Monday, 28 Aug
I started the day in Malmö by picking up the AVIS rental truck (booked last Thursday) around 9:30 AM. It was a Mercedes diesel with tarp, rated Eurostyle at 15 m3, probably as many tons loading capability. To be on the safe side (I thought), I took it for the maximum time slot I could, that is I had to return it latest by Thursday morning. Unfortunately, although in theory a "one way" rental, it was already booked in from Malmö after me, so I couldn't simply leave it in at the destination, Gothenburg, but would have to return it empty to point of origin. Oh well -- the price was good, free miles, and it was what we could get.
I already had the special key to open the gate to the yard, so I simply drove it up to the main entrance and put it there for the day so we could start loading. Packing and loading proceeded apace, with for a time help from neighbor and friend. Maybe we had less than we did eight years ago in our last move, but it couldn't be helped that we still had far too much to pack. The problem of disposing of unwanted stuff also worried me, although I was counting on a trash container being available on the yard on Thursday, after our final clean-up.
Since the first load started with the major furniture, the truck filled up rapidly to the choke point and I was ready to roll by afternoon. We left a couple of mattresses for the second load, just in case we needed an extra night in Malmö -- besides, the truck was full. Planned for 2 PM, I got away at 3, which I figured was OK. I would arrive with enough hours of daylight to unload easily. Edward and I set off in the truck, leaving Isabel and Therese to prepare for the next load and to clean. To help with this, we hired in a friend of the family who did full-scale cleaning.
The drive up was uneventful, and with good weather and daylight, we rolled along so well that we just kept on going until we arrived in Gothenburg, 300 km and just over three hours later. There we were met by some alerted friends who quickly shifted the contents of the truck into the new apartment. We had one ready-to-use bed in the load, and another which I could in short order mount, so that we could sleep well in our own beds. The truck could be parked in the slot reserved for the apartment we had. So far everything had gone according to plan.
Oddly, the phone line was not active in the expected sense. We had arranged that the previous tennant would leave her phone active for us to use until ours (ISDN) could be connected. But when I tried, I didn't get any dialtone. The mobile we had along was not entirely reliable, so I didn't try to follow this up until later.
Tuesday, 29 Aug
An early morning's start allowed Edward and me to be back in Malmö around 11 AM, for the second load. I optimistically thought it possible that this might be a half load and we could roll out late afternoon. I was quickly disabused of this view when I took in just how much remained in various out-of-sight spaces to pack, much of it hard to fit into neat boxes. Clearly, we also needed more boxes and bags. Isabel went and bought another 20.
Meanwhile, I checked up the issue about the phone from our still active Malmö line and learned that our number had already been activated in Gothenburg. If I re-programmed the ISDN box myself to the correct numbers, then it would probably work when connected.
The day passed in a steady grind of pack and load, with no end in sight, and I became happier with the decision to rent the truck for that extra day -- we were going to need it. By mid-afternoon, we were clear about that we needed to spend the night and leave Wednesday. This was still OK, only where to put a two-thirds loaded truck?
After quick consultation with the caretaker, we could park the mostly loaded truck still on the yard overnight, where we could keep an eye on it. We bedded down on the remaining sofa and mattresses in the living room for our final night
Wednesday, 30 Aug
An early start to finish packing, cleaning and loading by afternoon. The weather was holding up after a night's heavy rain. I moved the truck back into position, after first bringing up the van from the underground garage. This time we would drive convoy with nothing left behind. The morning was busy enough, moving down the now filled big garbage bags out of the way or into basement holding for when the container would come, ensuring easily overlooked things like winter tires got taken up and loaded.
We took time off for a final Chinese lunch at 2 PM and to get a kitty-carrier -- the original plan of packing the cats in a moving box had been scratched. Back to the apartment for the last few items, and to prep the cats with some calming medicine before the transport started.
Some hours of mounting exasperation ensued as the estimated departure time slid to 4 PM, and we were still not done. I shoe-horned in the three bikes, bookshelves, more this, more that. And there were still things to load, still cleaning to do. 5 PM passed and finally the loading was as complete as it could be. The truck was absolutely packed, again, with significant spillover into our van.
Well, at six-ish we were in our respective vehicles and ready to roll. It would be a late arrival, with less help to unload, but that couldn't be helped. The weather was deteriorating too, but we'd worry about that when we got there. So, we rolled out: Isabel, Therese, cats and van taking point, I and Edward following in truck. Heavy but solid. Driving convoy with my wife was a first of sorts, and it worked well -- we were nicely synchronized in our driving styles despite the disparity in vehicles and power/load ratios.
The drive up turned out to be tough in several ways. It rapidly got overcast and very dark, whereupon we discovered that the truck only had a single headlamp fully functional, and no working tail-lights at all! We had to stop and have at least the headlamp exchanged, but there was nothing to be done about the rear arrays. At least blinkers worked, and for a while a manually switched single extra red tail-light. There were several absolutely awful downpours during the drive., and along the route we had considerable problems with visibility due to fogging whenever it rained. An adventure indeed. The last half hour or so, our daughter began to feel sick,which caused further delay.
