Container 2

Here are the pictures as promised. First, the arrival of the container itself, which had not been opened at all since leaving NZ:

The unpacking of some of the larger furniture items was a comfort as then we knew it was really our furniture:

The hallway filled up quickly:

As did the bedrooms - the only obvious casualites are the box of Xmas decorations (still to be checked) and a leg of one of the chairs which can be repaired with some paint:

Wouter supervising proceedings as all the boxes and cartons were checked off against their list:

Wouter was pleased when the boat was unloaded - there was a flat tyre as someone had secured a nail which punctured through, otherwise all appears to be ok:

And we thought the shed (hangar) was big enough, but that also filled up quickly:

Most of the cartons had "books" written on the top, but I'm sure we don't have that many. We are missing a lot of kitchen things, so I think they are probably in cartons marked books - this picture I've called "Books 'R' Us":

And finally, some luxury seating after all those weeks on wooden fold up chairs (that is, before we bought our two nice IKEA seats) and a real dining table from which to eat in our still camp kitchen:

It was an overwhelming couple of days. Cassy was unsettled - I guess by now he's figured out that lots of boxes mean we are moving house. At the end of the day we were still here and he was delighted to find his pink rubber ball, which has taken pride of place beside the green one... the only thing left for him to make it paradise is his duvet.

We are not unpacked by any means - as you know we are in the middle of tiling, grouting and doing the kitchen. So there are no cupboards ready to take the kitchenware and we're still camping in the lounge for now. Apart from finding some useful tools to help our installation of kitchen and associated work, we will unpack a few things we need (like warmer clothes, dressing gown, etc) otherwise it will stay in boxes until required and the rooms are ready.

Container

Hi Folks,

hot off the press and happening as we speak - pictures later - a quick post to tell you all that the container with our belongings arrived in Marseille last week. We had a phone call to say they would deliver our things today and tomorrow. Lo and behold, they arrived with two very large trucks at 9:30 this morning.

Must admit that we were both pleasantly surprised by this as it took four weeks to leave nz and we thought we'd have about the same waiting time here with unloading, customs clearance and transporting etc. But no, only one week (note that this is not the day to day speed of officialdom in France). Perhaps all our translating paid off.

We both had a restless night imagining all sorts of things as well as being a little excited at the prospect of being able to live "properly" again.

So far so good - everything appears to be in order and Wouter is managing where everything goes while I continue with grouting the tiles in kitchen/dining.

Just a thanks to all the people who have sent us cards, postcards and letters over the last few weeks - it's wonderful to have some handwritten news from near and far and helps us to feel a little less isolated.