Reality Bites.......

Sheila and I are now only 5 weeks and 3 days from "D Day". On all the moves we have done there has been loads of stress and issue but this time we are calm and appear organised. The movers and storers have been and now provided quotes which my company are reviewing but in essence our packing will start in two weeks!

The stuff we have going with us to Singapore will be packed and the shipping process should be underway by first week of October. The stuff for storage will either be packed at the same time or within days of the international shipping stuff. This does mean that me, Sheila and Daisy will be homeless! The house will be empty! We were looking at serviced apartments in case we need to stay there for 2 / 3 weeks while we get ready to head away. This will be interesting and will provide us with a really nice interim period before going away. I'm sure as this  progresses we'll provide updates and maybe a few piccys of where we are!

We have our address & telephone number!!!

Well, we now have our address and telephone number!!

We are going to be allocated a three bedroomed house on Sandwich Road which is located in the really nice area of Medway Park! This is a very exciting development!

To Maid or Not To Maid, that is the question........

The subject of having a maid has been discussed recently with my employer, this is generally because I get an allowance to cover some of this expense.

Sheila and I are fairly private and there is really only the two of us and our little pooch Daisy. Just what would or could a Maid do for us when we move to Singapore? I know that is very common place to have a maid but we have never had this in our lives before and it seems a little odd.

I have also been told about "part ownership", this is where allegedly you agree a share of a maid and the maid then splits time between two or more houses?? I'm really not sure how this would work in practice.

Anyhow, as we progress we will no doubt update to what our position is or is about to become!

Taking Daisy (The Westie) to Singapore

I am coming....right?

When we were told that we were going to be relocating we didn't think for a minute that Daisy would be too much of an issue. In all honesty she isn't a problem but it is costly taking your dog with you!

We had to seek three independent quotes for having Daisy shipped to Singapore. Two of these were UK based and one was a US based Pet Relocator with an agent in the UK.



The prices have ranged from £2500 to £1800. The services offered for this price have varied greatly. We were warned from the off that at the Singapore end its better to have an agent to work through the paperwork and bring your beloved pet to your home. Two of the quotes we have included this service. We discoverer that if you pay for this separately then its around $600.

We are going to appoint the Relocation service that is based in Scotland, they also have some great references and by sheer luck were the cheapest quote.

They are going to complete all the DEFRA paperwork, this takes around three weeks to complete.



Will keep you all posted on our progress with this, after all its probably our most precious little cargo!







Medical & Health Insurance

Well, almost another task off the "To Do" list!

Health Insurance, what a minefield that has been. I assumed (wrongly) that BUPA would have been our provider but no, their base cover appeared cheaper but when you added all the other items it became wildly expensive! Our most comprehensive cover is from Axa Health and its around $10k per annum for full cover (joint)

I'm just so fortunate that the company see this as hugely important!

Lists

Whilst Mark has been really busy organising things for the move, i.e. the actual move and how it will be choreographed, I’ve been really busy organising a list of things I want to do in Singapore when we finally get there.  (I’ve got priorities too you know…)  Having went to library school I am an avid reader and a supporter of libraries in general and public ones specifically.  I have ordered up every book in the system on Malaysia, Asia and Singapore.  I want to know about the cultures and religions in Asia, places to visit, the history and pretty much anything else I can find.  I have a list of places I want to visit from local parks and architecture to trips we can seemingly easily make to further away destinations.

I’ve also been reading up on the area we’ll be living in, and trying to find out more about that.  It’s in an area that has lots of educational establishments and which I think might keep me a bit connected with home seeing as from the ages of 4 to 24 I was in education and then worked in public libraries attached to schools afterwards.  I always make resolutions for the New Year in September and not January as I’m so used to new beginnings in autumn.  So being the true geek that I am I have been trying to find out about our new neighbourhood so we can ‘hit the ground running’ and not feel out of place for too long. 

I found out that someone holds a tour in it which is quite exciting and makes me really hope it’s nice, although I don’t think it’s a real ‘black and white’ like they say in the tour.  I kind of get the impression someone has just taken some black paint to a nice house!  However, it is still a really nice house and I love that our new home is connected to nature and I get to have a garden.  I also found a blog that mentioned walking routes in the area and so will try to have a walk when I am more used to the heat.  We don’t have a pool like Marks colleague does, but Mark has been looking up how easy it will be to build one when we’re out there.  For something we will use every single day I don’t think it will be that expensive.

I’m quite glad that we aren’t having to pick a place to live ourselves as we had originally thought.  It seemed to get quite stressful and was a lot of pressure to choose a home for the next two years from the other side of the world.  All decisions are being taken out of our hands and we can focus on getting ourselves (and belongings) over in one piece.