The city is a series of islands. Walking, wandering and taking the buses for the last day.
Off to to just relax some more inspite of the first bit of rain we have seen.
pictures tomorrow when I have a bettter connection than my iPad
The Hotel is lovely and the city bright. Not clean and mostly high rise slabs, but bright and sunny. Thank you all for the well wishes on the trip. I am not sure that I will be posting all that much for the next week. The idea of being without Internet is really not all that frightening and DH has his faithful Blackberry so we are not exactly cut off from the world.
-H
There have been a few years during our marriage that the DH and I have managed to be together on both of our birthdays plus our wedding anniversary. Most of the years, however, we have been apart on one or more, many years all three. That does not count those years where the High Holidays get in the middle. (I am not sure that there is anything quite like having a birthday on Yom Kippur…., certainly not over there in the Christian world)
This year is another of those 1/3 where deployment plus the HH will challenge us.
As a result, we are celebrating them all now by going sailing from Athens to Venice
Sat 10 Jul 2010 to Sat 17 Jul 2010 on the Windspirit
Athens,
Monemvasia Greece
Pylos Greece
Kotor Montenegro
Dubrovnik, Croatia
and Venice, Italy
Cruise Terminal; Akti Xaveriou; Piraeus, Greece Check in time begins at 1:00 PM All Aboard is 4:00 PM
I don’t think I am going to stress about posting for the next few days but do a summary plus a picture page or so when I get back.
(I have packed sun block, minimal knitting, iPad and camera)
except for three beds, one couch, one arm chair, a coffee table, dining room table and six chairs. (Ignore for a moment the little stuff like irons, step stools and a million curtains). The two guys from Modern Housing are gone and I am falling asleep while waiting for the fire alarm guy.
Last night I gave up around 0100 and attempted to sleep. My back was killing me from standing at the ironing board. My feet were swollen and my mood was black. I don’t think I have ironed anything in the 31 months I have lived here.
An hour later I was back at it. There were nine panels left and I just could not sleep. Listening to Dogs and Goddess by Jennifer Crusie (purchases on sale) I wielded that iron till there were no more curtains languishing on the counter.
I was wired and not sleepy, hauling out some rumpled shirts and making them appear presentable. When I started looking at the towels and underwear, I knew it was time to get a life. Failing that, some sleep since all my good sense had long departed.
Everything I have left in country is packed into the station wagon. I have only to clean up tonight, place my bed linens and computer in the car and I am off. Perhaps it is because I am returning to post in about a week. But I have no feel of loss or closure at at this time.
We have moved too many times over the years. Other than moving back home from deployments, George has wound up doing most of the sorting, packing and supervising. I suppose handling this one on my own is payback of a sort.
Perhaps I should just view this move as returning home from a long deployment? But then, this is a huge house to clean out, not a trailer half. Not three duffles and a couple of back-packs of gear but a couple of containers on the moving truck plus a station wagon full of stuff. Neveer mind that a lot of it is craft things of mine that were never used and that I return to Germany with more stash that what I left inspite of all the knitting of the past 2 1/2 years.
It has been a long day. I have washed all the curtains in the house (eight rooms with two windows, 8x2x2=32, 7 windows here and there = 14) which makes for a total of 46 curtain panels. There are two windows that I simply can’t reach on the stairs and another couple in the back hall that I am going to ignore, lets say about 10 more panels, give or take.
Did I mention that all of them have to be ironed as well?
That leaves only the cupboards in the kitchen to empty. Something about locking up everything that I am passing along so that it doesn’t walk while there are various workmen in the house.
The car is almost completely loaded. Just have a few things (computers) on the floor in the bedroom and a couple of small boxes in the living room. I even have all the posters down and rolled up.
I even packed up my knitting.
For a break today, I visited the various water fowl -
Maybe two hours in the morning and I am contemplating getting to the office!
Remember my back garden? That wild meadow where Herr Fuchs had such good hunting?
like an open farmer's field
Not that I did not have enough entertainment as it is, but I had my pre-move out inspection yesterday afternoon. They are insane. I have no quarrel with wanting a clean house, nor a tidy bit of ground. But scraping off all the moss? Getting rid of all the leaves? And getting the grass down to normal level?
Now, I am one of those weird foreign officers who believed them when they said that a mower would be provided. When it is in for service, like for the last 10 weeks, I do have a slight problem.
No way can I mow with a hand push mower.
Meet Husquey, my hero.
small but mighty
(must be my age showing. Cars and boats may be “she” but this little tractor mower can only be a guy. Strong, loud and needs frequent infusions of beverage.)
He took it on. Once the driver figured out that you get more success when the blade is engaged.
the position on that lever to the left of the key makes all the difference in the world
circles in the grass... not aliens
90 minutes and under two gallons of gas. And! I don’t have to pay someone else to do the job.
major difference.
This morning I just about had a panic attack. My car keys were not in the basket next to the front door. Two hours of hunting later, they were still nowhere to be found. The hunting involved numerous backpacks, boxes, several suitcases, drawers, and every flat surface in the house.
Since it was now after 0700, I called the local VW dealership. Yes, they can get keys, but I need to bring in several forms of ID and the vehicle registration information (did I mention that the car was locked?).
