At long last, an update! And it's a long one...

So, finally I am posting again...

I have tried repeatedly to use Blogger since we arrived at Crowne Plaza, but hadn't managed to open the page. Now we are at Holiday Inn, I have access via Strong vpn which I set up before leaving the UK (on several people's advice!) Pleased to report it is not too slow either!

When I first started this post on my mobile, I was by the pool at Crowne Plaza.
Laura and Adrian were out for a walk enjoying the first sunny day and I started this while 'supervising' James swimming. He had the pool and Jacuzzi to himself :)

So, a re-cap of the last few weeks, my last post was on Sat 26th July...what has happened since then???! How long have you got?!

That weekend involved frantic listing of items for sale/to be given away and thereafter a steady stream of vehicles/villagers on foot collecting the same.

Monday 28th
...was a very busy day, first of all I went down to the other house to let a cleaner in, then it was back to ours to meet the relocation contact (Crown) and make sure the painter was happy (hall, stairs and landing). Slightly disappointed to find out that our 5m3 entitlement for air shipment was gross and we would lose about 20% of that in packing. Also bemused to learn that they would repack everything so there was not much point to packing everything carefully prior to their arrival. They promised they would properly insure and be able to look after my French Horn in transit (they'd better!) They were booked in for Weds 13th August.
Later on GB Liners came to quote, we booked them for Friday 15th August and then I had a few minutes to get ready for my leaving 'do' at the pavilion. It was a low key affair but I was delighted by the number of people who managed to come at pretty short notice. I was surprised by a fab cake from Emma and drank so much prosecco that the journey home involved falling in a hedge!

The cake!

 
Tues 29th

Suffice it to say I wasn't much use to anyone on the 29th! Cyril continued his work on the bathrooms and the painter carried on painting. My parents arrived that afternoon and we chatted through some of the details of the move, they left for dinner and then came back for more catching up with me alone in the evening.
By this point I had some fairly serious concerns about the painter's work and was frantically trying to find another much better painter with whom I felt I could trust the 15 brand new doors.



My Mum reading to Laura at bedtime

Weds 30th
We had agreed to go to Braydon Maize Maze this morning with my parents as the weather was set to be good and we all had a lovely time although it was actually a little warm to be running about in the midday sun!

At the Maize Maze!

In the afternoon I managed to make contact with another painter who at very short notice said he would come by that evening.

Thurs 31st
By Thursday I was starting to fall apart emotionally and mentally, the stress of being in the house with 3 or 4 people working on it, making it difficult moving between rooms and having the children alternately bickering and asking when we were going to do something 'fun' meant that by the evening I was very wobbly and anxious. Adrian put his foot down and said I should book James and Laura into the Holiday Club full time at Malmesbury Leisure Centre and then everything else would get easier. Of course (on this occasion!) he was right but I was so bogged down, I couldn't see the wood for the trees. I rang first thing in the morning and booked them in every weekday for the next fortnight. It's not exactly a hardship, they swim everyday, get to go on the huge trampoline, have a bouncy castle and weekly roller/scooter discos and facepainting!

Fri 1st
Friday was a chance to unwind a little at the Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) Family Funday and BBQ. This is an annual event, but due to the ALU Swindon site being closed over the coming months, this was to be the last. So while fun, it was tinged with a slight sadness as they are such lovely social occasions. It was another opportunity to catch up with the other family going on the LTIA and talk things through. It is so helpful to have an ally who is in exactly the same situation as we worry about the same things and is great for the children to know others in exactly the same position.
In other news, Laura pulled her first top front tooth out!

Sat 2nd
Adrian had his final TA weekend, conveniently it was in Cardiff where someone else was having a leaving party so consequently he was able to catch up with a lot of friends before our departure. Adrian's parents (Bryan and Joyce) had offered to look after the children for the day and I jumped at the chance as it gave me an opportunity to finish the downstairs gloss woodwork and paint James' room without little fingers being stuck in the paint. By the time they brought the children back I had painted James' room with 2 coats of paint and put the shelves back up, moved the bed back and rehung the curtains and it was brand new and ready for him to go to bed. After I had put the children to bed, I set to work on the master bedroom and finally finished after a 15hr day with only a couple of very short breaks for food.

Sun 3rd
I carried on and finished the emulsion in the master bedroom and felt chuffed at the progress. (Little did I realise, there was still so much to do!!)

Mon 4th
We completed on the rented house, hooray!
Other than that I can only remember the trauma of injections part 2 from this day. Again I had to deal with a screamingly hysterical James and hold him down for the first one. He then complained and asked to just stand there for the next and received it with much less fuss. We met Adrian at Pizza Hut for dinner to help get over the trauma and all had our favourite meals. Happily our favourite waitress (also called Laura!) was working and we were able to wish each other well as we were all moving on elsewhere in the next few weeks. We also popped round in the evening to meet our newest neighbour, Curtis, the 3rd addition to the Murray family. My emotions were running high again at the thought that he would be nearly 1 by the time we come back next July :( We are very close on many levels with the Murrays and have been very involved in each other's children's lives and I feel quite choked at the thought of not being side by side with them for the next couple of years (Laura is in the same class as their oldest, Isla).

