Moving: we have a date!

When we arrive in Australia next week Friday we only have to 'survive' in our house without any stuff for three days. This morning we heard that the movers will come on Monday, 15 January. Time wise that would be perfect because we then have three days to recover from the jet lag after our 1 day and 2 nights around-the-world-trip.

We will leave Holland at 9 pm on Wednesday and will arrive around 9.30 am in Sydney on Friday. With two young kids, I'm sure I will be having a great time! So will my fellow passengers in the seats close to us...

Coping with difficult questions

When kids turn six, they enter a new phase: the question phase. I feel as if I'm constantly interrogated by my son Sebastiaan. Today we drove all the way to Amsterdam to visit Artis, the Amsterdam Zoo. Below I've listed down the questions he managed to come up with during lunch:

• Do animals have nightmares?
• How does black Pete turn black? (black Pete = the helper of Sinterklaas)
• Why does a man from Africa work in this restaurant (the person in question was within hearing distance)
• How do they make potato chips?
• Are your grandma and grandad dead? (question asked by 4-year-old Julia)
• What did the first 'peacock' look like?

Simply ignoring these questions does not work. Sebastiaan really expects an answer. When I don't know the answer, I tell him we will 'Google' it. My 6-year-old has a good memory and he does not easily forget what I promise him. I'm afraid tomorrow we will have a lot of 'Googling' to do.

I really miss my printer and scanner

Since end October all our stuff is packed in a container. Marcel brought two suitcases with him to Australia and I packed everything I need for myself and the kids in five boxes, two bags and two big suitcases. That's all and I'm fine with it.

This makes me realize how little I'm attached to the things we 'own'. There are only a few things we really need. Last week, I thought I would not be too upset if our container would sink to the bottom of the sea. I'm carrying my laptop with all our pictures with me so they won't get lost. Most of our furniture is easily replaceable and we carry around too much stuff anyway.

But today, for the very first time, there was something I actually miss: our scanner and printer. I had a nightmare day trying to make a scan and to print two other documents. At home, in India this would have taken me five minutes max. Today it took me about two hours to get, part of the job, done.

The PC and printer I tried were extremely slow. After trying for an hour, I decided to go to the public library. Gone are the days when you had a computer and next to it an easy to operate printer. This library put a very 'sophisticated' system in place. First you have to log in to the computer with a library card. Then you need to log out form the computer and log in again for the printer.

Sounds easy. Did it work? No. Ten minutes before school pick up time I ended up sending my files to the private email of a library employee who was kind enough to print the documents for me using her private log in. I still need to find a way to make a scan of the other document.

New Years morning on the Larense hei

I'm sure next year in Sydney it will be a lot warmer with New Year's and I will not be able to take pictures then with lot's of snow! This year I spent New Years eve with my parents in Laren. I took this picture around 10 am on New Years morning at the 'hei' ('moors') near Laren. It was still early but a few people already followed the same route by foot and on bicycle as you can see by the tracks in the snow.

My schedule

What does my schedule look like less then two weeks prior to our departure to Sydney?

• Try to sell our MG-B. A great car (at least that's what Marcel thinks) but not very practical when you plan to spend a few more years abroad.
• Go to the post office to send our lightweight Safary Chef (a multi purpose outdoor cooking device) to Australia. It weights only 5 kg. It's impossible to sell it here as it freezes like crazy. Not many people are interested at the moment in outdoor cooking appliances. I wonder why???
• Sell two kids bikes through Marktplaats.nl, the Dutch version of e-bay. Both kids learned to ride a bike in Holland the past few weeks. I lost a few pounds running after them in the park. In India it was just impossible for them to ride their bikes except for in the living room. I wish I could bring the two bikes to Australia but that's too costly.
• Trow away a lot of stuff. I'll bring tree suitcases to Australia. Looking around the house, I'm sure I have enough stuff to easily fill five suitcases. Oeps.

Mmm. What else?

Of course, trying to visit as many friends and family as possible. I've been in Holland for almost 2,5 month but time has passed so quickly that I have not yet seen everyone. It's also been a very busy time with Sinterklaas, Sebastiaan's birthday, school, etc. This afternoon I take the kids to the Arnhem Water Museum. I look forward to that.

I wish everyone a wonderful 2010!

See pictures of the New Year fireworks in Sydney.

Container arrives in Sydney tomorrow!

Today we received an email from the moving agent in Sydney with the great news that our container will arrive on 30 December. That's tomorrow! I'm so exited.

Customs clearance will take approximately 10 working days which means that we could have our stuff when I arrive with the kids. Hopefully the customs people won't drink too much champaign for new years causing delays.

In India, we made a lot of effort selecting the right moving agency. We looked at four different companies. At the end we choose to work with UTS - B.R.Shastry. Why? They provided us with a reasonable quote from the start. Also, the guy from Shastry who we met the first time to discuss our move, Roshan, told us he would be our contact person during the entire process. The three days the movers were in our house to pack everything he was there as promised. It sometimes happens that you meet the first time with a commercial guy (usually a smooth talker) and when the actual moving day is there he is no longer around and you have to deal with someone who is useless or you don't like.

It's a weird process. We spent a lot of time selecting a moving company in the country of origin, in our case India. The moving company in the country of origin decides who they work with in the country of destination. We don't have a say in that. In other words, we don't have a clue which company we end up with in Sydney. Yesterday, we had our first email correspondence with the Australian company, Chess Moving. We don't know anything about them which is a bit scary. I checked their website and it looks OK. I keep my fingers crossed that the move will go smoothly and that I can sleep in my own bed when I arrive in January.