The Day of the Move

For the weeks preceding the day of the move all I wanted to do was go to bed because it couldn’t come quick enough.

When April 1st finally arrived, I felt I had stopped rushing forward and instead it was rushing towards me.

We’d moved out of our house the day before, which was the Thursday. Hubby was staying over night in a local Premier Inn to handover the keys in the morning.

I’d driven to Kimnel Bay to stay with a friend overnight as it was on the way to Anglesey where our new home was.

We planned that I would leave Betty’s house around 11 am as monies generally start transferring around midday. If we were lucky it would happen sooner rather than later as I’d heard people can be kept waiting for hours.

However, the plan was that the dog and I would drive to Holyhead, where the estate agents were based and wait at the sea front for the phone call saying we could collect our keys. Hubby was traveling directly to our bungalow with the removal van and waiting for me there.

That was the plan and as with all good plans, they  go wrong. As I was packing the car to leave, I was excited and anxious at the same time. At that point I was actually a homeless person, and that made me giggle.

Just as I was about to put the dog in the car, I received a text from my son in law. It said – “Mother dear, (his pet name for me) I don’t quite know how to tell you this….”

At this point I should explain that my daughter is 7 months pregnant. Her bump is on the large side and she had been having problems with her hips and suffering from extreme tiredness. Also, her blood pressure had been higher than it should have been, and she had been sick in the street whilst out walking.

I knew she was at the hospital that day and was having a scan. So I was expecting some news.

The text continued: “They think they have found a second heart beat….”

At this point my legs turned to jelly as I tried to tell Betty why I had suddenly turned pale. She made me sit down and I immediately rang my son in law back, but there was no reply so I assumed they were in with the doctor.

A million thoughts were running through my head. She couldn’t possibly be expecting twins, and I gasped out this thought. Her two year old had been a difficult baby, how could she possible cope with two of them?

Betty made me a hot drink and told me to try and calm down. “People do, people manage,” she said.

“There is no history of twins in the family,” I said, thinking that the last set was three generations ago and wouldn’t count. “How can she possibly cope with Luka as well?”

Oh my goodness, I was moving house, two hours away from her now.

The shock manifested itself as tears. My heart thumped loudly as I rang hubby. Luckily he had stopped at Starbucks for a coffee, and took the news with a similar state of shock.

Betty hugged me told me not to worry and that it would all work out. I was shaking so much I couldn’t even contemplate driving.

Hubby said he would try and ring them, but came to the same conclusion as I did when there was no reply. He texted me to calm down, it would all right, he said.

I cannot remember the last time I had had such a meltdown. It was a horrible feeling. I wanted to get my keys to my new home but couldn’t possibly drive.

Then hubby texted me again. “Have you seen the date?”

I turned to Betty stunned. “What’s the date?” I said, unable to believe what I was thinking. They couldn’t have, could they?

For a moment she looked puzzled and finally I saw the penny drop. “Oh no!” she gasped. “That’s a horrible things to do!” April Fools day and I had been had.

I couldn’t delay the drive any longer and put the dog in the car and said goodbye. Betty looked so worried, I wasn’t really fit to drive, but what else could I do?

Just as I was about to pull out of the drive, my daughter rang. “You didn’t believe us, did you?” A fresh wave of emotion swept over me and lets say I was a little short with her as I rang off.

I was still shaken as I drove through Kimnel Bay and Abergele in Wales. I hit the North Wales Expressway with tears streaming down my face. I wasn’t angry, they honestly didn’t think. It wasn’t a relief of her not having twins either. It was just the shock of it.

I had dreamed for so long of driving towards Anglesey to collect the keys to my new home. I should have been excited and happy, but I felt nothing at all.

Finally, I arrived on the island and as the view opened up into fields, I became calmer and felt happier. My phone, which was in a holder on the dashboard, began displaying text messages from hubby. The sale had gone through and I could go directly to the estate agents to collect the keys.

Feeling cheerier, despite the pouring rain, I approached the traffic lights at the end of the expressway. I noticed a mini driving a little erratically, as if they weren’t concentrating on which lane they were supposed to be in.

I pulled to a stop and was stationary with my handbrake on when I was suddenly shunted from behind. I looked in the mirror and there were two girls in the front. I couldn’t see the driver because of the reflections in the windscreen,  but it was obvious the passenger knew they had done something wrong.

The traffic lights turned to green and I pulled in at the first opportunity and watched them drive by without stopping. I was so shocked, even if there was no damage, it would have been courtesy to do so.

I then brought up the picture of the map which would take me directly to the estate agent’s office, only I took a wrong turn and got lost. I pulled over and tried to bring up Google Maps, but there was no signal and it wouldn’t load. I jumped out and checked the rear of the car and as suspected, there was no damage. I drove a little further and into a car park where I saw a lady and I asked her if she knew where they estate agents were situated. She did. I was in the right place.

The dog and I got out of the car in the rain, so I had to put her coat on, dropping my keys under the seat as I did so. Then I couldn’t find my purse for the pay and display car parking fee.

Eventually it came together and the keys were collected and I drove to the bungalow where hubby was waiting. I was pleased to see the removal men hadn’t arrived as it gave hubby and I a chance to look around on our own.

The bungalow was lovely and even better than we remembered from our viewing in January.

The removal men arrived soon after and it took them just over two hours to unload all our worldly goods.

While they were doing so, I looked out into the small garden at the rear of the bungalow and saw dog poo, so armed with poo bags, I went to remove it. Unfortunately it wasn’t alone and the whole garden was full of it. These poos, by sheer volume,  belonged to more than one dog for sure. My dog is a Yorkie and these were from something much bigger. It was totally disgusting. I removed 15 bags worth in the end.

The following day, I realised we weren’t too clever in packing and labelling of the boxes. I couldn’t find any towels or shampoo. I resorted to using a body wash and the dog’s towel and as I turned on the shower it broke. Not knowing the controls, I turned the thread on the tap too far and snapped it. So I ended up washing my hair under the taps in the sink instead.

Two weeks after the move, as I write this, I am happy to say we eventually found the towels and are almost settled in. I say almost because we are waiting for our broadband to be fitted. This will enable us to have WIFI. I have been using my phone’s data to access social medial and of course that costs money.

I am also waiting for carpets. The previous owner had wooden floors fitted throughout, which I must admit do look very nice, but practically it doesn’t work for us. We love the comfort of carpets. Everything has an echo and the dog tends to clip nosily around the floors and can’t jump onto our laps without sliding across the room.

 

It’s going to be a beautiful home and already the view from our window is no comparison.