She Says - Tempus fugit...

And so does time fly when you’re having fun? Well, it certainly flies when you’re packing your life up, trying to sell everything and prepare for the adventure of a lifetime!! I certainly wouldn’t call it fun though, in fact it’s been incredibly stressful. I think I’ve managed to run the full gamet of my emotions over the last 3 weeks, and I’m quite convinced it’s nothing to do with the anti-malarial tablets!!! In fact, the only emotion I haven’t reached has been utmost teary despair, which is surprising as I usually hit that when dealing with stuff like this! I’ve come close, but managed to stay upbeat and realise the problems we’re going through are not the end of the world and as our neighbour said – ‘in 2 weeks’ time you won’t care about all of this’. He’s very right, and it has helped me get through!!

So these last few weeks have been difficult and not at all smooth sailing as we hoped. We thought we’d be sorting out last things, easily selling stuff and have plenty of time to focus on trip preparation. About the only thing that has really gone right is that we haven’t had a major argument!! Considering all the stress, that’s pretty amazing and bears well for the next 2 years or so. Once I got the last of my work completed, I was able to leave that behind and focus on clearing out the house. I have to admit to feeling guilty about being glad I’m not dealing with certain aspects of my job anymore!! I guess we all feel glad when we no longer have to deal with difficult situations, but I still feel guilty. For the first 2 weeks, I focussed heavily on getting rid of everything possible. I can’t believe how difficult it has been! You’d think that in this economic climate people would be crying out for good secondhand furniture, but no. We have in the last week managed to shift a few more large items (bed/mattress, 2 bookshelves, TV) but the rest is off to charity on Monday. We’ve been using all the free ad websites we can (Gumtree, Preloved, Free-ads, etc) to do this – Gumtree has given the best response rate. However, the frustrating part has been people enquire then don’t respond again, or don’t show up when they say they will, or suddenly things fall through. We’ve managed to sell 3 items this way and that’s all. I have to say it’s been a waste of time, effort and stress on my behalf!! We ended up calling a few secondhand stores, one took a bookshelf and the other never showed for the sofabed, but there has been little interest really. What’s also strange is when we’ve done this before, people we know or work colleagues have been the best way to get rid of things – this has certainly been the case for a lot of our smaller stuff, but not the furniture. We’ve even had trouble giving stuff away! It’s unbelievable really. Is there some big difference between here and Oz, or is it just bad timing? Certain people we know have been incredibly generous – you know who you are, and thank you for all your support! What has been particularly frustrating is people not getting back to us – while I can accept that people we don’t know have no vested interest in talking to us, telling us they’re not interested or coming, etc, it has been very difficult to accept that from people we know. I know they have their own lives and own problems, but it’s frustrating to be stuffed around by people who are friends! It’s not behaviour I’m used to at all.

Getting rid of smaller stuff has been easier than furniture, and profitable. We had a leaving house/clear-us-out BBQ that was supposed to help us give stuff away to friends, eat all the freezer-food, and empty the house a bit. Unfortunately only 4 people came, and they generously took stuff and donated for it, but as we had everything packed up anyway, we packed the car for a car boot sale the next day. You won’t believe what people will buy at these things!! We managed to sell all our old bedding, kitchen items, rubbish bins, laundry racks, etc. Admittedly things were generally going for about 50 pence, but we managed to clear £73 that day!!! We brought home very little, which later went to friends, charity shop or rubbish. We’ve made a total of £266 in car boot sales – not bad for 4 days’ work!

Bike-wise, it’s been one problem and frustration followed by another for poor Xander. As noted, there were fuel-leakage problems that eventually got sorted. There were issues with luggage that have been sorted out – we now have two converted jerry cans as tank panniers and a new plastic-tube tent pannier. The spunky tank pod is completed, and all has been water-proofed and was set to go over a week ago. The tool kit has been organised and actually fits into both the holder we made for it and the toolbox! However, plenty of other things have gone wrong or needed adjusting, mostly annoying stuff and we’re glad it has happened now instead of when we’re on the road! In fact, we’re rather glad of the enforced 8 weeks in UK and Europe to help us get our feet and work out all the problems (we hope…).

One thing that has worked well is selling the car. We had initially looked at selling through friends, but two potential sales fell through due to money and having to then sell the cars they already owned. One of the first people to ask about it then had her car vandalised, but we were asking too much for her. In a minor panic that we were leaving it too late to advertise, we offered it to her for a lower price but as Murphy would have it, she got offered a company car the day she was due to say yes or no!! So instead we advertised through Autotrader late last Saturday, as originally planned. We got 6 calls during Sunday (and another Monday), and after racing around the countryside visiting friends(including the one who bought our TV and DVD player) , we sold the car late Sunday night to the first viewer! (sold the bed on the same night, so it was a good night!) We got just a bit less than we really wanted for the car, so we’re happy. Of course, I’ve been stressed all week that it would all fall through, as they could not pick the car up till the weekend. If it fell through, we’d only have a few days to sell again, and our insurance runs out before we are due to leave the house! I almost felt I was suffering irrational anxiety that could have been related to the anti-malarial tablets, but with everything else that was stressing me last week, it’s not that irrational! But at least we knew responses would be good if we did have to readvertise. Anyway, last night our lovely little car was driven away by a girl who had her licence only 5 months and had just written off her last car….me, concerned??!!

This week has focussed on packing and trying to ignore the furniture we still have. Our boxes for Australia are almost all packed – we had to stop while we worked out exactly what we’re taking with us on the trip and pack what we don’t need. This included backing up our big laptop onto 3 external hard-drives, and getting all of that ready to pack. That also meant moving anything we needed for the trip onto the new mini-laptop. Of course, there were new frustrations to be had there, when the new mini external hard-drive decided to have a conniption, and various programs and things started misbehaving! Only this morning has Xander fixed up the GPS software, and the drive seems to be working again. We’ll have to be very careful with this while we travel! Friday’s trial run of packing the bike didn’t go as well as planned. We found that we are VERY squeezed for room, even with all the extra luggage space compared to previous trips. We were already concerned things like the new tripod would not fit, and until Xander decided to go buy a squashier camera bag, it was going to be sent back to Oz! We also decided to find smaller sleeping bag liners, as our current ones are too big (not comfort liners, but actually add an extra season of warmth to your bag). Basically we got to a certain point today where we could keep packing the shipping boxes – we’ll see how the real packing goes next week!

Tonight though we have to relax, as it’s our leaving drinks evening. Not sure how many people will be coming, as a number have said they’re not around or will only be there for a brief visit. It’ll be nice to get out of the house for a while, but we’re both feeling very pressed for time now! No aspect of the trip feels real, in fact half the time I feel like I’m talking out my arse and that it’s all a big farce! However, I’ve been through this before and it’s all due to my attention being focussed on packing and moving, rather than the trip. I feel horribly under-prepared for many aspects (what are border crossing procedures, where is best to get visas for each country and how long do visas last?) but I also know I have 2 weeks in the UK (and more in Europe) where I can work a lot of stuff out and still get reasonable internet access to do some planning!

We also managed to squeeze in a very quiet birthday for me early in the piece. After a recent foray to the movies left me horrified at how much we’d let ourselves spend (nearly £30 – that’s a day’s travel!!), we got an afternoon 2-for-1 deal and took our own snacks and drinks, making it far more enjoyable!! We also sold some gold jewellery and bought a few essential items, like maps for Africa! Nothing made the trip feel more real than the moment we walked out with those maps in our hands. The joy was short-lived with everything else we were dealing with, but those few minutes were great!!