Moving Day

Posted on 2015/02/28 16:01:39 (February 2015).

[Friday 20th February 2015]
Finally the big day! We got up early to make a start on packing, but quickly realised we'd rather just leave the majority of it to the moving people, who'd do a better job, and instead snuck off to the Regency Cafe for one last breakfast as locals, before dropping Erika off at nursery (her last day at the current place, sadly) and then going back to face the boxes.

Actually, the packing really wasn't too bad, there were two people from the moving company who were of course very efficient, and I pretty much focused on the bedroom, whilst the professionals took care of the kitchen and the lounge. By about 12:30 it was mostly done, and at that point Chie and I left the movers to it so we could get the tube to the new flat, and try and clean up a bit (the builders had left a lot of dust behind) before every conceivable bit of floor space was covered in moving boxes.

I didn't linger there too long, as one of us needed to go back to the "old" flat for the checkout appointment, and also to pick Erika up from nursery. I decided it would be a good idea to pick Erika up first, thinking it was important for her to have a chance to say goodbye to the flat properly, as it was the only home she'd ever known so far. Plus, this had the added benefit of taking up the majority of the attention of the nice lady who came round to do the checkout inspection, and who therefore didn't notice the various marks on the carpet, sofa, coffee table, etc. Good work Erika.

In the interim since we'd left the old flat had been professionally cleaned with impressive speed, and in the absence of all our clutter it looked really nice - I wanted to move back in!

We couldn't linger though, as I wanted to get Erika on the tube before the rush hour got too crazy. So we said our final goodbyes, and headed up North.

Meanwhile there had been a bit of drama at the new flat, we'd paid for a parking suspension to the moving van could park outside the flat, which people had then just ignored and parked there anyway. Amazingly, without having to say anything, a tow truck from Camden Council appeared and towed the cars away. We felt a bit guilty about this - not exactly a great way to ingratiate yourselves with the new neighbours, but the guys with the tow truck just got on with it without saying anything to Chie or the moving people, so not much we could do I suppose.

By about 5:30 the movers had gone, and what had this morning been a nice, newly refurbished, and above all empty flat, was now filled to the brim with boxes. Boxes everywhere.

We didn't feel quite up to unpacking enough of the kitchen stuff to attempt to make a meal, so I think we went out to get takeaway instead - probably from the Chinese place we'd been to a couple of times before we moved in, but I forget now.

Erika became a bit poorly in the evening. I suppose it could have just been a side effect of all the excitement and rushing about, but she was feverish, and was sick late at night. I began to worry that all our efforts to make the place as healthy for Erika as possible (the last minute change to wood floors rather than carpet, etc) had been in vain. Possibly it was a reaction to paint fumes, or maybe the varnish on the bathroom door? I spent the next morning furiously ventilating the place, and whatever it was that caused her to be ill the first night turned out to be a one off, so maybe it was just that.

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