Dawn's Question Time

I've gotten a lot of questions about the move so I figured I would take some time to answer the questions.

When are you leaving?
Friday June 12th at 3:15 PM.

Are you happy to be going home and being closer to your family?
I'm not going home. Home is on the east coast. I'm going to Seattle, that's on the west coast. I am no closer to my family in Seattle than I was in London. Still a 6 or so hour plane ride. The time difference is a little different instead of being 5 hours ahead I'm 3 hours behind.

Are you taking any time off before you start?
No I'm crazy and start working Monday. I have a 2 day training and will be in the office on Wednesday morning. I will have the weekend to get adjust to Pacific time. I'll probably take some time off over the summer just don't know when.

Do you have a place to stay in Seattle?
I have a temporary place lined up for 30-90 days. I am hoping to be in my own place by mid-August - yes this is quick but there's no need to drag things out.

I received 1 question after I posted the quiz on Monday asking what size the boxes - luckily I took a picture - I didn't measure them.

See left.

And the answer to the question you all want to know - the answer from the quiz on Monday. How many boxes were my belongings packed into?

33 - Dad was the closest with his guess of 30 congratulations you get to help me unpack them - HAHAHAHAHA

Taking A Break

Taking a quick break today from the re-patriation related posts. I was checking out my Google Analytics account today - yes that's right I track all the readers of my blog and my photography site. Today I looked at the search terms that have taken people to my blog, in the past 30 days there have been 30 visits sent via 30 different keywords. While the keywords are different they do fall into some similar categories. The time that users have spent on the site has been next to nothing as most people probably realized that the information was not what they were looking for. Below are 10 categories/keywords that have landed people on my blog

1. Landlord not responding
2. Top 10 things in Copenhagen
3. Adventures of Delvish
4. Basheesh
5. Custom Fees
6. Expat Boston Blog
7. Kangaroo pyramid / Kangaroo Tudy
8. Sofas
9. Expat problem
10. Lease Renewal

Bye Bye Belongings

It's surprising how many boxes your life can be reduced to ( or maybe it's how few). The movers came today and packed up everything I decided to take to Seattle. Shocking how quickly they work. They started at 8:30 and were done by noon. Only 1 minor problem but that was quickly resolved. When I checked out the kitchen I realized they had emptied a cupboard that they weren't supposed to. I had left all the cabinet doors open showing what needed to go and what was closed was supposed to stay. One cabinet accidentally got emptied. Luckily all the boxes are clearly marked and there were only 3 possible boxes the stuff could have been in. Yup you guessed it the third box had the stuff in it. The only reason I wanted the stuff is I was afraid what I would be charged to replace the items, in my mind they're worth about £5 in total if that - 3 year old heavily used Tupperware.

Not only was I moving today but so were my neighbors so my tiny little street had 2 big moving vans parked on it. I have never seen the parking police patrol my street but they were there today. I can only guess that somebody called to complain that they couldn't get around the corner.

Anyways you may have noticed that I didn't actually mention how many boxes were packed that's up to you - can you guess?

Next Week At This Time

Exactly one week from today I'll be sitting in the lounge at Heathrow preparing for my journey back across the pond. Last night I started going through the items remaining in my cupboard and fridge. It's amazing some of the food that just purely needed to be tossed - they've been sitting in my cupboard for 2 years, a few more items to clean out tonight.

Between now and next Friday there is still a bit of stuff I have to do but it isn't much.

• This evening I will be packing as much as I can into my suitcases and prepare for the move to my friends for the final week.
• I'm still hoping that Virgin sends me the bag to return the set-top box so far no luck.
• Monday the movers come and package my belongings for the long trip to Seattle.
• Pay the final bills.
• Professionally clean the flat on Thursday.
• I've also managed to take some time on Thursday to relax a bit and then have one last goodbye drinks and dinner with the guys from the office.

Tomorrow is the big goodbye BBQ, I am using the power of positive thought to make sure there is no rain tomorrow. The Q is happening rain or shine, I would just really like for it to shine.

It's About Time

The call came this morning at about 8:45, the landlord has finally decide to re-let the apartment. This is almost exactly 1 month after I gave notice that I was leaving. I have absolutely no idea why it took this long. It's incredibly frustrating as I am responsible for the rent until July 7th or until new tenants are found, as the landlord took so long to start advertising the chances of finding a tenant that wants to move in next weekend is probably slim to none. Had the property been advertised sooner I'm sure they would have found somebody.


What makes this even more frustrating is that when the call came in they asked to come over and take pictures, I am 4 days away from having the movers come and pack things which means the place was a real mess. Things on the tables, and everywhere I spent about 45 minutes running around putting things away so that the place would be relatively tidy for the pictures and now I have to make sure the place stays tidy for prospective tenants. It will be interesting to see how long it takes them to post the flat on the site and start actually showing it to tenants.


In other news I walked outside today to see the parking ban sign posted for my move. Does this make it real?

You Get What You Negotiate

Today I read an article that made me realize I did a really poor job of negotiating my relocation back to the US. The ex-boss of Vodafone received £500,000 to move him and his belongings from the UK back to the US, I'm getting slightly less than that. Some of you may think that there's a difference in our roles; he was running a company for 5 years, saw profits of over £10 billion, and made more than £8.1 million in his last year (Again I made slightly less than that).

Of course what I want to know is what is he moving that he needs £500K. With my package I'm managing:

• To move all my belongings from the UK
• To move all my belongings in storage
• A first class flight from London to Seattle (OK so it was using miles but it still counts)
• Rent for temporary accommodation while I find a permanent place

Isn't it something how the other half lives.

They Don't Make It Easy

I had to jump through hoops today to cancel my TV License. I had called a month ago but you can only cancel the license 10 days in advance. Now here is where it really gets interesting. In order to process a refund they will mail you a form it takes 10-14 days to receive the form - hmm this means that you will likely be gone by the time the form arrives. No worries there is a form on-line to download. There is a full page of instructions which list the supporting documentation that is needed. In addition to the original TV license you need to provide proof that you are leaving the property in the form of a final utility bill, plane ticket, letter from a solicitor, proof of sale, etc. I printed out my e-ticket and TV license, filled out the form and realized the one thing that was missing from instructions is the address where to mail the refund. To get this I had to go back on-line and look-up the address. Why would this not be included in the instructions or on the form, everything else was there. I'm really going to miss this British bureaucracy.