It’s been a busy time as we knew it would be prior to leaving. We deliberately left ourselves with spare time as we didn’t want a mad rush of things to have to achieve and be in a panic mode as we got to the airport. Last working day was Friday afternoon that commenced with the full on food fest. We have been out for dinner with friends on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday night so haven’t really had much of a chance to empty out the food from the fridge. Our good neighbours next door are going to inherit our left overs. It has been a very social four days but also a chance to put the final touches on all the plans. We even managed to fit in a Locked Room (also known as Escape Room) with a few friends but alas, even though it was our fourth attempt we were still unable to escape – hmm, doesn’t say much about our problem solving abilities.
Finalised all the dog transportation documentation which has been a lesson in perserverance and understanding legal mumbo jumbo. We went up to the Canadian Food and Inspection Agency in the North West of the city this morning with our folder of papers to have them all rubber stamped. They have certainly been extremely helpful and tolerant and done their darndest to ease the process for us. This was the cheap portion of the whole thing with the actual cargo bit tomorrow along with the quarantine stuff at Heathrow that is going to set us back a year in our retirement plans.
Done all those exciting things like preparing the house for our house sitting guests, mowing lawns, cleaning out cupboards, moving cars and the list goes on and on. Lastly we looked at the final bank balance and we are very pleased we have jobs to come back to after the four months – by golly gosh we are going to be paying for this for a while.
The internet is a wonderful thing but sometimes you should just go with the flow and take things as they come. It appears that our first five days on the canal boat are going to be rather soggy. Oh wonderful, two wet smelly dogs living with us in 360sq feet. We have been on the scout for two folding bikes in the UK as we want to take the opportunity to get out and explore and to keep some level of fitness going. We certainly fell on our feet as we discovered a chap selling his two new bikes about 5 miles from where we pick up the boat. He is even going to bring them down to the boat for us and throw in the lock and pump. Can’t get much luckier than that – well, maybe we will take the weather out of that equation.
Bag each – biggest for the pooches
Simple pooch paperwork, and all we get is a boarding pass.
Rowkin Rovings Blog 