188 days and counting...

This is what you pray does not happen to your containers... a collision. :)

and so it begins...188 days and counting

The afternoon was spent pouring over the calendar. It is January 8th and I marvel how a year can go by so quickly. It is always like this when you are planning a move. Everything must be calculated with precision. Family, schools, pets, vacations and the most baffling of all....the transport of household goods. We arrived in England with two 40' containers. We plan to move to Vietnam with one container heading to Ho Chi Minh and the other to Sydney. I have to decide and divide. This one is new to me. When I think it through in my mind, I foresee an empty container gliding across the sea to Sydney. Well almost, there are one or two very large artifacts from Papua New Guinea in our garage that are still sitting in the crates they arrived in two years ago. I will gladly put them on the empty container to Oz.

Mr. H suggested we take all our artwork and ship it to Sydney so that we can start anew in Vietnam. I am still processing this idea and am wondering if he is delirious. Our house in Sydney will most definitely not be able to contain what we have picked up since leaving Australia seven years ago. In addition to the artwork acquired in New Zealand and England, we have two rather large marble elephants on their way from our trip to India in October. It's a wild, wild, world we live in.

Mr. H has started his journey. He left today for Vietnam, returning to the UK in two weeks. We then set off to Morocco for a holiday. We return to the UK and he sets off to Vietnam again. All this in the span of three weeks. It makes my head spin. His return to Vietnam will be permanent. I will stay in the UK to allow the children to finish the school year.  This is a very common expat drill. It is the hard part as we will most likely seem every 8 weeks or so until we move on 14th July. I have done this before, for a year. I shudder as I recall the family 'group hug' we had before he drove off to catch his flight to England in 2009. We saw him every 8-12 weeks for a year. I feel for military families who know this as a fact of life. It is difficult, but we are seasoned and it is only for six months. We have faith.

So...Mrs H is running the ship..solo. The last time she ran the ship solo, she started a blog and stayed up into the wee hours of the night, giddy with delight. Oh dear, oh dear...what will she get up to this time?? :)

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