Nonetheless, we arrived safely, if late and very tired, around 11 PM, and were met by Isabel's brother Daniel and a good friend, Alexis, who helped unload. Between the four adults, and a remarkable effort by Edward, the truck emptied far faster than we had any right to expect. Fortunately, it had stopped raining when we arrived, so the prospect of unloading in a torrential midnight downpour remained only a dimly considered threat.
Unloaded until...
Thursday, 31 Aug
... 2 AM. At which point Isabel and I looked at each other and went "YES! We've done it!" We thanked Daniel and Alexis profusely, and staggered in to make the final arrangements for bedtime. Kids to bed, there still some more "final" arrangements, so it was past 3 before we got to bed ourselves. Too bad for me, because...
5:30 AM Groan... Up again after about an hour's effective sleep. It was starting to get light, so I tried to have a quick breakfast and head South on the final stretch ASAP. I was slow, however, so I wasn't really rolling until after 6. Weather held mostly fine, with only scattered showers through the dawn, so I rolled into the AVIS lot at about 9:20 AM with a full tank and a decent second breakfast only an hour earlier at one of the better roadside restaurants. After some discussion about changed headlights, non-functional tail-lights, and fogged windscreen, the AVIS man offered apologies and a 20% rebate. OK, I'd made my point, case closed.
After a sunny morning stroll, I resumed final vacuuming, mopping, and window cleaning. I thought I had everything covered by inspection time at 2 PM, except for the fact that as the sun angle changed, the windows also changed from "clear" to "streaked" so I had to go back and re-polish from time to time. And the spiders spun new webs about as fast as I cleaned. Argh.
Inspection passed, with only some comments about windows and a requirement to do something about under the bathtub (which our hired cleaner had completely missed), we agreed that I'd leave the keys at 4 PM -- at which time the caretaker wanted to chuck it all and go home. Ok, fine, that still gave me ample time to make the 6 PM buss back to Gothenburg, in spite of me having to somehow do something about the bathtub situation. While we were agreeing to this, the bulk-trash container came, and we speculated from the balcony whether or not the driver would be able to leave it due to the absurd amount of trash that had accumulated on the designated space. The inspector-cum-caretaker was not happy about this, nor about his work situation in general.
I sympathized with the caretaker here. The (new) landlord had progressively cut back on expenses since buying the building and instating a new caretaker policy from January. What used to be 3 full-time caretakers with several part-time assistants and cleaners, to oversee something like 600 apartments was now supposed to be handled by a single employee. At the same time, the workload had for various reasons increased.
The first priority was the trash in the apartment, which I quickly shifted downstairs and out into the container. My neighbor, who had offered to help with the basement collection was having lunch, so I went on to the bathtub in the mean time. Canibalizing a sweep&shovel, I managed a creditable cleanup of the omitted section of floor in time for a last effort with the neighbor from basement storage to the already almost full container. Keys to caretaker, and almost forgot a few vital items that I had parked in the apartment, but at 4 PM I was free at last! Done! I was out of there!
Fortified with a whisky shot from my mother-in-law, whom I dropped in on for half an hour, and a bag of cinnamon rolls from an excellent bakery along the way, I finally got to sit down in perfect peace on the buss for the last traverse of the route, this time as a passive passenger. Alternating naps and nibbles, I arrived at 10 PM, and took a taxi -- HOME!
Friday, 1 Sept
It felt good to sleep and wake up in the secure knowledge that everything was again in one place -- maybe not immediately localized, but there, somewhere -- and that one's focus could again be on a single location. Doing the math proved that the entire move, including hired cleaning and a cash gift to the neighbor for his unstinting effort at a moment's notice, came out less than we had feared.
The day was largely low-key with only essential unpacking. I verified that I could connect the ISDN box and get a working telephone line. Only one of the two lines, however, but later that evening I called the support line and they could activate the second number in just 3 seconds. That's the way support should work.
Saturday, 2 Sept
A more concerted effort to re-organize box distribution and unpack. Priority was given to assembling the bed for Therese and clearing her room. It wasn't fair that she should have to continue sleeping on the sofa. Second priority went to a sort-of-functional kitchen and living space while we continued to figure out how to solve this sliding-box puzzle.
Afternoon activity was encouraged by tolerable weather, so we went a round of minigolf at a local place just down the road. Great fun was had by all, and I made a hole in one -- across two lanes. Never done that before :)
I also later dug out the ISDN-modem box and verified Internet connectivity. Time to catch up on email and other issues. Also got to know some neighbors.
Sunday, 3 Sept
Family day, and a shopping excursion at the local mall. Life is getting more normal as we all settle down and find more stuff and places to put it.
