It's taken me over a week to update since arriving in the UK - it feels like our feet haven't touched the ground! Leaving Jersey can be summed up as emotional and manic, not necessarily in that order! The kids had all their leaving assemblies, sports days etc and then the day after they broke up we left on the ferry. The state of the house mid-week could probably be judged by the estate agent's comment "and you have [pause to distainfully scan the lounge floor] 2 days before you leave??" my response "well, three, if you count the fact that we are leaving on the 9pm ferry!" But it was touch and go! Even the new owners admitted that they didn't think we would have done it, having visited us 2 days before the off! I'm not sure we could have done it without mum (thank you, Mum!) who took the directions of "charity OR dump OR your attic OR greece OR car" with every thing she waved in front of our noses for the last week magnanimously. It was mid morning when Mark broke it to me that we would probably need two pallets to ship to Greece, rather than the one we were planning. When the cargo man arrived, we were still chucking things on the pallets and wrapping them all up in cling film, including kids' bikes and toys - very precious cargo indeed! When we eventually drove off to the ferry, new owners were waving us off with a smile, despite Mark leaving an electric moped in their garage and asking if they didn't mind dumping it for him! Lochy, having not expressed much emotion either way for the last month, said "I feel a bit sad" which promptly made me cry.....again.
Just want to say to all our Jersey friends and family, thanks for all your support and best wishes and don't forget, there's space on the boat for visitors, so looking forward to hearing from you, love Catherine xxx