We're Here!

Tuesday afternoon, after the movers finished emptying our home of all of our worldly possessions, we gave the house a once-over cleaning, packed up the rental car and drove to my older sister's house to stay the night.  I was able to leave work at about 2:00 p.m. with the excuse that a torrential storm was forecast for the evening rush hour and we needed to get to my sister's before it hit in earnest.  It was really lovely to spend our last 24 hours in Canada relaxing in a still-furnished home with people we love.

Wednesday afternoon, very heavy winds blew in which made shuffling our luggage to and from the car a bit of an adventure.  I think I'll be combing the knots out of my hair for the next few weeks.  We left in plenty of time to get to the airport, had about a 30 second wait at the check-in counter, then proceeded to the Plaza Premium Lounge for some dinner, free drinks, WiFi and the ubiquitous CP24 TV broadcast.  We arrived at our gate within moments of the boarding call, and since we were flying Club Class, we were in the first group to board.  We got settled into our seats and after being offered a newspaper, prepared to sit back and relax.  Nick went to turn on his reading light, but on pushing the button, the button fell through the casing and into a hole somewhere.  Oh Air Transat, how we love your inexpensiveness and ridicule your cheapness simultaneously with such delight!  Shortly thereafter, the image appeared on the screen in front of us to show us where the plane was on the flight path.  "This looks like something on a computer in 1991," said Nick, and I have to agree that Atari probably designed it.  As we hurtled down the runway in preparation for takeoff, the bulkhead in front of us made rythmic creaking noises - "I thought you couldn't join the mile high club until after the plane has taken off," says Nick.  The flight itself was lovely - our food was delicious, the seats were relatively comfortable, and thanks to the aforementioned heavy winds, our plane made it to the gate almost a full hour earlier than scheduled.

As we disembarked, a bunch of pamphlets in the jetway declared "Welcome to London!"  I looked at Nick and said "We're not moving to London!" in mock agitation and could tell from his face that the very same phrase was about to escape his lips.  We've had more than our fair share of people assume that we are moving to London as surely London is all there is to England (just like New York must be all there is to the USA).  For the record, I deplore the city of London and only if it were a very, very last resort would I ever consent to inhabitate the place.

Currently, I'm sitting in Nick's parents' living room, watching the breeze ruffle the trees outside which are just beginning to turn colour, and starting to give real thought to what we've just done.  Well, we're here now, and that's that.

Moving Day!

After a furious weekend of shoving things into boxes, moving day has arrived.  I was tempted to say "finally arrived", but to be honest, the weeks went by so fast I can't believe moving day is here already!

I'm enjoying my final day at work - cutting my sister's wedding invitations on the office paper cutter, surfing the Internet, generally feeling invincible - while Nick is at home to ensure that the movers don't take anything meant to be left behind and throwing those few last-minute things into boxes.  I certainly feel that there hasn't been much time to process the gravity of what we are doing in the midst of all the chaos, and therefore to date I've been fairly emotionless about the whole thing, but today I'm feeling a bit of melancholy.  I'm trying not to think about it too much because getting emotional at this point will just further exhaust me.  Getting on the plane tomorrow will be such an immense relief because the moving out process will be complete and there will be a few days of relaxation before I have to get very active in my job search.  I suspect I'll use a day or two of those relaxation days to contemplate this whole situation, probably have a good cry of both sadness at leaving Toronto and relief at the fact that the move out is done.

Anyway, most of our stuff should be on a truck by now, so it's certainly too late to undo this whole idea.  Crossing my fingers and hoping for the best!

9 Days 'Til the Move!

The countdown began long ago, but there's still much packing to do.  We're about to embark on a cross-Atlantic journey to the Motherland.  From the bustling Canadian city of Toronto to who-knows-where England, the adventure beckons.

Me?  I'm kind of terrified, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?  And I suspect I'll have the time of my life once we get settled in.  Nick (my husband) is just going home; back to merry 'Ol England where he will be reunited in some way with his parents and brothers.  I started the blog with the intention of us both posting our thoughts here, but Nick's thinking that his posts would mostly be "Huh, nothing's changed in the last five years", so I suspect you won't hear from him often.

In the meantime, we have some packing to do.