Ready to move out

Thursday, 11 May 2006 | Leaving the Netherlands

As I’m speeding through the country, attending meeting after meeting and spending nights in every corner of the country, I’m also preparing the upcoming weekend - the weekend of my big move. I’ll leave my precious condominium permanently next monday. Over the last week or so, I’ve been increasingly feeling sad about having to leave my home. Although with it, the anticipation of departure day has also been growing so it’s not like I’ve also started doubting my decision. I’m sure that will happen at some point, but not just yet. Right now it’s just about having to leave the place I’ve lived for the last few years, with it’s incredible view, location and all.

I will move in with Kim. She and I are well aware of the risks that are involved with my moving in with her and Given. We have actually had some discussions about it tuesday night, but have decided to give it a go anyway. So I’ve moved my internet connection (very important!) to her address and will move my things to her apartment on saturday. I won’t sleep there until sometime next week.

All in all, I think having to deal with all the issues involved in leaving my home months before my departure day is a really good thing. Although there are some additional things to take care of, such as finding temporary residence, it does give me a feeling of having less stress in the last month before I go.

As far as my stuff goes …

Because my fathers’ address will be my official residence, I’ve moved all my paperwork to his home. For the next months, I’ll go down there to do my paperwork, pay my bills, etc. regularly. At some point he and I will discuss how to deal with incoming mail and what not after my departure. In notifying companies about my new address, I’ve found that this is an ideal opportunity to slim the volume of mail I get. I’ve notified the companies that I’ll continue to have a contract with of my new address, the rest has received a letter I’ll be moving abroad and so they can take me out of their files.

Most of the furniture and other stuff has been sold and picked up. The big load will be picked up on saturday by the lady who bought most of it in one go. The things that are left to sell, will be stored in Kim’s place so I can sell it from there.

The decision if or not to have things shipped has been postponed. So all the things I will leave in the Netherlands permanently AND the things I might leave here or might want to take with me have also been stored in Kim’s basement. I’m still looking for a permanent solution and still researching the shipping option.

On monday, somewhere around 16:00 I will no longer be a home owner. Snif.