Moving Day!

 Cheers, everyone!

We are steadily adjusting to life in rural Ireland. It has been a daunting transition as we identify all the things we need (electricity, broadband and phone, gas, home/health/car insurance, doctors) and realise all those we don't (about 15% of what we moved here). Our household goods and vehicles arrived today in an explosion of activity that rocked our rural neighbourhood. We went from a big empty house to box-filled rooms of incoming stuff. 250 boxes, crates, and pieces of furniture were delivered. 90% of them were unpacked. Our two vintage cars and two "grownup" cars are here.  

The finicky Irish weather cooperated with the moving team today. The sky was brilliant blue with a few puffy clouds. To remind us where we are, the threat of a storm moved in but never materialised. We feel so lucky to be in this house in this country with our adorable (and slightly confused) cat, Velvet Jane. I would never have imagined that we would make such a drastic move at our ages and yet, I am perfectly content and thoroughly exhausted. 

I did not envy the driver of the truck that delivered our vehicles. These narrow Irish roads are fearsome in a small vehicle. 

We started the morning with a chair being revealed. A mere three hours later, every item was inside the house and I was madly stowing the kitchen parts. I need to make space for the rest of the unpacking tomorrow. Our kitchen was advertised as having "endless storage". So far, I have packed it with the contents of our kitchen, living room cabinets, sunroom cabinets, and pantry. There is room left over! The tradeoff to this is that there is no other storage in the house. 

There remains great trepidation about COVID here. Everyone wears masks, even out in the country where we live. A neighbour came by on Monday to bring flowers to welcome us. I opened the door to ask her in and she quickly backed away, with a brief "Y'know, COVID" explanation. This makes it difficult to obtain appointments for our resident visa and various car and driver registrations. The Irish are an eminently practical people. Rather than try to Zoom or phone everything, extensions are granted when proper proof of intention is provided. It is a much slower pace than we are used to and we are grateful for that. 

So, eight days in and we are beginning to feel settled. Now that we have our own bed and normal sized cars, I will start driving and we'll return The Beast. Our period of self-isolation ends if we can obtain a negative PCR test tomorrow. Some of the national lockdown prohibitions will be lifted next week, allowing us a bit more freedom in shopping for non-essential items and exploring our region. The days are long here already. It's almost 9 pm and the sun is just dipping below the horizon. 

Dreams do come true. 

Sláinte!