On our way...

As I write this, I am sitting at Heathrow facing a 2 hour delay to our flight. Not the best of starts, but at least Singapore Airlines have given us some food vouchers.

This week has been really hectic as we were organising moving out of our flat and trying to tie up any loose ends in our arrangements.

We have been selling a few bits on eBay and also giving away furniture on Freecycle and on Monday people turned up for the bed, television and sofas pretty much all at once.

We had planned to sleep on a blow-up mattress for a couple of nights, but due to a mix-up the bed went a day early and in the end we decided that we would stay at the local Travelodge in Tunbridge Wells. The room we had for the first night was pretty much just a box room and the bed was slightly bigger than a single - for two of us!

Anyway, we got moved for the next two nights which were okay, but it certainly isn't the best of the Travelodge hotels, I've only ever stayed in one worse than it.

Last night we went to my parents where we stayed the night and then said a very hard goodbye to my nephews and an even harder one today to my parents and sister. I feel very sad and guilty at leaving, but I know that these feeling for all of us will get better as time goes on.

Farewell Party.

We had a wonderful time at our farewell party. All our friends and family turned up and it was great to see them, although, at the same time it was sad to think that it would be quite a while before we would meet them again.

A few of them - thanks Sue, James and Anna - made us a special cake in the shape of Uluru covered in marzipan kangaroos - brilliant, and extremely tasty.

We'd both like to say a huge thank-you to everyone who came, you made it very special and we apologise for the short amount of time that we were able to spend with everyone before it was all over. We will miss each and every one of you.

Last Day at Work

Today was my last day of work in the UK office of the company I work for. I'm quite lucky because they have an office in Sydney and I'm transferring there, so it has been one less thing to worry about.

I've worked for this company for about eight and a half years and have made a lot of friends and it was hard to say goodbye. However, the company has quite a fair bit of movement between their global offices, so it is quite possible that I may see some of them again which made it a bit easier. Someone said that, because of that, it was more like Au Revoir rather than Goodbye. I hope that is the case.

For a leaving present I was given a voucher for a meal for two at Beluga in Sydney which, if you read my Gaztronomy blog, you'll realise was the perfect gift.

So, now I've a week before we leave in which we have to finish off our preparations, get our stuff shipped and pack. It doesn't seem enough time...

Getting Closer...

It's getting closer to the time we leave and we're gradually getting things into place.

We've just about sorted out our finances, although I'm still awaiting various monies to appear from shares I've sold (we picked the best time to move...) but it's all in process. We've also been selling quite a lot of our stuff on eBay including some big furniture items that we're not taking with us and we've given away a few bits on Freecycle.

We've set up our bank account at Westpac and I'm using UKForex to move some money into it. I've used them before and their rates aren't bad and the process is really straightforward.

We've also been cancelling credit cards (I've kept one) various memberships, insurances and changed the address on my driving licence to that of my parents as you have to have a UK address where you can be contacted.

I've arranged the redirection of our post and I've still got a few phone calls and letters to send off next week.

Personally, it's getting hard when saying goodbye to friends and colleagues that I won't see again before I go and it's difficult to handle the guilt at what I'm putting my family through as the time for us to leave gets closer.