24th August 2026
We like a bit of history here at rockrootsretirement. Barbados and the West Indies, the English Civil War, Shakespeare and the Tudors – we’ve got it covered. So when history repeated itself last week I was inspired to write a few words about it. Spoiler alert: there isn’t much about Barbados in this post either!
A little over a year ago I blogged about moving furniture between houses in a hired van and preparing for shipping a container to Barbados (‘I like trucking and I like to truck’ and ‘I am sailing…’), and we revisited all that last week by hiring another van to finish emptying my late in-laws’ house in preparation for sale. They’d lived in the house from 1980 to 2024, which puts both us and our friends Jenny and Clive in the shade. We thought we’d completed 90% of this gargantuan task last year. If so, the final 10% felt very disproportionate – it nearly killed us! However, it wasn’t all graft – I made my own accidental discovery of a good way to catch the solar eclipse, using binoculars:
I seem to have grown a pair of moobs!
We also had a brilliant day in the Old Smoke with Nicola’s cousin Lucy and brother Pete, taking in the amazing Courtauld Gallery – full of treasures. Here we are on Waterloo Bridge heading for lunch at the OXO Tower. How lucky we are – you have to make the most of these opportunities when they come along:
But back to my theme. A picture speaks a thousand words – so here’s two thousand:
So our trip in convoy from Kent to Wiltshire – Nicola in our car and me in the van – was rudely interrupted. After my three hour wait for the AA on the A343 I finally made it to Salisbury, and after we’d unloaded the van I’d definitely earned the trucker’s treat, kindly bought by my lovely wife as a little cheery-uppy:
The final roll of honour for emptying the house over the past couple of years reads as follows:
Shipping container to Barbados
Large skip
British Heart Foundation charity furniture collection
11 (11!) carloads to the dump (many thanks Gill and Sue for your contribution – you’ll get your parcel shelf back in September)
Tons of garden pots emptied, cleaned and sold in a big job lot (add Chrissy’s name to the two other helpers above)
Scores of bin bags and giant recycling sacks collected by the council
Dozens and dozens of bags and boxes to charity
23 large items of furniture collected by the council
2 vanloads (us) plus man with van (Pete)!
And now our new home is full of boxes once more. Never fear – we’ll get there. In the meantime, rather than vans and boxes, this is how I shall remember the lovely Kentish countryside from my early morning walks – this snap was taken last Thursday:
This tea towel also took my fancy recently – a quirky little memento of the local area, which naturally means a lot to us. Look closely and you might spot a depiction of St Mary’s Church, Kemsing, in the top right quarter – we were married there.
So much family history and unforgettable memories. We’ll be back for sure ❤️
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