We’ve started the countdown.

I make it eleven sleeps. 

There was some rumblings at the end of last week from an actual moving company (Oh my Gawd!)  and a preliminary walk through is happening Wednesday morning.   This is standard proceedure for this type of deal  where an emissary is sent on ahead to get the lay of the land,  so to speak.  I’m not sure if at that point we get our big box for the air shipment or whether they bring that the following week with the monkey boys who will be doing the packing. 

I realise that’s a bit of a harsh term for these “professionals”, but trust me,  we’ve done this often enough to know that, if you want to “keep it”,  then you need to keep it at home.  There has always been something or other that has gotten damaged with moving,  and it’s usually best to just let it go and not get all bent out of shape over a table that gets scraped or a cabinet that somehow has something fall against it.  It’s just the way it is with moving. 

I like to keep a close eye on them as they pack,  but that’s still neigh on impossible as being in several rooms at once is a challenge.

I’m calling the air shipment box the “big box” with tongue firmly in cheek,  as I understand that it’s roughly a cubic meter.  Hey, whatever.

 

The trip down to Slovenia and back was uneventful.  There was a bit of snow up in the hills,  but nothing serious.  The roads were wet,  which only meant that I went through a certain amount of washer fluid and had to continuously play around with the wipers.  I think I would have preferred if it had just been raining the whole time,  since then at least I could leave the bloody things on and be done with it.  

Such a first world problem.

 

Ljubljana had just about as much snow as Vienna,  but we were able to get around with our shoes on.  We took our boots, but I find driving with boots on to be less than ideal.  Big feet.  Close pedals. 

 

They don’t seem to get the extreme temperatures in Slovenia that we do in parts of Canada,  so although they may get their share of snow,  it never gets to be bitterly cold.  It was something like -2°C maybe?  These folks didn’t mind sitting outside.

Like a complete idiot I had left my toque and gloves at the cousin’s house,  so it didn’t take long for me to start looking for a place to get inside.  Balding head = me get cold fast.

 

Not much else to say except for a couple visits with some folks we may not see again for a long time.   We’ve managed to get to Slovenia about three times a year (so we were told by the cousin in Sava) for each of the three years that we’ve lived in Austria,  plus that long journey that we took when we lived in the Netherlands, so I think we’ve made a decent effort.  It is an attractive country,  with a good mix of everything from seashore to mountains,  all within a very compact area.  Will we go back?  Not sure. Best to never say never.

 

At some point when we were somewhere this side of Graz on the way back, I noticed that 60,000 kilometres was about to come up on the little BMW.  Those are all ours.  We’ll be dropping it off at the Company that Cannot be Named at the end of next week,  and I should imagine that the leasing company will want it back in the not too distant future.  We had briefly considered buying it and shipping it home,  but that’s just too scary.  Unless a vehicle is manufactured for the North American market,  there can be certain “cost overruns” involved satisfying all the bureaucratic bullsh*t involved.  Not worth it.

 

I was fortunate enough to get in one last piece of cream cake,  which I have to admit was every bit as good as what can be had right at the source.  This stuff is whipped up in Bled and then hustled off to various locations within a two or three hours drive,  so the freshness can vary. 

To be honest,  I was quite sceptical,  but I was assured that it was the real deal,  and it was.  Oh Kremšnita,  how I’ll miss you!

I’ve put a whack of pictures on the book of face,  if you feel like passing some time.  T.C. tried her hand at taking a few shots from the car window.  I’ve thrown out a few,  but she was able to capture some of the scenery.  It was mostly white.

Click away!

 

Hopefully a little more of our snow melts before next week,  since I have to get the two patio tables in, wipe them down and disassemble them.   Such fun moving in winter time.  Hadn’t really planned on that little bit of excitement,  but we’ll see how it goes.

 

Keep those sticks on the ice,  and thanks for stopping by.

 

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