Has arrived in Granollers!
But I have not.
Here in the empty house there is still lots to do : contracts to sign, floors to paint, books to sell, friends to see, vets to visit…… enough to fill the three weeks before Blue and Bonnie and I set off on our journey to Catalunya.
Look at that van with CORNWALL painted on the front sitting in Granollers! How exciting!
My furniture arrived.
Safely.
It took several hours to unload as they had only sent ONE MAN! Luckily we were able to supply another!
The police were also in evidence due to traffic control. When all was unpacked the van wouldn’t start and the first police had to call for back up to come with jump leads! Tea was served. And now the piano is sitting in place waiting to be retuned. What a change from the damp atmosphere of Cornwall.
Meanwhile here is a picture of the walk I took with Bonnie yesterday in the beautiful sunshine down by Lamorna Cove. It was a great distraction from all the worries of moving house.
……..and another of the cows crossing the road from dairy to field on my way down to Lamorna. Never forget the life of these dairy cattle – their fully stretched udders from over production of milk and their lameness as they slowly and painfully walk the short distance from the yard to the grass. This herd is very well looked after – the farmers don’t shout or hit them, they walk beside them with a gentle hand resting on the back of the last and most crippled one to cross the road. But it is not an easy life for these animals as they provide us with our milk.
I always watch with sadness at the same time as pleasure at the old fashioned scene.
Tomorrow morning very early my furniture will arrive in Granollers.
Hopefully!
It began its journey last Wednesday when the men arrived here in Lamorna to collect it. After weeks of worry and indecision I had decided to use a local firm and to pay for a direct delivery rather than entrust it to a larger anonymous company as a part load. I read all the websites I could find on how to do an international removal and got more and more entangled in the possible problems. I had started with only a few items to take – things I really want to have with me like the piano, my treatment couch and some paintings and sculptures. This list grew as it was obvious you pay for the journey and so you might as well take more things when you are paying so much.
So, it has been en route for the past week and tomorrow it will arrive, in my absence, in its new home.
The idea of the piano going to Catalunya seems especially exciting!
We don’t know exactly how big the van will be but I can imagine the scene in our busy street while they unload. It is a large town with a village feel – the butchers, the tabac, the sports shop, the neighbours – they will all be watching as my stuff is carried in.
I’m sorry if you drop in here regularly hoping for news from Catalunya. For the moment at least I am totally absorbed in the business of moving house and especially what it is like when you are moving from one country to another. For anyone who is interested in this process perhaps I am describing fascinating things but I would like to reassure the others that soon……very soon….the posts will be back to normal(whatever that is!)
I start with this as I noticed yesterday that I had lost one of my ‘followers’. I have so few of you that each and every one is important to me and I notice when someone appears….or disappears. I don’t know why some blogs have hundreds of followers and I do not but I do want to say to those of you who are hanging on in there with me – thank you!
So, back to moving house. There is a lot of pressure nowadays to declutter. To let go of stuff and live a minimalist life. Even if you don’t want to live in a white monastic uncluttered box, most people including me want to feel free of all the gubbins that we accumulate throughout life. Somehow life flows better when it doesn’t have to fight for breath under piles of clutter. When you are moving house obviously this seems the perfect time to separate out what to keep and what to say goodbye to.
In Chinese Medicine this process of sorting and separating is governed by the energy of the Small Intestine. An imbalance here can lead to either holding onto everything or letting go of too much. With obvious parallels in the physical body.
But the process of sorting and separating is work – it needs time and it needs clarity of purpose. It is very depressing to spend half an hour indecisively putting things in one pile only to move them later to another. I started with a dream of only taking things that are 100% beloved or useful with me to Catalunya. But now in the later stages of this process I find myself packing small items that I could live without. I imagine myself unpacking them at the other end and wondering why I brought them. I am constantly swithering between a desire to travel light and a fear of floating off into space without enough baggage to tether me down. I will probably send off my goods on Wednesday with a removal van from Cornwall to sail over to France and drive down to Catalunya and be received in Granollers in my absence. It feels unreal. I look at my home which is slowly turning into the minimal white monastic cell I dreamt of and I wonder why it is so hard to create this space to live in!
Packing dilemma – what to do with a bag of knitting needles and wool? Like many others I get the occasional urge to knit something – not often but every few years this comes over me. So do I take this bag with me or accept that I’ll have to buy it all again in Spain?
