A dream no more...

With so many of our belongings packed up it is no longer a dream, the reality is upon us. Addresses have been changed for bank accounts, reading glasses have been taken to be mended, carpet cleaner booked for the day before we hand over the keys, frozen food has been re-homed (I hate throwing food away), the change bucket has been cashed in into a more portable form, the windows have been cleaned, the milk has been cancelled and paid up to date, it's not the arriving that's difficult to arrange it's the cleaning up before leaving. On the to do list, chasing up some paperwork, printing out a tax form in the hope they owe me something, booking a van for short haul stuff and I'm sure there are things that haven't come to mind yet.

Phil is looking at his last couple of days at work, we have his works leaving do on Thursday night which may lead to little being done on Friday, we have our leaving do in the village on the Saturday night, then friends over to pick up our fridge freezer on Sunday with a bit of lunch thrown in, the following Saturday we have a family do, so a busy social time ahead.

So I guess the question is how do I feel? I admit to a couple of anxiety attacks but they are connected to what we have to do between now and when we leave the rented house we are in. The overall feeling is of great excitement and the desire to be there not here, I have had days where I could quite happily have just got on a plane and left everything behind. I want to be where I can pop out and walk on the beach, where it is warm, where the sun shines for more than two or three days in a row. I want to know what it is like to live in a different country as opposed to just visiting one and not wanting to go home, I will admit there are few holidays abroad that I have wanted to come home from for various reasons. It's like achieving everything I ever wanted, I always wanted to live close to the sea, somewhere, somewhere else. I look back and think how many years I didn't get the chance to travel outside of the UK, mostly for financial reasons, other people would tell me of their holidays to places that to me seemed magical, each story I heard I promised myself I would one day visit the countries I dreamed of. At the age of 40 I could finally afford to have a holiday where ever I wanted so off I went to Sorrento in southern Italy with my daughter and a friend, I loved it so much I went back on my own two months later, that was the start! When I met Phil in 2005 the travel bug became fully unleashed, Italy, the Island of Rhodes, Belgium, Spain, Turkey, Tunisia and of course Portugal, so many visits to Portugal, the country which will become our home in just 16 days time when we arrive at our house.

Of course it goes without saying I will miss my family and friends, but we worked it out that it would take longer for them to drive to Cornwall than it does to fly to Faro or Lisbon and hope they will come visit as we will visit them when we can!

And so...

The wheel turns ever closer to our departure date.

Monday I had lunch with some old school chums who I met up with last year for the first time in more than 30 years. Once again it was fun, we reminisced about our time there, recalled names from the past, some of the escapades we got up to and how we didn't send our kids to boarding school because we disliked it so much. The other notable thing about Monday was I had a little wobble about the move, inevitable at some point, all in my head but it went along the lines of "OhmygodI'm50andmovingtoPortugal,OhmygodI'm50andmovingtoPortugal,OhmygodI'm50andmovingtoPortugal,OhmygodI'm50andmovingtoPortugal,OhmygodI'm50andmovingtoPortugal,OhmygodI'm50andmovingtoPortugal,eeeeeeks". It soon passed!

Tuesday I did a little more packing, Wednesday a little more, the boxes now number 30 and I can't find much more to pack that we don't use daily, though there maybe some kitchen bits in one of the drawers. Today I took my Mac in to have a new DVD/CD drive fitted, fortunately the Mac is still under warranty. Went to have a chat with the local garage about some bits I want doing to the car, it's booked in for Tuesday to have an MOT, then I need to source a couple of parts for them to fit, another tick on the list. Now to find and book a van to move stuff to my daughters and book a carpet cleaner to come in after we have moved everything out!

Just 25 days to go!