June to August 2019.

Once Steve signed the contract, serious packing and organising of Project Salad began. With my two part time jobs, Steve working 24/7, looking after house, kids and family and packing in between???? How will we manage? Well, we did, even though we were flat out to the last minute and I experienced the fastest departure on planet Earth!

We made storage from Misa’s room, which is full of boxes around the edges, 3 rails packed with clothes are borrowed from our dear friend Vanessa, about 15 bags filled with soft clothing, bed linen and towels, you can feel the floor taking the heavy load. There are boxes in the garage, boxes in the attic, one car and a motorbike in our garage and another car and motorbike in Steve’s parent’s garage. Bags of stuff gone to charity, lots of stuff went to our friends to be used by their younger children – I hate wasting!

Guest room’s furniture gone to the tip and our bedroom furniture moved there. We had decorator with us for a week to decorate the staircase and our bedroom (decorator? And we were living there and packing at the same time!!!!?? And we didn’t go crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!), so our house sitters have fresh white walls. Emilka’s room has got only a couch & chest of draws, my office is ready with clean table for working mum and a double table for kids doing their homework.

Dining room stayed the same with one cabinet emptied, Steve’s office is empty with printer in the cupboard, (you don’t want to know how many boxes full of books and folders and papers are in storage!), sitting room left like it was, conservatory hand me down settee had to be taken to the tip by council workers – really good quality old dark heavy wood, which could have been done up by some handy person, but nobody wanted it, even for free!, kitchen is emptied with only perishable stuff left for the house sitters to use up.

The house sitters will be moving in at the end of August, it is a lovely family from the village, who are selling their 3-bedroom sweet cottage and while in our house, they will be looking for a bigger property. Providing they sell their cottage; it will make them a strong buyer with no chain. We offered them to look after our house in the meantime to give them more space, we know we can trust them and feel comfortable for them being in our lovely home.

I had a lovely goodbye “Afternoon tea” in Oxford with my dear midwifery team from the university, just few days before my last working day. There is something special about crust less sandwiches and warm scone with cream and jam! They sent me off with a money voucher and a book – they know I will have time to read, which I haven’t had for a long time and with the money I will buy some new clothes on my return for my new job – whatever that is! I loved working as a midwifery lecturer, I am so passionate about the students I take on a journey with me and they made me proud! There is nothing more satisfying, with butterflies in your stomach, to see students flourish, for example if they perform really well at a practical exam in front of a panel of assessors. I was very surprised to be asked to come down to the podium at the Midwifery Student’s conference in June, to be given a lovely goodbye card, a beautiful big candle and a bouquet of flowers from the year 2 midwifery students, whom I thought last semester. One of year 1 midwifery student, whom I was academic adviser to, have bought me a pin badge in a shape of a womb and a baby with placenta – how thoughtful.

I had a dinner at a Thai restaurant with my amazing community midwifery colleagues in Banbury – we had a giggle as you can imagine 12 girls of all ages. Anything can be said, and anything can be turned into a funny joke! They were very generous to me as well and gave me a Pandora voucher so with the kids the next day I chose a clover leaf charm for my bracelet.

I had a drinks goodbye in our village pub, which my next door neighbor Ali organised, and invited about 15 girls to join and see me for the last time. It was nice to see so many faces who have made time for me and I was grateful.

Steve had similar goodbye drinks evening with his friends in the same village pub and again it was nice for them to come and wish him well. We were given a lovely card signed by many friends, organised by dear friend Russ, with a picture of the “FAC” gang (fathers against committees) at a camping weekend. Steve traditionally takes and spends hours editing people in as they missed the group shot (last time there was 63 of them) but at least the photo was put to good use!

As our bedroom was empty, we kept putting things there for our travels, clothes, shoes, cosmetics, utensils, stationery, books, notebooks, bits and bobs – you can imagine, there was everything – and soon, the entire floor was covered.

Just days before departure, we managed to have Misa’s best friend for a play and a sleepover and Emilka’s school friend the night before. With kitchen half packed, I was even able to cook dinner for 7 people and our lovely next-door neighbor Ali and Chris join us for last dinner before our departure. Unfortunately, their son Alex, very good friend of our Misa, was away. They are very dear neighbors to us, we are extremely lucky to have them and we can trust them completely.

A good bye dinner the night before departure at grandparents for a special send off to remember. Steve’s brother joined us too and grandma Susan cooked shepherd’s pie, steamed vegetables and as a desert pineapple upside down – good old traditional English food! We will be dreaming about that meal for months, I am sure! She has played it as a party for “Logs 4U.com” and “Spareparts.com”, taking inspiration from grandpa and Misa who cut wood for the former’s neighbours fire to occupy Misa when he was staying on holiday – and formed a “company” in the process. We were given very thoughtful presents such as key rings (good thinking grandma!), 2020 calendar to count down, Misa was given a math set for his new school and Emilka was over the moon with her new plush friend; a genuine Buckingham palace corgi dog named Percy Riley Lynnett Rex Windsor, another member of our extensive plush family!

Kids went to bed about 10 pm, unable to sleep – I wonder why???????????

Steve had been periodically packing suitcases/bags all day, in between doing jobs for me, as I was finishing packing the kitchen, which was the last room to be done as needed to be operational. He packed believing we had the same 4x40Kg limit as when we flew on Sri Lankan airlines for Easter but on checking in found a policy stating we could only have 30 kg baggage allowance each, plus 20 Kg for him as a BA Gold card holder – all together 140 kg rather than 160Kg. He therefore had to re-pack and lose 20Kg. Books and paper notebooks went out, Brandy and Pimms went out, my hand held mixer and my liquidizer went out, kids hockey equipment went out! Then, at midnight British Airways sent him a very confusing email that we only had the standard BA allowance of ONE piece of baggage at 23Kg per person – and no mention of anything extra for him as a Gold card holder. Gulp. Steve was reasonably sure this was wrong but still didn’t want to find out at the airport that it was right so was up until 4am repacking again to get the number of cases down to five – if the allowance included an extra bag for him after all; if three sports bags taped together weighing a crucial 29.8Kg could count as one; and if our dear neighbours could lend us another large suitcase. (Thank you, Alison!)  Roll on to the airport part of the blog to read what then happened!

I was hoping to clean the house top to bottom as kids were with Ali, but I was able to only finish packing, wash and hang on the line 2 washing machine loads, pack the last draw in the kitchen in a hurry, wash my hair, dry half of my hair, no makeup, no food eaten, and I was being called downstairs for a picture at 12.05 with all 14 pieces of language (including hand baggage)!

The fastest departure ever, I didn’t even have time to cry! I left lots of jobs for Ali to do – we are so lucky to have her. When I think about it, she is like my sister and her husband Chris is like my second husband! Their son Alex is like my third triplet and I think we will miss them, and they will miss us.

It was very sweet of my dear friend Penny and her son CJ to come and wave us goodbye, standing on our driveway with Ali and Alex waving us goodbye, all of us unable to speak, with watery eyes of happiness and sadness at the same time – really strange feeling. We know we are off to an exciting adventure and leaving people behind at home, we know life will be different for us all, but not for long, only 16 months!!!!!!! We will be back in December 2020 so wish us luck.

Rennie