Getting married and IVF deserve posts of their own, and renting the flat was time consuming and mostly boring, but moving to Rotterdam - that deserves some musing over!
Rotterdam is W's city. It's where he was living when we met and he grew up fairly nearby. He has always wanted to go back. He hated the smell and the people of London. It's true that en masse, Londoners are a bit much. It's hard to feel a sense of community with over 7 million other people.
I've always said I would be willing to move - hey that statement is even in my old 'About me' section! Now that I'm out of debt and in a place with my job where I can move to another country but still work back in London, it seemed like the perfect time to do it. So we made our decision in November, in December W finally left the job he had also hated, and we began to pack.
Looking back, my London flat had a surprising amount of storage! I always felt that it was a fairly poky place, though I had done my best with it. But when you think that I had the attic above with nearly as much floorspace as the flat itself, you realise that I was pretty lucky. Our new flat (at least for the next 6 months) is spacious, but folks, there is So. Little. Storage. Space. It feels particularly hard as I spent so much time getting rid of stuff as we packed - I must have junked 20 or so boxes of books, clothes and things!
I am taking this as a challenge to live with fewer clothes. I'm not quite doing a 30 for 30 [LINK], but I have pared down my wardrobe to the clothes and shoes I love and really wear, and that will fit in the space we have. In a slightly masochistic way, I am enjoying this, and it is making it very easy to pack for work. It helps that I am flying with a carry on every week and that I seem to be going through a black
Unpacking is the hardest bit. We ended up with about 130 boxes and things coming over, and of these a large number are books that will go into storage when we find somewhere. But there are so many boxes still to go through, and a number of important things missing:
- my hair straighteners
- my good hairdryer (i.e. not a travel hairdryer)
- the European flex for the Bose Soundtouch (this thing is amazing BTW)
I don't understand how my careful packing still led to these things disappearing for nearly 3 weeks now?
I see moving country as being like repotting a plant. It can be done without too much trauma, but it takes care and nurturing. You need to separate the roots out to ensure that they can grow freely in the new soil (this is the uncluttering bit). You need to repot carefully in the right pot and the right soil. And you need to water carefully. You probably don't want to repot too regularly, you want the plant to adjust to the new pot and grow new roots.
Not being unpacked leaves me feeling somewhat anxious. It's hard to relax when almost every view has a pile of boxes in it. And I know that once we are unpacked the real challenge begins. I want to grow roots in Rotterdam, cause I need to make friends here and find the places that I had in London: running with ParkRun, a gym where I can do heavy weights, a Pilates place. Maybe some favourite places to eat and shop. So it's back to the boxes. Who knows, maybe I'll find the hairdryer.
