My life on a ship...

As if moving isn't stressful enough... try packing up all of your belongings, loading them onto a 20ft container and watching it drive off to be put on a ship for a 2 week trip to Singapore...

It's one of the few times in my life I prayed daily... God, please do not let my life sink to the bottom of the ocean...

So... In the past 10 years I have already moved a total of 6 times... I like to think of myself as a sort of expert in the field now, although every move seems to bring with it a new set of challenges... moving from the country to the city, moving from the north to the east, moving out on my own, moving after only being in a place 6 months... moving in with the man I ended up marrying... moving to SINGAPORE...

The weeks prior to an O/S move, you spend time sorting your clothes and belongings (what to take, what to toss, what to keep but store...), canceling accounts, redirecting mail, selling furniture and appliances, leasing your apartment, dividing your plants and food and of course saying your goodbyes (that is the toughest part!)

The BEST thing by far about moving this time was employing a relocation team. No matter how much of an expert you think you are, no one could do this (maintaining sanity) on their own! Thank you Kents - you made the move as enjoyable as a move can be... and you sent cute removalists to pack up our house, even better :)

I also have to give a HUGE shout out to my mum - if I am the moving expert... she is the moving queen... or something of the like :P She has helped me move EVERYTIME (I think there is a big part of her that is stoked that I have moved O/S, one less move she will have to help with lol). My mum is just a power-house - I couldn't have done it without her (her physical and mental support is truely invaluable).

So back to the cute removalists.... I mean the relocation team...

They come to your house, log your items into some amazing piece to technology that spits out a list of all your items, there cubic dimensions and/or the no' of cartons required to pack everything - AMAZING!!

They also arrange all your customs paperwork etc and guide you on the do's and don'ts.. including how to ship DVD's into Singas.. a country where a 'sexual look' is considered porn!

Once a date is set, they send spunky removalists that love rnb music to your house to spend the day packing, singing and chatting to you - you sit back in an unwrapped spare chair and watch them work - AMAZING!!

You then look around at your life packed into boxes, watch as they load it into your shipping container and drive off... This is when you hope to god that you will see it all again on the other side - the goods that is.. not the removalists... (well you can hope!)

Of course - prior to all this you have to pack your 'holiday suitcase'... what you will live out of for the next 2 weeks or potentially more.. for me, this had to include the basics + cossies + a decent selection of shoes + interview outfits + winter clothes for the remaining days in Sydney! AND all this has to weight less than 23kgs!

So mine didn't weight 23kgs...

it was 26kgs... not too bad - I was quite impressed really :) My hubby's weighed 29kgs, so who's the diva!?

Lucky for us, hubby's company put us up in a serviced apartment for 4 weeks, enough time for us to find a place, get to know Singapore and shop around for furniture etc. The most challenging part for us was a wedding in Aus that fell 3 weeks in...