Leaving England

I notice two distinct sides to leaving the place we have known as home for over twelve months.
One of course is emotional- the letting go of familiar sights, smells, experiences and people that we have come to know during our time in England.

 

The other is practical- how to disengage, disentangle and disassemble all that we have constructed and plugged into in our time living abroad; what accounts to close, what things to ship back to Australia, what things to sell and give away, who to notify, who to farewell and to promise to keep in touch with.


 

The leviathan of actually leaving seems daunting at first and later often overwhelming. I am constantly aware that if we don't get things done in the right order, the family will be sleeping on the carpet eating peanut butter out of a jar with our fingers- the peanut butter possibly made from the peanuts we got in return for the sale of our car (and certainly dud in terms of giant beanstalk potential).

For the move I am extremely grateful that Fil has finished up work and all that the whole family can work on packing as a team, albeit half the members sleeping until lunchtime and moaning and complaining about whatever they are asked to do!

 After planning and a bit of booking, we leave most of the doing to the last three weeks so that we can, for as long as possible, enjoy the lovely English summer, and I can continue my writing.
Not veterans of international moves by any means, we at least now tout a little experience and of course this time we are returning to familiar faces, places and processes , all of which makes that future landing on Australian soil seem, in theory, a little softer than our stumbled landing last July on British soil.

 

We have arranged a last European holiday before we leave the northern hemisphere since restrictions of school and work holidays meant we haven't seen quite as much of Europe as we may have liked. You have to understand when you come from an island on the bottom of the planet, you are greedy about what you see when you travel! Of course we are thrilled to have seen parts of Portugal and Germany and of course New York as well as Ireland and the Isle of man but we haven't made it to the Mediterranean, so our last hurrah will be a cruise around that region visiting half a dozen new countries we have never been before.

 

 

We also hope the holiday is an uplifting end  to what is otherwise at times a sad end to our adventure- particularly for me- but also to varying degrees for the boys too.
When it comes time for Alex and Flynn to finish up with school we do some family fun-days around Winchester together- museums, archery, walks, tree-top adventures. I am all too aware that aged 17, we are not Alex's first choice for social outings;) , so this is another reason to make the most of this time, certain as we are that when we return to Australia and he has settled back in and made new friends, he will be off doing his own thing (as we all do at that age.)



Even Flynn who will soon be 14 is getting toward that stage and occasionally it occurs to Fil and I that not too far down the track our house will be child free. A bizarre thought!
 All the more reason to enjoy family time (ups AND downs!) while we can.
We arrange flights to Barcelona where our cruise begins and ends and where we will stay a few days, as well as flights to Sydney with a KL stopover to break up the tedious flight.
We also sort some accommodation for when we leave our Winchester home. We have decided to give ourselves a few days on the south coast of England, so that if we have any last minute bits we did not manage to sort we are still in the country- albeit enjoying a short seaside holiday ( and buying any last minute swimsuits!)

 

Knowing we want to take a few things back to Australia and also freight back a few things like our winter clothes and game consoles, we check around for freighting companies and organise for boxes to be delivered and couriered away a few days before we leave the house. These will take 6- 12 weeks which will suit us well, arriving as we will into a Australian spring.
At this time, a mini-emergency pops up when Fil finishes up at work and loses his wallet.
 It is frustrating retracing all his steps only to find absolutely no trace of the damn thing.
It turns out the police don't do anything about wallets (though they took our home number in case it was handed in)  and we are at a loss as to how to find it. We don't even know where it went missing to put up a notice and reward as we have been running around so many places.
The missing wallet and bank cards create several dilemmas we do not expect- Fil can no longer drive here and I suddenly become designated driver because it would take three weeks to get another Australian drivers license or three weeks to get a UK one and we are almost out of time to leave.
Also our Australian credit card- which of course we booked all our flights and holidays with is missing.The whole lot turns out to be a right pain to get sorted with the Australian bank making several errors in trying to help us and it takes 2 1/2 weeks to sort just to get a temporary card.
We are so grateful we have an English bank account and to get a replacement card for that within 3 days.


Selling our little Skoda isn't easy. We get a quote from the car yard where we bought it and they have offered us a last resort price which at least is a failsafe if for any reason we have trouble selling.
 We would have taken the car back to Australia with us we're so fond of it and prices so much better in the UK, but our youngest son Flynn has grown so much while we are away, it is not really practical for us all fitting in leg-room wise. All in all it is a quite a hassle to send by sea anyway, so we decide Minty needs to have a new home and through a friend find an auto buyer who gives us a better if not great price. Over the course of a year our losses as still much less than car-hire so we can't complain.

We sort all our paperwork- stuff to take back to Oz, and stuff for here which needs sorting- utilities, video stores, library cards, store cards, mailing lists etc- all to cancel or pay out.
We take time out to choose Alexander's senior high school subjects online so he is all ready for the 2014 school year (though he will do last term 2013 when we return). Choosing is quite a dilemma as he still isn't sure what he wants to do after school. In the end we play to his strengths and interests and hope it will all be okay!
We plan a farewell picnic with our social group- people who have really helped us settle in and whom we have shared lots of fun social gathering with- I will really miss them!
As we slowly chip away at the pile of to-do's, we make sure we finish up by the afternoons, give each other a well-done-us hug or cheesy high-five. It's quite stressful at times doing all this stuff and we make sure we give each other due praise after each batch of completed stuff.
After sorting out what we intend to take with us, it's time to find the best way to sell or give away goods- and do it in such a way that we actually have a few sticks of furniture until the last minute with which to live! It takes a bit of engineering but we start the job. After that it's getting gardening and cleaning and rubbish removal.
In the end, the gear we do not take back to Australia trickles away in this order: Ebay (good, sold all we listed for the price we wanted), garage sale (many people hadn't heard of them but we letter-box dropped and it sort-of worked), Freecycle (quite satisfying as many people seemed in real need of what we gave away) and the last items we couldn't move on, we contacted local council to collect but it wasn't much- two mattresses (one second-hand).

 

(Incidentally the charity store we bought much of our furniture from refused to take anything back as they were 'overflowing' -very frustrating!)
Fil's wallet then turned up out of the blue when a work colleague cleaned out his car. Having had a lift home one day we had already thought to ask the person to check their car but it wasn't initially spotted. An infuriating sort of relief!
Finally we say farewell to our new friends and neighbours. I really hope I see them again.
Our farewell picnic with our Winchester friends group gets a humbling turn out and we are given a fun and moving send-off (including a song written for the occasion!) on top of St Catherine's Hill looking out over the town. I focus on trying not to cry and fail a little.

About this time I think Fil's haste to get back to Australia has it's first little hesitation but he tries to hide it as he knows I am so sad to leave and may possible throttle him if he voiced it!
We finally say goodbye to Winchester and all the gorgeous areas around it and head down to our little break in Bournemouth, hoping everything is sorted.

Bournemouth, we discover, though a pretty seaside town, seems to be the bucks and hen's capital of England and not really the place at all for families, at least after dark. If anything it helped my limpet-hold on leaving anyway!
As we left for the airport, it felt very strange to be reduced to just our suitcases again; heavy and light at the same time.
We have stowed a few cool weather items at my brother and sister-in-laws (themselves packing for emigration to New Zealand after ten plus years in London) where we will return for one night before we leave the northern hemisphere, but still, as I look down at the patchwork fields of England I am overwhelmed to admit our UK adventures have irrefutably come to an end.
 Undeniably it has been a grand adventure and I have been very fortunate to have it, but like a spoilt and sulky child I stare down at the fading green beyond the channel and refuse to say goodbye.