La Chatte Gitane (or The Gypsy Cat) was the name we chose for our cottage in France at the time. We chose it while on the road, moving house the first time round, from Ireland to France with 2 dogs and 7 cats in the car.
This blog began its insignificant life as a recipe book for friends and family who would ask me repeatedly for a recipe of this, that and the other.
Since then it has taken many different directions, like we did and like gypsies tend to do. Sometimes making a U-turn and revisiting familiar roads and taking a break when necessary.
You'll find recipes here, but also musings about the places we've called home, the gardens that we've established, not always successfully, the homes we've improved and the environments we've lived in. Currently, after yet another stint in Ireland, we're back in France @ Le Mas d'Ayen

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Perpetual Home Movers



So we are now the proud new owners of two houses in our beloved Sneem, county Kerry, Ireland.
My life feels quite surreal right now. Who would have thought that after leaving 9 years ago we would ever go back.
I remember when we left, Bert saying, "You do realise that we will never be able to buy a similar house in  similar surroundings around Sneem for the price we got from the sale of the house."
He was right - for a while.  House prices went up and up and up, until the bubble burst...
Being the restless souls that we are and, not forgetting, perpetual home and country movers (gosh ! life would be simpler if we were just to get rid of all our tat and bought ourselves a gypsy waggon and a horse), we decided to go back to Ireland. 
It took us 2 years to plan and  to get things in order.

The timeline of the big move is as follows.
  • Friday, 12th April
- Arrival of shipping container (we bought a second hand one, that way we can make use of  it in Sneem as storage - we're gonna need it !)

- Cats go to  my cousin, Nancy's cat hotel , which is just on the other side of town.  Easy peasy.
The dogs will stay with us, hoping we'll be able to manage them as we load the container.

  • Saturday, 13th & Sunday, 14th April
- Load container with the help of friends.  Neatly loaded, to make good use of the 20 ft space.
  • Monday, 15th April
- Container gets picked up in the morning.
- Stuff 2 cars full of dogs and other belongings
- Get cats from cat hotel, stuff them in car too
- Pick up my mother (who will have made picnic parcels), she is coming for the ride and will get a suitable space in my car.
- Ready to roll by 12 noon
- Drive to Calais to get to the Channel Tunnel
- Hopefully all goes smoothly with importing the pets.
- Arrive in Ashford
- Drive through England and Wales towards Fishgard to catch the ferry....
  • Thuesday, 16th April
- Ferry Fishgard - Rosslare at 2.45 am
- Arrival in Rosslare at 6.30 am (or thereabouts)
- Drive to Sneem with estimated arrival at 12 noon
- Brass band, cheerleaders, flags will be welcoming us back (haha)

The shipping container will leave the docks in Antwerp on Wednesday and arrive in Cork on Friday morning, so we will not be seeing our worldly goods till the next Monday at the earliest.




At this point the pets have had their shots, micro chips for the ones that didn't have one yet, passports have been updated, etc etc.  The dogs need a treatment for tapeworm between 1 and 5 days before arrival in the UK.


Boxes have been filled and many more still need filling. The weeks ahead are going to be hectic, to say the least.



Thank you for reading
Patricia xxx...x

4 comments:

  1. Glad your back in the emerald isle look forward to some nice photos

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous8:07 pm

    Wow, het is dus zover!!!! Ik wens jullie een vlotte verhuis en veel succes om van jullie nieuwe huis een zalig warm nest te maken. Ik hoop dat je vaak foto's zal posten van jullie nieuwe thuis en omgeving. Ik weet wel dat ik dan weer stikjaloers zal zijn ;)
    Groetjes
    Lies Capoen

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dankjewel, Lies.
      Als we ginder zitten zal ik zeker terug wat meer aan mijn blog werken en foto's posten ook natuurlijk.
      Morgen nog een zware dag aan grote opruiming hier in Belgie. Maandagmiddag vertrekken we.
      Patricia xxx...x

      Delete

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