Ugh! I don’t know where to begin! I have hinted in other posts that big life changes are coming our way, and now that’s finally here! We are moving! To UK! It’s been a really tough few months! I didn’t want to move initially, but I may be finally coming around to it. This last month has been a total roller-coaster; we put our place up for rent, got a tenant, got my formal offer and moving papers, all paperwork is done, and finally, at the end of this month, I will make my move. Hubs and kids will follow in short succession since my timeline sped up amazingly quickly! So, we had to juggle plans. Now I will be going in advance and preparing a place to stay for hubby and kids to join me.
So, yeah, next month, this time, I should hopefully have got my bearings in London. Such a wrong time to move, as it’s almost 20 degrees colder there, and I am NOT a cold-weather person at all 🥶!
And just looking at the tube map of the London rail service has got me breaking out into anxiety at the thought of the crowds.
It hasn’t helped that most of my family and friends are not very encouraging. Oh! How will you manage the cold? Be careful, there’s a lot of crime, you are downgrading your way of life, London is crazy expensive, and so on and so forth.
I understand where they are coming from, in a way. We live a very comfortable, sheltered life in Bengaluru. The weather is lovely for most parts of the year, and my only main complaint about this place is the traffic.
To offset some of this, the plan is to live in London temporarily – until we get our bearings, and then figure out a quieter, saner place to live. The best part of the entire move is that I can work remotely, so the focus will be on the kids and what’s convenient for them. Yes, I say kids – because my daughter, who’s in the first year of college currently in India, has been admitted to two colleges in the UK and is being considered for three additional more. There’s also the possibility of credit transfers from here to the colleges there, so we are super happy to be able to move there as a family 🥰.
So, this past month has been a hectic mix of packing, reselling, and throwing out stuff. It’s amazing how much stuff you can pile up staying in a large-ish house for 13 years. I found boxes and boxes of things I never even remembered we had. What makes it worse is that we have a lot of stuff that relatives living abroad had given me to store when they had to move – so yes, other people’s property papers, documents, jewelry, and clothes had to be handed back as well. In the process of downsizing, I also found so many memories – my kids’ drawings and baby clothes 🥹. The more sentimental stuff is going in a box to my mom’s place.
Our tenant is also amazing – we have offered the place semi-furnished, and they have promised to keep and maintain all the good rosewood stuff and even my lovely rug that I am sadly leaving behind ðŸ˜.
The rest of it? Well, I have discovered ecocrew – a nice, recycling company that comes to your house and accepts old books, paper, electronics, clothes, and more. Of course, they don’t pay much but I have found it’s the easiest way to get rid of stuff. The local radhiwala had packed up and gone who knows where. There’s just a big padlock on his door. But even he refused to come home. We needed to lug things over to him. If he’s out of business, I am not surprised why 🙄.
Yesterday to distract ourselves a bit, and kind of like a Valentine’s Day outing, K, my mom, and I headed over to A Hundred Hands exhibition currently on at NIFT HSR. We told ourselves we weren’t going to buy anything. After all, we are moving, and most stuff from India would be out of place and inappropriate in the UK. We were only going to window shop.
If you don’t know about The Hundred Hands, here’s a brief. It’s on till the 16th. Every year they bring artisans from all across the country to display their crafts, and it truly is an embarrassment of riches – the art, the textiles, the jewelry, good grief! I look forward to it every year. Prices are astoundingly low (for the quality) and all the sales go back to the artisans, which I love. Here are just some of the many things I saw and bought 🫣 today.
Famous last words! We didn’t go overboard, but we did end up buying a couple of small pieces. I couldn’t resist these pillow covers.
I picked up one of these sweet pendants with pressed flowers for my daughter.
I fell in love with this gorgeous, gorgeous Patola saree.
I didn’t know much about this weave, but I came back home and googled, and apparently, the best, well-made Patolas are this expensive. When she told me the price, I just moved on, but I have to say it’s simply stunning, and may have been worth the price, just not for me.
If I had planned to continue in India, I would have definitely picked up some of these spice boxes and containers. They’re adorable!
These razais are fantastic, and I wanted to explore them further. Sadly, I have been told that down comforters would be best for the weather there.
After our glorious day out (summer is here, super hot and sunny), we came back home and were back down to earth. Piles of stuff were still lying around, and we had no place to sit because we had sold most of our furniture. I will be racing around the clock to finish as much of the clearing up as possible before leaving K to it. Online scouting for places to rent in London. It’s been a ball of anxiety and nervous anticipation. Plus, anxiety over a new, more ambiguous, and challenging job role, overall, a very odd mental state for me to be in.
Anyway, I am glad for this small diversion. Shopping was a much-needed break from a stressful couple of months. And if any of the stuff here intrigues you, it’s not too late. A Hundred Hands is on till tomorrow.
Your move sounds super exciting! But as someone who made a move recently, I get how hard it can be at this age. I wish I’d known about 100 hands. Would have loved to go and doubt I can tomorrow. Bookmarking it for next year.
Your difficulties were in my mind as I contemplated this move. The biggest issue is all the paperwork involved – banking, taxes, housing, ugh! I have never been good at managing these, and for the initial couple of months it’s going to be all on me, before K and the kids can move in.