Normally, our house moves are pretty straightforward when it comes to the timing.
We pack up where we are, I collect the hired truck/van, the home-owners move out and once they’re gone we move in. I then return the van to the hire depot (usually Orana Car & Truck Hire).
In general, this is a seamless process. However, lately it’s become very complicated.
In a recent post (Halloween Edition – Kill The Cat) I described the situation we had moving into a serviced apartment for a period where we didn’t have a home to go to. That got very complicated with the timing associated with moving in.
In that one Danita was able to arrange a very early check-in which made a HUGE difference.
At the time we had a good friend who I’d asked to help with unloading the van and he was willing to do so – luckily, because of the rearranged timetable, we didn’t need his help.
Today’s move was similar. We had to be out of the apartment by 11 – which was OK and comfortably doable.
Our challenge, this time, was that we couldn’t move in to the next house until 5pm.
So here was the dilemma – we had 6 hours in limbo, two vehicles (our car and the van loaded with all our stuff), and Sancho, who couldn’t be left in a vehicle for any length of time especially if it was going to be outside in the sunshine.
That’s where our friend stepped in.
Across the road from where we’d been living, lives a lovely lady (Deb) who’d we’d connected with through working together.
She offered us to hang out at her place and especially wanted to see her new best friend, Sancho.
Earlier in the week, we’d been having a problem with our internet connection and so she suggested we work at her place.
While living so close we’ve had some lovely times together including a couple of ‘progressive dinners’ (haven’t done one of those in YEARS) and she and Danita were getting into some regular walks around the neighbourhood.
One thing we learned from that is how important a dog is.
Deb has lived in the area for some time and yet Danita and I knew more about the local walks than she did. This is because Sancho demands to be taken for a daily constitutional and is an intrepid explorer – forcing us to keep up.
That way, we’ve discovered really interesting features of the locales in which we’ve lived. (I’ve just done a count and we’re now in our 31st property since we started house-sitting and some of those have been multiple times – phew!!!)
So, our experience of friends is:
- Someone who’ll help move at very short notice and is happy to rearrange their activities when you cancel at even shorter notice
- Someone who’ll offer the use of their home when you’re stuck for a few hours with nowhere to go
- Someone who’ll even let you move in for a period when you’ve got nowhere else to stay
Being an urban nomad is a great and on-going adventure. But sometimes it’d be awful, without those few very special people.
Here’s a HUGE THANK YOU to David, Deb, Katy, Kim & Gary – this wouldn’t be possible without having you in our lives.