To downsize or not to downsize...that it is the question!



The thought of moving used to be quite a daunting thought to me.  I grew up in a very small town in rural Kent and in 18 years of living with my parents, I never moved.  Then university jumped out at me and I had to move.  I used to think that my Clio was like the tardis - I could move my whole life in the back of it.  I was impressed that I could get my worldly possessions into the back of my car.  I was content that I wasn't a hoarder but I also enjoyed owning my things.

Since my university days I have moved around the UK a bit - Ipswich, Kent, and now Birmingham.  My life still feels quite well contained.  I have all of my things in once room of a shared house and I am quietly confident that they would still fit back into my 206 if I needed them to.

But, in my head, moving to Qatar is a bit different.  All of my things, apart from the limited amount of things I can put in a suitcase as my luggage on the plane need to be packed and sent ahead of me by container ship. And it is this that has got me thinking. Do I need to ship everything or just the things that I really need?  All of the shipping companies that I have had quotes from have come back to me with massive quotes and volumes in square feet that I cannot get my head around at all! 

Depending on how much stuff I want to transport, it depends if I need my own container or not - a 20 ft container is 1000 square feet and will easily fit the whole contents of a 3 bedroom house...right....OK, so I will be lost with all of that space!!  I set about working out how much space things really take up.  I made a box 1 foot square and tested out a few things.  60 DVDs in their cases will fit in my specially crafted box, plus something about fist sized.   From this, I have worked out that I will not be needing any more than 100 square feet for all of my things and I still think that I am being generous with my estimation.  I could even opt for air freight at this rate!!

So, back to my original question - to downsize or not.  There are some things in my room, like books that I have read and are unlikely to want to read again.  Do I keep them as they are mine and will make my new place feel like home, or do I sell the ones that I am unlikely to read? 

CD's are an even trickier decision for me.  As I said earlier, I am not a hoarder, but I do like my things.  I do like looking at them and I feel proud of my small collection.  They have memories for me.  I can put a CD on and have a flood of memories of where I bought it, who I might have been with or something that I was doing while listening to it.  I know that I have all of my CD's carefully stored on my iPod and I would be beside myself if I lost that!  So, do I need the physical CD's? No.  Not really.  Do I want to keep them? Yes! The rational part of me says to get rid of them.  I might make a tenner for them and that will help out with my costs of moving.  But the romantic side of me is screaming at me to keep them!  I have spent many evenings discussing music with people, CD's spilled out over the floor.  I always loved looking through the LP's at my parents house and having those out to look at the covers (what amazing covers!!) - things like Elton John's Yellow Brick Road album which to look at was one of my favourites.  Or Led Zeppelin III's cover that span round so you could change the picture.  Amazing and such great memories!  My parents still have these LP's and I am sure that in the future they could be worth some money - could this be the same with my CDs?  They certainly don't feel as iconic.  I wouldn't feel lost without them, like I would if my iPod was lost or broken but I would feel very sad.

I think I shall have to sit on the fence over this decision for a bit longer.

Oooh I love the Holidays!!

The holidays are here!! In fact they arrived on Friday night but in true style, I have been too busy enjoying myself to sit down in fron t of my laptop and blog about them!

I have loads to get done this holiday and a jobs list that is almost an A4 page long already!  Oh dear....

But, the holidays started very well indeed with a few days away in Stratford-upon-Avon.  I was very lucky as the weather was glorious all weekend, so much so that I discovered I was going a little pink sitting in the sunshine with a glass of wine (pinkness caused by sun exposure, not alcohol consumption, trust me!!) Day 2 saw me visiting some glorious places in the Cotswolds, like Bourton-on-the-Water.  What a stunning place, especially when basked in Spring sunshine! 

But, it's not all fun and no work.  It's only just over 4 months until I fly out to Qatar and I have lots to plan and prepare.  The biggest thing in my mind at the moment is making sure that I am packing the right things to take with me.  How much should I be packing?  Do I need all my books?  Do I want all of my books with me?  What stuff should I charity shop/sell on Ebay?  Do I keep or sell my motorbike?  What clothes do I want to pack and what ones do I want to take with me on the flight?  What is the weight limit and how much does that actually equate to?  The questions that are going through my brain are seemingly endless but all need tackling while I am off as trying to get this stuff sorted when I am at school is quite tricky as there are not enough hours in the day. 

Sunday is going to be a fun day though - I am meeting up with some of the people that are also flying out to start at Al Khor with me.  It will be great to put some faces to names and have a chat with everyone as I am sure that we all have lots of the same questions going through our heads.

I have also started to learn Arabic using a Rosetta Stone programme and I really want to try and find the time during the holidays to get some more vocabulary into my head.  Although I realise that English will get me what I want in Qatar, learning a new language for me is a lot of fun and I relish the challenge to be able to speak something that sounds so foreign to me compared to languages such as French and German.

What do you like to do with your holidays?  What challenges are you setting yourself?