Cretan Diary - Chapter 4

The Leaving (Mike)

12th September

Terry, his wife and daughter came to dinner last night. Tim was also home, and Carl and his girlfriend joined us. We ordered a Chinese meal, which Jenny collected. During the meal, Terry announced that he would load the van today (Saturday) instead of Sunday as planned.

So, this morning I was up early, packing the last-minute items into box number 48. Jenny also got up and started packing stuff, including her computer, monitor and backup drive. After I'd packed my printer I realised I hadn't printed out the manifesto for Terry. So I connected Jenny's "Canon" printer (which we're leaving behind) to my G4 tower (which we're leaving behind) and spent ages downloading and installing the necessary "driver" software.

We'd been keeping a record of the weights and the total came to just under 700kg. Terry thought this was no problem, since the van is designed to carry a load of up to 1300kg.

However, when he arrived and saw the 48 boxes he said "oh!" Luckily, he managed to squeeze everything in but there was absolutely no space left! Good job we didn't manage to fill 49 boxes!

As it was nearly noon, Terry and I went off for lunch. Jenny decided not to come because I had split my trousers and was too hungry to mess about changing them and swapping pocket contents and she wouldn't be seen dead with me looking like that. It was a bit draughty but didn't spoil my enjoyment of the meal.

When I returned home, I borrowed Jenny's sewing kit, intending to repair the trousers. However, I discovered that I'd repaired them previously and I'd made such a good job that the material had torn, rather than the stitching. There wasn't enough left to sew together successfully so I put on a clean pair. The others will need to be patched or recycled.

Tim and Carl had been using a "Power Wash" to clean the cars. They had also used it to leave a message on the driveway!

Eleni let me know, via "Skype" that the car hire was arranged.

Jenny's alarm woke us at 4am. We dressed and gobbled down breakfast. The taxi arrived 5 minutes early and the journey to Manchester airport in the dark was uneventful, as was the flight. Carl and his girlfriend, Louise, accompanied us in the taxi to see us off, then returned home.

The 'plane showed a Sandra Bullock film so I was happy!

Chapter 5 - The Arrival

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