So we arrived home after a fortnight in Queensland, and Ellie was delighted to see her room again, and in particular was thrilled to see that all her toys were safe and happy. Even though it was pretty late, she said hello to every single toy and pulled them all out over her rug. She also did a basic inventory of every room in the house, yes the bath was still there and so was the fridge!
Monday was a slow day, and we took our time all recovering and just being glad to be home again. Mike had found us a new apartment in Shimao, and all was looking good to having a relaxed week before heading over to the UK on Friday for the summer holiday. While we were away, he'd started preparing for our move, so many boxes were packed, and some things were dismantled. As far as the mundane parts of returning from holiday go, we unpacked the cases and started the washing. I started packing boxes for some more of the big move too, which we understood would be taking place on our return from the UK.
Tuesday was equally relaxed. We started preparing what we were taking on the next trip and we continued packing up peripheral things for the move. I took Ellie out that afternoon around to a friend's house, whose daughters Ellie had been asking about while we were away. As I sat there quietly drinking tea and talking about Australia, and just having a bit of a relax I had no idea what was unfolding at home...
Mike had finally heard from the real estate agent, who has known since May about all our travel plans, and found out that our current landlord had leased our place again from 1 August, as indeed our lease expired on 31 July. We also found that our new lease at Shimao wouldn't take effect until 1 August - as the school would not pay double rent for even a day! We then asked what suggestions they had as they knew we were going to the UK on Friday! With some negotiation, managed to arrange access to our new apartment to one room on Thursday afternoon, where we could store all our stuff while away. We also had to 'check out' of our current apartment, and graciously they agreed to check us out on Thursday night, but allow us to stay until Friday morning. Phew.
So calmly put Ellie to bed. Then frantically started serious packing - everything, all the plates, cutlery, cooking stuff, the things you do need on a day to day basis. Wednesday was spent packing everything else, but trying to leave Ellie's room appearing outwardly normal until the last minute. Bless our Ayi for staying back for a couple of extra hours to help with cleaning as we finished each room!
Thursday the removalists came at 11am and needed to make 2 trips to our new place. The real estate agent then had the audacity to ask us if she could come earlier to check us out, so she could go home earlier. I really haven't conveyed how poor the service was with these guys... how many times we reiterated that we were travelling, that we had kids to consider, that safety was paramount, that we didn't like brocade wallpaper or heavy Chinese furniture, that we wanted to be walking distance from school, that it needed a full size oven, that we wanted one bedroom to have a single bed (we have settled on just having the 3rd King Size bed removed), etc, etc. I really wish I'd pushed the check out time to later, just to be annoying, but we passed it all with flying colours.
Friday 9am, we dropped the last keys we had in the letterbox and headed out to Pudong airport again... goodbye China, hello Wales!!
PS - about the airport - it was a breeze with 2 adults! Ellie could run around with one of us, and the other sat with Jamie and the luggage...
No comments:
Post a Comment