Tues 5th
Matt (painting saviour of the hour!) turned up with his brother bright and early to start work on the doors, but unfortunately Cyril with his extra helper Eric (I promise I haven't made any names up, Albert joined them too at one point!!) was still finishing off the doors and the Park brothers decided it would be better to come back the following day.

Weds 6th
Doors take 2#
Happily Matt (solo this time) was able to start today and quite quickly I was reassured that we had the right man for the job, he was focussed and careful and everything you want from someone painting gloss onto 15 brand new doors!

Thurs 7th
Um, Cyril finally finished I think and Matt carried on painting....

At some point across these days I had a lady round to do the EPC rating, Dave the electrician came and sorted the NICEIC, I filled out the NRL1 (overseas landlord form for HMRC), I booked the gas certificate to be done and someone to fix the broken tiles on the roof. I went to the doctor to collect a load of repeat prescriptions to tide us over until we are set up with the doctor in Shanghai, I booked the carpet fitters, the letting agent, met a solicitor to draft wills...

Fri 8th
I booked my car to be sold to We Buy Any Car the following Thursday at 5pm and tried not to panic at the time slipping through my fingers.
Laura lost her second front tooth!

Sat 9th
Much more clearing out and sorting and another steady stream of people taking things from our house. Another neighbour's son benefitted from our furniture clearout (why pay to store things we would ultimately have replaced anyway?!) and was kitted out with a coffee table and TV table, a kitchen table and 4 chairs, 3 Ikea Billy (I always hear Jules Bray saying those words!) bookcases, a BBQ, pans and plates and some cutlery! We had takeaway for tea on plastic plates as nearly all the pans, crockery and cutlery had now been rehomed!

Sun 10th
The morning started badly as I discovered water dripping in through the en-suite bathroom light switch. Adrian quickly identified the source, but sadly not quickly enough to prevent a very large watermark that had already appeared on the dining room ceiling (only redecorated last November). Despite the horror I felt when I saw it, I knew it was now too late for us to be able to fix it and would have to be dealt with once it had dried out and therefore after we had left. Luckily Matt (painter) was on site glossing the last of the doors downstairs and we were able to add it to his job list in the coming days.
Adrian's parents came round to help dismantle and rehome the play castle in the garden and while that was happening, Joyce, Laura and I walked the climbing frame round to the village childminder's in the drizzle.
We had been planning on having lunch together at ours but quickly realised that with Matt trying to gloss the kitchen door it was not going to work! His brother also glossed the woodwork in the master bedroom that day as I was out of time to do any further painting.
We did a last minute booking for The Churchill and had a lovely spontaneous Sunday lunch together.

Mon 11th
The trampoline was dismantled and collected and the new carpets were laid in the hall and on the landing and stairs.

Tues 12th
Our plumber and son came to do some work for us and confirmed we needed a new header tank asap (hairline fractures) as nobody wants 50 gallons of water to come flooding down through the house. I was feeling emotional again and nearly cried into their cups of tea as I made them!
The letting agent came to take photos but it wasn't feasible due to the skip outside the house and the boxes everywhere. We agreed they should come back the Monday after we had left!
My best friend from school Kate arrived with her son Daniel at about 11 and we decided to flee the house and its problems and have a posh lunch out at the Water Park. Adrian popped in on his way through to Cirencester and although Kate's visit was brief, it was a real tonic and I felt much stronger as a result.

Weds 13th
It was all go packing in the morning as we heard that Crown would be with us between 2 and 4pm. They actually didn't repack everything and we were made nervous by the fact that they had incorrect/incomplete paperwork so they knew nothing about the horn and the bikes. It is very hard not to be anxious but it is now out of our hands.

Thurs 14th
Spent most of the day finding things that should have shipped, dressing gowns and bathrobes hanging on the backs of doors etc <grrrr!> and failing to do anything productive due to phonecalls, visitors and errands. Gas certificate chap came first thing. Matt came round to check if the dining room ceiling had dried out and to quote to fix the damage. He asked a little too kindly how I was doing (with the whole packing up, shipping to Shanghai thing) and embarrassingly I all but burst into tears on him. The address is going to get blacklisted amongst local tradespeople for being inhabited by a weepy, hysterical basketcase of a woman! At 4.15pm I hurried home to strip the car and headed into Swindon on the remaining diesel fumes to sell it. Had to haggle for every penny, but the deal was done.

                  



I have had so many lovely, thoughtful presents,

these are a couple received in the final days... 

