Wow...what a tiring weekend. After finishing work at 6pm on Friday 12th September, I went home and helped pack our hired Luton van. The boys had already been hard at work, and had loaded on some heavy pieces of furniture, including one very heavy piano, two sofas, a large fridge, a large freezer and a washing machine and tumble dryer. They had also started loading cardboard boxes, full of smaller items that had been packed prior to moving day.
We took one load up on the Friday night....arriving about 1am in the morning. We discovered there was no electric, no water and no heating, so we just unloaded our mattress to sleep on, and a double blow-up mattress for my son Paul (who made the journey with us) to sleep on, and all went to sleep. It wasn't until the next morning that we unloaded the van.
After driving back to our old home to pick up another load,we again drove back to Wales for some more boxes and the remaining furniture. I don't know how Rob (my partner) drove all that way, loaded up the van and then drove all the way back to Wales....in all making six trips in 48 hours. He must have been exhausted. The last trip made by both of us was to pick up our cars. A well earned rest was had on the Monday, although we still had to sort out the electric, heating and water and buy food.
Luckily the main utilities were all solved quite simply....The electric meter, was a prepayment meter, for which we had to buy electric at the local store. Once we put the loaded key in to the meter, that allowed the boiler to work for heating, and the pump to work so that the water could be pumped up from the holding tank which is fed from our stream. We also found the local Morrisons supermarket in the nearby town of Aberystwyth and bought some food. We had to be very selective over the kind of food we bought, as we hadn't yet got our main cooker. I couldn't take my old range cooker, as it had a gas hob, and we do not have a gas supply here, our heating and water is fueled by oil. Our brand new induction hob cooker wouldnt arrive until early October, so we would have to manage as best as we could with a slow cooker and a microwave for the time being. What an adventure.
We made it here....Now we had to decide a plan of action....but more of that later.
After driving back to our old home to pick up another load,we again drove back to Wales for some more boxes and the remaining furniture. I don't know how Rob (my partner) drove all that way, loaded up the van and then drove all the way back to Wales....in all making six trips in 48 hours. He must have been exhausted. The last trip made by both of us was to pick up our cars. A well earned rest was had on the Monday, although we still had to sort out the electric, heating and water and buy food.
Luckily the main utilities were all solved quite simply....The electric meter, was a prepayment meter, for which we had to buy electric at the local store. Once we put the loaded key in to the meter, that allowed the boiler to work for heating, and the pump to work so that the water could be pumped up from the holding tank which is fed from our stream. We also found the local Morrisons supermarket in the nearby town of Aberystwyth and bought some food. We had to be very selective over the kind of food we bought, as we hadn't yet got our main cooker. I couldn't take my old range cooker, as it had a gas hob, and we do not have a gas supply here, our heating and water is fueled by oil. Our brand new induction hob cooker wouldnt arrive until early October, so we would have to manage as best as we could with a slow cooker and a microwave for the time being. What an adventure.
We made it here....Now we had to decide a plan of action....but more of that later.