I drove the car yesterday when dropping off somethings. So obviously I had the keys. Thinking about it, I distinctly remember having them in my hand and tossing them some place obvious. Not where they belonged or anywhere sensible as I have found to my sorrow.
No help for it, I realized either they were packed into something or they had landed in the trash. Once again I went through the suitcases, backpacks and yarn bags. No joy. Time to start on the trash. At least yesterday’s bags were separate from those filled on Saturday. 30 more minutes, filthy hands and nothing in all of the outside bags.
Desperate, I looked in the kitchen trash and the last couple of bags next to the door. You already know the punch line. In the very last bag (and not because it was the last one in which I looked but because it was the last bag) full of scraps of this and that which I had shoveled off my bed in disgust was a hard lump. One each folded up VW key.
Just as I finished moving the car from the drive, the moving van showed up with a couple of charming young men ready to go to work.
As I write this, it is barely two hours later, the packing is done and they are loading the van.
ready to go
The keys? Clipped to my belt.
It wasn’t until the crew called from Germany that I even remembered that today is the 4th of July, US Independence Day.
After all, it is not exactly a day to celebrate in the UK. One more colony gone off on its own.
Perhaps it is fitting that I am preparing to leave on Independence Day. At least I kept singing that song in my head while I am sorting, tossing and finding homes for various things. The freezer contents, baking supplies and misc condiments went to an American friend. Anita had taken a number of things with her yesterday. One of the officers down the road cheerfully accepted the six bottles of wine left in the house.
Over the course of the day, I managed to finish my bedroom, the living room and the rest of the dining room. Hauling loads of trash and recyclables out, the cans are full.
My back garden has turned into a veritable jungle with partridge snacking on the grain.
but not holding still long enough for me to get the camera
followed by Master Fox making a visit
I almost missed him drifting across the yard
contemplating if there is anything worth stealing
and hiking off in disgust at my failure to provide some kind of tasty treat
There is nothing in life better than a good friend.
I met Anita in my first few months here. She was an instructor in the Communications department over at Sandhurst wanting to know about the role of women in the US military. Since then, she has transferred to an educational department within MOD and teaches leadership, management and skills courses.
We have become solid friends over the last couple of years; making the occasional castle excursion, trading audio books and meeting for supper on the spur of the moment. I hauled her to Germany with me last week since she had never been. The Mole took her on a Heidelberg tour while I did those pesky information courses.
This morning she showed up at my door ready to help me clean, sort and pack. You can’t beat a friend like that. It is not that I could not have managed, but it was just so much easier with someone else to give me encouragement, to haul away the charity shop donations, and fill the garbage cans with refuse.
Even with a supper break, by 10 pm when she left, I could see the end in sight. The top floor is done, Ms Soprano’s room cleaned out, and the kitchen organized. I might just be able to manage the rest!
I spent yesterday and most of the morning waiting for my moving estimate. When he call and mentioned something about the government getting its share in VAT, the little light went on in my head.
Yes, they could email me the invoice and would provide the service without the VAT should I be able to give them the correct paperwork.
Since this was saving well more than ₤100, even with the drive to Croughton I would come out ahead.
1100 – leave Camberley
12xx – arrive at Croughton. stop at Post Office. Go to bank to get money.
12xx – go to VAT office.
Today is a post “Family Afternoon” in honor of 4th of July. All the official offices closed at noon. The park is open and the grills are hot. I am standing there with invoice, money, and no where to go.
After stopping at the library to drop off more DvDs and audio books, I decided I had nothing to lose. Trying the VAT office door. It opened and Someone was in the back.
Lovely woman, she listened to my tale of woe (getting the invoice two hours ago, driving 120km, movers coming on Monday, not having TCS orders yet so that I could not get official transportation to pick it up and put it my stuff into temp storage, etc).
She said she would see what she could do. Heading out the door, she found the other two people from the office and got them to come back. Within 20 minutes, they did the paperwork, called Texas to get authorization, cut the check and wished me well.
Kudo’s to the Air Force, I have never been on an Army post that offered that kind of service. I dropped a thank you email to the commander, he needs to know his people go above and beyond.
So, there I was at the end of the day, facing a house full of stuff that needed to be sorted and organized. And exhausted before I even began.
Yes, it does kind of look like I have fallen off the face of the earth. Not so at all.
Instead I have been doing a bit of knitting and a lot of organizing for my upcoming relocation and other disasters.
To recap the month of June
Trip with the Mole to the Arctic Circle – 2 weeks
four days at work
Trip to Montreaux for the DH’s office’s annual trip.
Back to the UK (I think that takes me up to the 18th).
Mon and Tues in the UK
Wed – drive to Germany
Thurs-Friday – attend pre-retirement courses
Sat – shovel out the house and go the Heidelberg Striktreff
Sunday (o-dark-thirty) drive back to the UK.
that leaves me at this past Monday and exhausted.
Did I mention that I had to make a Croughton run on Tues and Wednesday met the moving guy (they call them relocaters here in the UK) for an estimate (not doing this one, thank you very much).
I am tired. More than tired, completely and totally wiped out. I am not sure when I am going to get some sleep, soon I hope.
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