Bye bye possessions..

Friday 11th September was a monumental occasion in our relocation - our shipping departed! I had spent weeks planning what to take and what not to take.. Having been determined to take only the items that we really need, I was then hit with the catch 22 that we'd have to manage without these much needed items for 14 weeks whilst they are in transit!

Another option was to ship hardly anything at all, but once I started adding up the cost of re-stocking a home (even from Ikea, which they do have in Melbourne!), this was not feasible. So we settled on a happy medium of shipping the basics for eating, sleeping and living, with the exception of any furniture which we were told was too large for our 8 cubic meters shipping allowance.

We were advised not to pack any boxes ourselves, to avoid attracting additional attention from the already-scrupulous Australian Customs. My natural control freak tendencies made this quite hard, but after restraining my inclination to pack boxes, I managed to just put things into bags instead! The ever-enthusiastic men from John Mason removers made light work of our packing, and informed me as they left that we had only used three cubic meters of our eight cubic meter allowance! So it turns out we probably could have shipped a friend or colleague with us after all.... (yes I mean you Phil!)

Our belongings are currently on a boat sailing to Melbourne, so I hope it's not too rough out there! With an ETA of the middle of November we should be all settled by Christmas and the arrival of Sue and Peter (Tom's parents). We are really happy that they are joining us for Christmas, although there is a running joke that I'm moving halfway around the world and still can't get rid of the in-laws! I will hopefully be able to do some Christmas-Skyping with my parents in lieu of seeing them this year.

So, we have visas, flights, temporary accommodation, possessions... Melbourne here we come!