Adrian picked me up, James and Laura had gone to his parents' for a sleepover to allow us a clear run at packing up for GB Liners (storage). As the evening progressed I realised I wasn't going to be anywhere near ready by 8.30 am so with the assistance of coffee and peanut M&M's I packed through the night.

Fri 15th
Understandably due to lack of sleep I was a liability by midday, I could barely think straight, let alone talk and by early evening got to the point where I just asked Adrian to tell me what to do as I had ceased to function. A real low was crying my eyes out cleaning James's bedroom windows because a man came to put the 'To Let' board up outside our house :( We went to Bryan and Joyce's to pick up the children and have a 'last supper' together and then set off for the Holiday Inn Swindon.



 

Sad, empty house :(

  

The final straw!

Sat 16th
Up early and straight back to the house to finish off. The children didn't have much to entertain them in the empty house which meant that after about an hour I knocked on a neighbour's door and took her up on her offer to look after them for a bit. They were in heaven as she made chocolate biscuits with them! My morning involved firstly repacking all the bags to meet weight limits and stashing bottles in the hold luggage. Then, my next job was cleaning paint marks from all the new door handles with white spirit and then fixing finishing discs on to each one. This took a surprisingly long time and meant I didn't start cleaning until after lunch. I managed the spare bedroom and main bathroom thoroughly (James and Laura's rooms had already been done) but had to leave the rest as we were out of time. The en-suite is still all post-work 'grouty' and still needs a thorough scrub but we have booked the same cleaner that did our rented house.
Here are some pics of the refurbished main bathroom in all its glory:

And the en-suite:

We were waved off by our neighbours at about 6pm with the car loaded to the brim and headed back to the Holiday Inn. We were on the first floor and there was no lift, not much fun with 4 massive suitcases and 4 lots of hand luggage (2ps each, one cabin/laptop case, one 'handbag') so effectively 12 pcs of luggage. Adrian delivered his car to the person who was acquiring it and then it was time to kick back and relax a little. We had saved the last bottle of champagne from our wedding and now was the time to open it! We had done all we could do...

Sun 17th
We had breakfast, the taxi came at 10.15 and then we were on our way.

 

The journey to LHR was good, we managed to get all the luggage into the building and only got charged £40 for excess baggage. 3 bags consistently 1.5kg over, but the last was about 3kg over.

 

 

I also had my hand luggage searched and my Marmite and mincemeat confiscated - hahaha!

As if we didn't have enough to carry, in a moment of weakness I let the children have a new soft toy each, they both chose a cuddly bulldog in a Union Jack carry bag!

We got onto the flight after a never ending bus transfer round the terminal and to my considerable delight they had Cava on the Economy trolley!

Adrian slept quite a bit on the flight but despite our exhaustion, none of the rest of us did much.

Mon18th
We cleared immigration, were reunited with our bags and headed off to the Maglev. James was very impressed at the 431kph so we were glad we had done it even though it was a faff lugging the cases on. We were met at the Metro station where the Maglev terminates by the concierge from Crowne Plaza who had arranged the hotel shuttle to pick us up. Once checked in, at about 10.30am we all decided a snooze was in order.

I was first awake at about 3 and then undertook the mammoth task of waking everyone else. By 5 we were heading upstairs to the executive lounge for snacks and drinks and then went out for dinner later on at a Ramen restaurant.

First trip out (in the rain!)

Tues 18th
Still raining, went into town on the Metro for a wander and to go up the Shanghai World Finance Centre (SWFC) also know as 'the bottle opener' due to its appearance. The very top of the building has a walkway with a glass floor for you to see all the way down, it definitely made my head spin and my legs go wobbly but wasn't quite as bad as I feared! The ear poppingly fast lift was the worst bit, 95 floors in a couple of minutes:(


First trip on the Metro

SWFC, first tall building on the left



Panorama across to The Bund

 

 

The Pearl Tower and the view down from the bottle opener



Laura keeps getting papped!

Weds 19th
Raining even more heavily! Didn't do much in the morning except sort out paperwork for the Orientation Day, swimming and camp out in the Executive lounge. In the afternoon we went to visit the house; it was musty and needs some things fixing, a thorough clean and airing, but otherwise good. The children were very pleased with the clubhouse - small gym, pool table, indoor and outdoor pool :)

Thurs 20th - today!!!
We moved hotels to one nearer school and the new house. Very pleased to have full internet access again via vpn. Had a swim after lunch in the infinity pool on the 25th floor. It is cantilever and hangs out beyond the building several metres and has a glass floor so that (if you are mad enough!) you can swim out and look down 25 floors with nothing below you. I feel sick just typing that but I had to put my game face on for James and prove I wasn't scared by swimming down and sitting on the glass (I didn't open my eyes though!!!)
Happily I discovered this evening that our house listing is now live:
http://www.maisonlet.co.uk/display.php?pid=14716_2121847&bedrooms=4&price=900-1500#ad-image-0

There, you are now up to date (and most likely asleep in your dinner!)