New Zealand - here we come!!!

Hi everybody!  I won't be posting anything crafty for the next few months while my crafty stuff makes it slow and merry way to the other side of the world.  I've been asked by many of you to keep you abreast of my new adventure to emigrate to New Zealand so feel free to either get a cuppa and read on, or move on to some one else's blog with crafty inspiration!

Our work visas to New Zealand eventually turned up last week - and what a relief that was as we had so many things "pencilled in" but wasn't able to confirm until we got them.  On a practical level, we have been so busy confirming and coordinating everything - like sorting out all of our belongings, buying and shipping over my new car, booking our air tickets, having numerous leaving lunches and do's, handing over my workload, going through my work performance appraisal, organising our accommodation in NZ, decorating and selling our house....the list goes on and on!

You know, all of this practice stuff is easy for me - scope it out, plan it and implement it.  It's the project manager in me that can sort this all out and take it in my stride.  What's hard is the emotional stuff.  Let me give you an example.  I had to hand in my work laptop and iPhone on my last day in the office last Thursday.  Now I don't care much for them, but I had handed over 19 years of my work life and I suddenly became overwhelmed.  I stood there in the middle of Hays Galleria at London Bridge blubbering.  Not sophisticated!  I soon got over it and managed to have a fantastic leaving lunch with my besties.  But I admit that since then I've had a few waves of that feeling of being overwhelmed with the thoughts of leaving behind all that is known to me and jumping into an unfamiliar world that is New Zealand.  

I will miss my UK family most of all - mum, dad, my bro, my sister-in-law, my niece, Hollie, and my nephew, Michael.  I love them all so much and feel so lucky that I have such great relationships with each of them.  But at least I will be that bit nearer to my other bro, his wife and my other nephew, William, who live in Hong Kong.  Silver linings, huh?  I'm going to encourage them all to move to NZ too!

The removal team were in today - bar from three months worth of clothes, everything is packed and ready to go tomorrow onto the container.  We won't see them for 3 months.  I will miss my extra large ironing board and super duper steam iron and - most of all - my craft stuff!!  I was feeling sad to think that we won't see this stuff for ages and then we got a phone call at lunchtime from our estate agents telling us our house buyers had pulled out.  Bummer.  And then a few hours later we got another call from them telling us that we had another two offers for the house for the same price.  Brilliant.  I am sure you can tell that we've been on one hell of an emotional roller coaster ride today!

There are lots of other little details that have kept us on our toes and tested my relationship with my [OCD/anal] husband over the past few months, but I won't bore you with them.  Let me just say that you need the patience of an angel and a lot of resilience to stop yourself from SCREAMING!!!  Deep breath...lol!

I don't know when I'll be able to write again here, but it will probably be when we've landed in Auckland, New Zealand some time next week.  I hope you are all well - and certainly less stressed than me right now!