Packing timeframe initial estimate: 1-2 weeksWhen the day arrives to leave home for a new adventure - butterflies start appearing in your stomach.
But at least we were taking this big step together, as a team. And no matter what happened we would always have the support of our family and friends.
The initiator for all activities related to the house always starts with Olie. He's the responsible one, the project manager in our team of 2. Packing started initially with moving out of our home and frantically getting it ready for rental and moving in with Mei's parent's place. Our packing activities consisted of doing a long night sorting out clothes that would be given away to charity and things that would make the 'first cut' of the 'to keep' pile. It's truly amazing the extent of stuff that we acquired in our relatively short stay of 2 years in that house.
From the clothing department, we moved out to other areas of the house - the cross trainer, the outdoor bbq the sofa, the dining table...the list went on and on. The cross trainer was sold, as was the TV and PS3 after Mei vetoed the idea to bringing a game console half-way around the world. A removal truck was rented and our possessions were relocated to storage at both our parent's places. Thank you to all that helped us to move, including our lovely neighbour Joe, who lent us use of his trailer for free on a number of occasions, including to move a load of loose tanbark (which is a nightmare to clean up!)
As 16 boxes made it to Olie's parent's basement and a number of bags / boxes came across with us to Mei's parent's house, we reflected that the number of possessions we actually own had shrunk quite considerably. Then Mei went through her stockpile of clothing and shoes that had not been touched for 2 years, it became apparent that a new collection would be started of European purchased footwear! 16 or so pairs thrown out and numerous bags, dresses given away, we started to cull the pile to meet a very thrifty 20kg per person luggage allowance from Malaysian airlines.
Juggling time around our social activities - 2 weddings, a number of farewell dinners, we managed to pack, weigh...unload, cull, repack a zillion times until we got down to the combined weight of 45kg - consisting of t-shirts and shorts for Malaysia, and some winter clothes for a supposedly very cold London town.
Then as the 29th of March approached, it all became rather real that we were spending our last nights in Melbourne for a couple of years. Mei admitted to being nervous, Olie was an excited puppy. And as we loaded the car to head to the airport, it all seemed a bit surreal.
A large contingent of friends and family was there at Melbourne Airport to say goodbye and hide some hand-luggage from the weighing machine. A few tears were shed at the departure gate and with our goodbyes said, we checked ourselves in on Facebook at the airport and walked through the one-way doors at the departure gate.
Checking ourselves out of Melbourne and onto the starting line for years of travel adventures.
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