Farewell Amsterdam
We arrived home on Tuesday morning to embark on a week of packing the house up and preparing for the move. First half of the week goes off without a hitch and gradually, after countless return trips to Gamma and Praxis to buy yet more boxes, our house begins to resemble the shell that it was when we arrived 2 and a half years ago.
Each night we're up until the wee hours wrapping our fragile items in bubble wrap and making sure that everything is tightly packed and organised efficiently for the removalists. Early on Friday morning a huge removalists truck arrives and within 2 and a half hours the movers have placed our entire lives' belongings onto a truck bound for Oxford.
Unfortunately, our ecstacy that the move went off so smoothly was dealt a savage blow just two and a half hours later when we received a call from the real estate agent in Oxford informing us that the current tenants had not yet moved out and, as their contract ran until October 2nd, would be remaining in the property until that time. I'll spare you a description of my reaction and subsequent hours of pleading, begging, insulting and threatening other than to say that all of it was to no avail.
Thankfully, our movers were flexible enough to place our goods in storage (at a cost) and I managed to move my flight back a few days. As I had scheduled farewell drinks that evening, I was in no mood to stay sombre so within a short while (and courtesy of 5 or 6 Amstels) my melancholy state had evolved to a who cares type attitude.
I was extremely overwhelemed by the presence of both club mates (young and old) and friends at our drinks at vakzuid. Even more so, i was blown away by the gifts that we received - a number of baby gifts (to supplement the junior rugby guernsey and ball that the club had given me before our trip) as well as some lovely mementos from the HARM guys and gals and the coup de grace, a framed 't Gooi guernsey with a team photo from last years GF. It is moments like these that I will treasure and miss and friends such as those that I have made here that I am sure I will connect with for the remainder of my life.
Oxford awaits.
Each night we're up until the wee hours wrapping our fragile items in bubble wrap and making sure that everything is tightly packed and organised efficiently for the removalists. Early on Friday morning a huge removalists truck arrives and within 2 and a half hours the movers have placed our entire lives' belongings onto a truck bound for Oxford.
Unfortunately, our ecstacy that the move went off so smoothly was dealt a savage blow just two and a half hours later when we received a call from the real estate agent in Oxford informing us that the current tenants had not yet moved out and, as their contract ran until October 2nd, would be remaining in the property until that time. I'll spare you a description of my reaction and subsequent hours of pleading, begging, insulting and threatening other than to say that all of it was to no avail.
Thankfully, our movers were flexible enough to place our goods in storage (at a cost) and I managed to move my flight back a few days. As I had scheduled farewell drinks that evening, I was in no mood to stay sombre so within a short while (and courtesy of 5 or 6 Amstels) my melancholy state had evolved to a who cares type attitude.
I was extremely overwhelemed by the presence of both club mates (young and old) and friends at our drinks at vakzuid. Even more so, i was blown away by the gifts that we received - a number of baby gifts (to supplement the junior rugby guernsey and ball that the club had given me before our trip) as well as some lovely mementos from the HARM guys and gals and the coup de grace, a framed 't Gooi guernsey with a team photo from last years GF. It is moments like these that I will treasure and miss and friends such as those that I have made here that I am sure I will connect with for the remainder of my life.
Oxford awaits.
posted by Andrew at
8:46 pm
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