A blog about me and my adventure as an ex-pat.
Because someone told me to... Thank you Gaby.

Monday, November 12, 2012

on the move...

We're on the move. Up the road. Two blocks north, two blocks east. 3.7 miles to be precise. 10 minutes drive. It doesn't seem like a huge move but it feels like it.

Of course there is the obvious pain of having everything you own, packed up into identical looking boxes, loaded onto a van and moved to another house where they are spat out at lightning speed by removals men who don't really care where they end up and therefore the inevitable happens in the following weeks/months/years: "Where the heck is it?!" "I know where it was in the last house or the house before that!!" "Arrgghh it must be here somewhere!!"
But believe me somehow things get lost forever. Like socks in the washing machine.
And I hate losing things!

But no it's not just that. I love where we are living. It's a great house with a park at the back for the kids, fences all the way round (uncommon here) and the best neighbours I could wish for! We're on a court where it is (relatively) safe for the kids to play in the street and the 8 houses are like a little community.

We've had 18 months of wonderful memories here, made some great friends and had lots of visitors who've made it feel like home.

I love that my neighbour almost always knocks on the door during the day for a chat or to show me something.  I love that her one year old daughter often wanders over to our house to say hi (she is so cute and seems to like me!). I love that all of the kids in the neighbourhood are a similar age to mine. I love that Toby's best friend lives next door. I love that my friends live next door. I love how supportive and friendly everyone has been since we moved in.

And now we have to move!

And that fact makes me sad. And grumpy. And I am in denial. And avoiding packing up to move to the hotel. I am 'working' on the computer instead.

On the plus side, we took photos so I could design and order our Christmas card today. And I sorted out a load of photos on the computer. And wrote a blog post.

But the fact is we have to move. We are only renting this place and the owners are coming back from Australia early so we had to find somewhere else to live.

And the new house is great. Almost brand new and available for a couple of years. Someone Jeremy works with has moved to Singapore on a short term contract with Kellogg's and they offered us their home whilst they are gone.

We really are very lucky. The rental market here is virtually non-existant. Houses only go up for rent if they don't sell (and therefore are not very desirable) and will only be let on a short term basis (in the hope someone will buy it eventually). The failing economy means that investors can't get mortgages to buy new property to rent.

So it could have been a whole lot worse. We could have been facing a move to another town which would have meant a new school, dance class, Church, new everything. Or a move to a tiny condo with no outdoor space for the kids to play.

But it doesn't stop me feeling sad today.

I am very grateful that we had the opportunity to live here. We have made friends who I hope we will know all of our lives.

So it's time to move on. To settle into our new home and start a new set of memories.

Bye bye Belgian Ave... We will visit soon. I promise.

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