Not quite there yet
August 8th, 2007(Written on the first of August, , 2007)
The day of the great move was almost successful. The Scott’s removal van arrived at 7.30 AM and just managed to get into Roderick Road, which over-night is lined with cars plus several four by fours and one or two vans. One car was parked in the middle of the four bays, where parking had been suspended, but the men bumped it down the road, set up their ramp. All six of them, wearing their running shoes, moved into a choreographed routine. Running up and down stairs and up to the ramp, bearing the already packed boxes, paced by their leader. They seemed to move with incredible speed with pauses every hour or so for tea or coffee.
The leader had said he thought they could be away by 12.45 PM but he had not allowed sufficiently for the junk in the sheds and the pots and plants from the garden. Although our vendor had told us that we could leave a few things in the house if short of time, we decided to shift a few remnants in two car loads to the Savernake Road flat, so that it was 2.35 PM when we left. We hit some serious traffic on the M27. Holiday makers who were not in a hurry to get anywhere. It was 6.45 PM when we drove down the hill to Charmouth High St. By that time, the removal men, who had arrived three quarters of an hour earlier, had had enough for the day.
We were cheered by the bottle of champagne in the fridge left by our vendor but depressed by the fact that there was absolutely nothing to sleep on except bare floorboards and though we had some food with us in the car, we had no plates or knives and forks. The sun was still shining on Strongborough Hill so we sat on the terrace and drank in the view of Lyme Bay. And then decided the most sensible thing to do was to face the three quarters of an hour drive to our friends in Weymouth, and get up at 6.30 AM to complete the move on Day Two.