Are we ready for this?

Wow! Such a mixture of emotions this week. Every day it seemed we were told we might be ready to exchange contracts and then there was this delay and that delay.

Martin needed to take charge of all communications completely as I was ready to spit feathers at any of the solicitors involved if I was to get to speak to them. And of course, that wouldn’t get us anywhere.

Then, yesterday after thinking it would never happen we got the call to say we had finally exchanged contracts. It was such a relief!! Then of course the panic of knowing we really do only have a week left to pack and of that week Martin is away for 3 days sorting out things with Marsha (the motorhome).

So, it’s tense around here. I am non stop packing, Martin’s life is a constant cycle of driving to the tip and charity shops. Sian is abandoning ship a week earlier and moving her things out so she can get settled back into her A Level Revision time table as quickly as possible. I don’t blame her – it’s been weeks since any of us could sit on a comfy chair and watch TV consecutively (it’s either one or the other). I can’t imagine not seeing her cheeky little face every morning – yet, I’ve known for a long while now that I will lose her to University this Autumn so I have resigned myself to that. It doesn’t stop me sneaking a little tear every now and then though. When Ryan went off to Uni nearly 6 years ago, I cried frequently and didn’t sleep properly for weeks. It’s all part of being a mum.

Martin has been to the tip 10 times in 9 days – he knows this as there is a display showing when he enters the tip – he’s worried in case there is a maximum number of visits. I have a plea to make if necessary – “we haven’t been much at all in nearly 10 years Sir, it’s just that we are taking all our visits in one go Sir” – we really have been the most dreadful hoarders. Every box that comes down from the loft reveals things long forgotten, mostly totally useless, and we wonder if we should just have paid someone to take it all away – un-opened.

However…..for as much rubbish as is revealed – there have also been a few treasures. For instance – a whole load of gold jewellery that I no longer wear, or would even want to wear as I switched to silver when Martin and I had platinum wedding rings (yeah yeah, I would have loved to have had all platinum but…..). And also, cards from my dad, words which reassure me that although he was a man who found it hard to express his emotions, he did love me, and was really keen for us to come and visit them in France and also words of appreciation to Martin for all the help he gave him in his final months.

The mislaid folder of photos and notes from my lovely Auntie Maureen was also found, just in time for the visit last week from our American cousins Doug and Lorraine, and it was so lovely to be able to show them these and reminisce.

So, there is a lot to be said for hoarding stuff. But still, it has to be sorted and so I know I must cull some of it and decide what is really important. I’m taking a few boxes of memories out to France and when I have time on my hands (which I hope may be sometime fairly soon) I’ll make some lovely collages of special cards to put up on the wall instead of tucking them away never to be seen again.

This very thorough way of packing has meant it has taken an absolute age to get packed – and we are still not done!! There is loads to do!! We quite simply are not ready…but we will be. Just the same as Sian is ready to embark on the next stage of her life (although she might not realise that quite yet) and we are ready to start the adventure of our life, come next Friday – when the removal vans arrive – our lives, neatly packed up in boxes, will be ready to be taken 720 miles away to the place where the next stage of our journey begins.

Exciting times….and at last I can dare to believe that it is really happening

And we are as ready as we will ever be for as Hugh Laurie very wisely says – “there is almost no such thing as ready – there is only now””.

©Sharon Rees-Williams – wordpress.com/thislittlepieceof.land, 2018 

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