Packing up in Melbourne

The start of 2007 was pretty busy for us: we had a house to pack, and more so, I was finally going to sort through 15 years of collected 'stuff'. For some reason somebody didn't allow me to move it for a fourth time in four years... and heaps got thrown out. For instance, after I was done with the full 4-drawer filing cabinet everything fit in about half a drawer: almost 90% went to the recycling!

We allowed ourselves enough time, and got things pretty much done in time. And we needed to: in previous moves we had the flexibility of moving lots of stuff in cars but this time everything needed to be ready on January 17 for the removalists. Doris again did a fantastic job packing all of our day-to-day stuff, and I focused mostly on my junk... We ended up with one third of the garage full of organised and labeled boxes.

Doris and the kids stayed at Doris' parents place the night before and the day of the move.

Two removalists came with a truck and a 40m3 container. We used Chris Bell and Bells, a Tasmanian company (well-known in Tassie) that quoted us half the price (about $3000 for pack-yourself, door-to-door) of what two bigger companies quoted! And they did a great job: everything was packed very tightly in the container (it ended up being about 32 cubic meters) and apart from a few minor scratches, we didn't have any damage or breakages. It was a hard job for them too: it was 37 degrees! They were lucky though: it wasn't very sunny so the container didn't get too hot, as opposed to the day before when it was also a few degrees hotter...

We then spend from Thursday until Sunday night at Doris' parents place which was very comfortable and pleasant. The kids liked it too - only the first night Christopher wanted to go 'home'. Having these few days was really good - it allowed us to take it easy after a tiring two weeks, we could still say goodbye to a few people in a relaxed way, and even see Casino Royale in Gold Class (for non-Australians: a very luxurious movie theatre!)

Sunday nights in Melbourne were a bit of a tradition for us: Doris' siblings with partners and children would come to Anthony and Elizabeth's (their parents place) for a wonderful authentic Vietnamese meal - if there's any Melburnian thing we'll miss it is those meals and the company! So we had a last great supper there and it was time to say goodbye to Doris' family and to Melbourne!