Settling In
We moved Wednesday of last week into our new place. We managed to move everything in just 2 trips in the truck. We actually wouldn’t have had even that much ourselves, but we had already borrowed so much from people to see us through til our stuff arrives in shipping. Actually the shipping has been delayed. It was due to arrive at the apartment 6th May but we have now heard that it will not even get to New York until the 12th, and then it could take up to 2 weeks to get through customs, depending on how in-depth they want to be, then it has to get to the Chicago office of the removal firm, and then to us. So we are probably looking at towards the end of May now, which will be a whole month after moving in to an empty place. The temporary apartment was fully furnished with all kitchen equipment and bedding, etc, but this has nothing apart from kitchen appliances. So we have had to borrow absolutely everything from people as we didn’t want to buy new stuff when our own is on its way here.But there is no garbage disposal unit here, and no recycling bins either. I asked in the office about recycling, and they said they had tried to get bins here but no joy. So I rang the local council, or whatever it is called, and asked about where we can take paper, glass, plastic etc, and basically there seems to be nowhere apart from a place for paper only. But they did say we should be able to get bins here, so I passed the number to the office to arrange it. I think I am going to become the kind of tenant that the office staff hate, as I have already been in there several times with questions. They are starting to get a panicked look in their eyes when they see me now!
We are unfortunately living next to a building site. There is a church behind some trees at the end of our car park, and they are rebuilding it. The builders seem to choose to do all their really noisy work between the hours of 7am and 9am, bless them, and then for the rest of the day you mostly wouldn’t know they were there! But the roof is on now so hopefully wont be too much longer before it is finished.
We went to Ikea and bought a desk, couple of bookcases, and a couple of chests of drawers, as we are not having much furniture shipped out. The bedroom has wardrobes built in so do not need to buy those. I have finished unpacking after building all the furniture. It is starting to look more like a home now. And we have a new TV – it is ENORMOUS! And now has about a hundred more channels, but we can get TV guide on screen, so can actually make an informed choice of what to watch! And it can record a programme and do all sorts of other stuff that I will probably never use but Gordon will enjoy experimenting with!
The truck has been sick. It went to see a mechanic yesterday to have the water pump replaced, then I went to pick it up and went on to my first ever garage sale. We had heard that you can pick up some good bargains at them. And I definitely did that – I got a golf bag full of golf clubs for free from one woman who said she just wanted to get rid of them, and then a golf trolley for free from someone else who is moving to England (Guernsey actually) in 2 months, so I was chatting to her for a while about the whole experience of moving country, and she refused to take my money.
We have gone to check out a couple of local golf clubs over the past few weeks, and used their driving ranges. I took a few beginners group golf lessons just before leaving the UK, and really enjoyed it. So now we have booked some private lessons for me, to start this Sunday. So, Tiger Woods watch out (or whoever the female equivalent is of Tiger)!
Meanwhile, everything is finally sorted back in the UK. My car has been sold and my flat rented out – the tenants moved in just last weekend. That is definitely a weight off my mind, apart from the worry of them trashing the place!
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