Moving Diary: Part 1

Moving can be incredibly stressful. Moving abroad, doubly so. So I decided to use my blog to do a moving diary, partly to keep myself sane, partly to make sure we are doing all the right things and thinking about the right things as well. I hope it will be a useful resource for people planning on a move abroad!

First of all, as I said in my previous post, we are combining moving to a different country with a holiday first. This is because both Kay and I are from different countries, and while we are moving to Kay’s, I don’t know when we will have the time or funds to make a proper trip to India, where I am from. So when we confirmed that we were definitely going to move, I decided that we should combine the move with the holiday, so I can see all my family for an extended time and relax before settling into a new country.

Which meant a lot of planning in advance, of course!

Firstly the shipping! The shipping is probably the most stressful, as it encompasses packing, sorting, deciding what to keep, what to throw away and what to give away or sell. As I was working full time, Kay and Mum had to do the majority of the packing, with lots of help, more hindrance rather, from Aditi. Luckily we discovered very soon that the best way to keep her occupied, was to put her into a box with a couple of toys and she was happy there. Having someone else packing also meant that I had to be so clear about what I wanted to keep, as arbitary decisions sometimes meant that things that had sentimental value to me did not have the same value to some people :-)

At the same time as packing, we had to organise a carrier. As we didn't have a fixed address in Canada, we had to ship to a friend's house. Choosing the right shipping carrier is probably only of the most important decisions we had to make. I did a lot of research on the internet, and also read loads of reviews. And realised that you also have to shop around for the right price. I played off a couple carriers against each other and got a very good price to Prince George. The actual pick-up and sorting of boxes was then relatively straightforward, and all the boxes have arrived in one piece and except for the antlers of my jade moose, everything else is intact. Obviously all the research helped :-) The good thing was that I was even able to change the destination address from PG to Edmonton, and that helped enormously. Kay reports that customs clearance was easy and they even overlooked my bottle of Granadan vanilla extract :-)

Part 2 of the diary will detail the travel woes and chaos :-)