11th August 2026
Our removal company set aside two days to pack and begin loading us up before completion day. I thought this was way too cautious, especially when Rob and Andy turned up early at 8am on 20th July. Well, how wrong I was. These two guys really put in a shift, but by the end of the 21st they were nowhere near finished. Cue the arrival of the cavalry in the shape of Jake and Alfie to join Andy on the 22nd – the day of completion itself. Even so, it was after 1pm before the vehicles were fully loaded and ready to roll. Quite a poignant moment for us:
We bade a fairly brisk final farewell to Swallow Court, deliberately not dwelling on the emotional side. Time to move on.
Now, some readers will recall us telling them that we found our buyer very difficult and stressful to deal with – I’ll spare the rest of you the detail, but when the team had removed all the pictures from the walls, this particular hook inspired me to share a cheeky thought with the resident artist, who gleefully added a personalised miniature mural to welcome him:
And so on to Salisbury. Another door opens:
The team snapped back into action. I’m rather disappointed that they didn’t have the foresight of the three guys who moved us from London to Bristol in 2004, who unforgettably labelled the most important cardboard box with the immortal word ’KETTEL’. How I wish I knew where that photo was…
Labouring away in hot weather, we called a halt to proceedings at 7pm. The first showers in our new home were had by Jake and Alfie, who were sleeping in the truck overnight! We eventually washed the filth off our weary bodies and cracked open a bottle of something special my brother David had given me on my 60th birthday in December 2024 – worth the wait 👌 😴
23rd July. No rest for the wicked – at 7am Jake is politely but slightly desperately knocking on the door, anxious to get moving as he’s getting married tomorrow and has to get to his wedding rehearsal in Portishead, two hours’ drive away. Three hours more graft and the boys are finally done. We bid them a grateful goodbye and contemplate the bomb site which is our new home. Three rooms are stacked floor to ceiling with boxes, and two large pieces of bedroom furniture stand monolithic in the living room as they won’t go up the narrow staircase. The overall effect is much as I expect tomorrow’s solar eclipse to look like, but a bit longer lasting! One thing at a time…but it’s finally finished. We are in.
We allowed ourselves one happy memento of our former home, which is now nestling in the back garden in Salisbury. Well, Nicola did paint it after all:
We also received a delightful montage of the late lamented greenhouse from Nicola’s uncle Tim. Here he is with Nicola’s other uncle Rich and her dad Peter – three Jamaicans labouring for their Barbadian mother in England in 1995 – and the grateful recipient:
Job done. But before I end this ramble I must give a big shout out to our friends Jenny and Clive, who yesterday completed their own big move from Johannesburg to Cape Town – a two day journey, and they’d been in their beautiful home for 31 years, so trump us easily. Congratulations and well done both of you. Here’s to the future 🥳
PS the next post might actually be about Barbados!
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