On Thursday we packed and cleaned up the house, dropped the keys into the estate agents and drove to our hotel in Norwich. Except that it wasn’t quite as simple as that. Snowdrifts had blocked roads and we had to try several different routes and go on many detours to finally make it in. What is normally a forty-five minute journey took almost three hours. Kind people wrapped up in balaclavas standing out in blizzard conditions guided us, people in four by fours led the way in case we needed help, and despite a very scary journey on snow-covered roads in the middle of nowhere in an old overloaded but ultimately trusty Peugeot, we got there.
So moving day was harder than I had anticipated. Being at the Travelodge also wasn’t quite as relaxing as I had imagined. Too tired to celebrate, all I wanted to do was sleep. The last-minute shopping wasn’t much fun in the freezing wind and on ice-covered pavements. Our to do list suddenly seemed very long and we were overwhelmed with ‘stuff’ (despite all the decluttering, and all my fantasies about just walking away with a rucksack each, we actually ended up with about three carloads of stuff).
But today feels better. My husband has sorted out our stuff so our hotel room and car look a lot better. We have practiced packing our rucksacks for India and that feels good. I have had the energy to make phone calls and answer texts today. Tomorrow we will meet up with my son, as well as hopefully finish most of the jobs on our to do list.
Thank you for all your support. This part of the journey is harder than I thought it would be. Moving house is stressful, I knew that, but I think I forgot about the emotional impact. I felt really stressed on moving day, and yesterday. But that’s okay… I’m still here, and so are you.
The view from the hotel yesterday
My freshly made final cover up tattoo. I had it done on Friday morning (this was booked ages ago, and not meant to be the day after moving day, but it’s good to have it done!).
Thank you very much for reading
Rachel xxx
Rachel 