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I had my first day of being ‘between jobs’ today – I had my last day last Friday and I don’t start at the new one until 10th April. There’s plenty to be doing in the meantime though – the house looks like a bomb has hit it and we have the packers / shippers coming on Thursday. Sophie has a fever (she is probably just teething) so it means that one of us has to look after her all the time… productivity is low at the moment!
We are still going through our stuff and sorting it into 3 piles – stuff that is being shipped, stuff that is coming with us in our luggage and “other”. The last section is to get sold or given away – if not it goes in the bin. It’s a very cleansing process – just imagine going through all your drawers and cupboards and sorting everything into one of those categories. Yes – I really do mean everything!
When it comes to it, is there really that much stuff that you cannot live without?
I guess what is making it harder is that we won’t see the shipping container for 12-16 weeks… that is a long time to live without something, if the item is that critical you will have bought another one by then anyway.
Today was a good day. Candi went into London and got our temporary visa applications processed – we now have valid visas for our stay and I can legally work in NZ. Yay!
I also received a signed copy of my employment contract in the post, which I had been waiting for.
Preparations for the move are progressing well… we have sold our car and Candi’s parents have kindly lent us theirs to use while we prepare to leave the country. We have had some quotes from various shipping companies and have chosen which one we want to use (they have an office in Lower Hutt, which we think will be a bonus if anything goes wrong) and we are busily going through our stuff, selling what we can and giving away / binning the rest. We have even given our cat away to Lou, which Candi is sad about but we know it is for the best. I am not sure how he would cope with the long flight.
I am working through my notice period at work, handing over stuff, doing documentation etc. I feel like I should be ‘winding down’ but in fact I am as busy as I ever have been. Ah well, just over a week to go and it’s my leaving drinks on Thursday – expect Friday will be a write-off too then 
All in all, things are looking rosy and we’re all set to go. We’re trying to see as many of our friends as possible before we leave – we won’t get to see them for at least 6 months, maybe longer.
Incidentally, the picture above is pretty close to what the view from our new living room will look like.
It’s official and I can announce it…. WE ARE MOVING TO NEW ZEALAND!
While we were over there, I had several meetings and interviews with prospective employers and managed to secure a job offer with an internet-based company. The job starts on 10 April and we are very busy at the moment, selling most of our stuff and organizing the relocation. As you might imagine, there is so much to do but we are making good progress – we even sold our car yesterday (which was a bit of a worry, what if it didn’t sell?) and are getting quotes from international moving companies about shipping some of our furniture.
It’s a very exciting time and it’s not without it’s problems, but hopefully we will manage to get everything sorted in time.
Stay tuned for updates, we intend to keep this blog updated as we go.
