been as confident if it had been later in the day. When I went to the "Fifth Ave Tav" (as it is known) I talked to the Bartender first to get her opinion of 'who' I might ask re: driving. She did know the ones who were not the heavy drinker drinkers and for cash I was able to get two basically respectable family men types who didn't mind getting an impromptu days work. Given my work career me walking into a bar with this mission was easy peasy BUT I will admit to being somewhat in panic mode as no way could I have shoved 2 sofas into a truck OR lifted the lawn mower or chest of drawers or even the big mirror.

All's well that ends well ........ WHEW! I am soooooooo glad it is DONE! (Almost feel like I'm still coming down from this) Not sure I'm telling the daughters - they roll their eyes at me (given how my career impacted them and their lives) and more than wanted me to stop working when I did!

Suffice today I'm sitting and watching TV (and the birdfeeder which seems to have gone down another 1" in the past few days)

Now that can be painfull Grandad, regarding the tailgate, I have the same problem. I am fairly tall and my tailgate has two positions, open and open even more, you can bet your life I forget to push it fully open and finish up banging my head

I had not considered the business of crossing borders LLL. It all seemed a bit of a trauma just to get your stuff as far as the border. You really do have my respect though, not many ladies or even men could have got out of a situation the way you did. :

I will ditto that

Thanks! IMO 'moving men' are now in the category of used car salesmen - can't trust 'em at all. I'm now dying in place! Am NEVER moving again - ever.

Well done LLL!

Good on ye

Today I'm back to giving away gravel. White decorative gravel. The people who had this place before spent their life bringing in round river rocks creating what I'd call 'dry creek beds' - blue chip gravel looking like a dry creek with big round river rocks outlining it and then smaller river rocks covering the ground. They've also planted whispy grass amongst this and then created pathways with inset flagstones to walk on........

Not sure what it all sounds like. I guess it did have a 'look' to it and some people might have liked it however I haven't liked it at all sooo since moving in I've been giving away FREE river rocks and white decorative gravel.

I've done this in fits and starts as I've cleared areas and did work on the front of the house first but now I've worked down to the back area.

Lots of people do like the rocks and have hand bucketed out truck loads. I'm now working on the white decorative gravel (which grows weeds like crazy and gets dirty like crazy and I'm NEVER going to bucket it up, wash it and lay it back down like the pervious owners did). Have a couple people coming for the gravel this morning and the Dtr + GrndDtr coming over for a cuppa so that is my morning.

Otherwise I've been sitting, drinking coffee and watching the bird feeder out front. It is down probably another inch but I've yet to see a bird at it. Not sure who is eating from it, love to see them and I do keep watching but nobody is in sight.

Had a late lunch with Dtr and SiL at a newish (1 year) Turkish restaurant just half a mile from home and right opposite Chapmans, our fav fish restaurant. One of three in the area owned and run by the same Turkish family. Authentic, enjoyable, friendly and a little bit of Turkey right in the city.
Definitely a return visit is called for. http://www.ala-turka.co.uk/

I admire your stamina LLL, sit down and have a rest, I'm knackered just reading your posts this week

That place looks very nice Grandad

Looks so good Grandad, wish they did take a way -- haaa haaaa

@Grandad - the restaurant looks lovely. I especially like the tile floors and the big silver scribed decanter/jug. I have never had Turkish food but it all looks extremely yummy so am equally sure I could definitely down lots!

@H - one of my primary problems in life has been that I have no 'off' switch. The Canadian gov't got a great deal with me and one of the conditions of my employment was that I be available 24/7 (and I was for years). I can wake up at 2am and within 10 seconds or less be fully function and ready set to GO. I lived on a pager and the sound of that beep beep beep can still get the adrenaline going WHICH the Doctors now maintain I'm addicted to. Probably not a good thing

Today I have been putting away all the 'stuff' I brought back with me and I ask anybody how many bottles of glass cleaner, floor cleaner, toilet cleaner can one use in a life time? How many dried beans does it take to fill a kitchen cupboard? UGH! I have odds 'n ends of stuff I swear I never bought and never knew I had.

I know what you mean LLL, for years I was a slave to my mobile and emails, now it is all over and I thank whatever god it is for the release, I am now off the treadmill and wonder how I ever existed on it.

I'm off the treadmill but I do seem to have a need to have something to do. Most of the world seems able to sit, put their feet up and relax but I have a really hard time doing that. I actually have days when I think taking early retirement was a mistake

I actually have days when I think taking early retirement was a mistake

Believe me it wasn't

@H - you're probably right but at least when I was working I KNEW each and every day brought crisis after unpredictable crisis and I was prepared for it. NOW I can plan everything down to the finest minutia and it all goes critical when I least expect it. At work I always expected it

Well, I'm in total disagreement over retirement! DH retired five years ago and I'm watching his gradual decline, and it's painful to see. I Suppose it depends if you have other interests but DH lived to work and didn't want to retire. The trouble is that I'm constantly trying to find jobs for him to do, which will keep him busy for a while, so that I can get on with other things. It's like having a child around again. My life has totally gone to pot!

Doesn't he have any hobbies RS to keep him busy? most days I wonder how I managed to find the time to fit work in.

Retirement can be a difficult transition. In my final 20 years of full time employment I had ultimate responsibility for our products going to customers and for supplies coming in from our suppliers. This was very demanding but it gave me a buzz and I would work all necessary hours to keep both my company and the customers content.
When I retired 17 years ago the company offered me a three year contract to work 2 days a week as a consultant at their other factory in Yorkshire. They paid me and my expenses generously so that was a very good half way house between full employment and full retirement. At the end of the three year contract I still wanted to occupy some of my time so I joined B & Q as a tools specialist and worked there, up to 20 hours per week, for about 4 years. That took me into my early seventies (when I left to sort out bowell cancer). We then spent a number of years taking several holidays a year and so by my late seventies I was ready for proper retirement and to take life in a leisurely manner which is where we are at right now.
I count myself lucky that I was able to wind down over a number of years. To retire one day and have nothing to do the next is simply too much of a change from a routine of around 50 years to nothing.
I saw my doctor on Thursday. He is approaching 60 and commented, 'You and I are both big men Mr 'Grandad', and approaching 82 you give me hope to also achieve a good age......that cheered me up and I forgot what I went to see him about

My job is/was extreme difficult to describe unless you did it plus it is/was bound by extreme confidentiality so suffice I went from a job with 24/7 response driven by crisis that demanded hours of my time to really nothing. No transition or slowing down just stopped. I didn't retire because I didn't like the job I retired due to the increasing danger and liability - the Ultimate Powers that BE are NEVER wrong and given the economic times somebody always is/was blamed and/or hung out to dry which was becoming more and more the norm even if you were not even in the room at the time so to speak.

I had trips planned and I knew I had houses to downsize and dispose of but now ? Am bored. I haven't even reached the age of normal retirement yet so I do have lots of time that I think I need to go back to work. That being said I'm really only experienced in a very niche field that really isn't portable to other jobs.........to use an analogy - kinda like a Sniper. Not really too many jobs available once you retire

I'll figure out something. So far I've always had something to do but now what I actually have to do is getting less and less which means I have to figure out more and more what to do to occupy myself.