No Sleep til Birmingham!

Well, dear readers, I haven't posted anything in the past few days because as you can imagine, it's all hands to the pump to get packed up and ready to go by NEXT Saturday!

Officially, I arrive in Kuwait on August 20th, but before then I have an action-packed week and a half that includes
- my best friend's hen do ("bachelorette party" to us Yanks) in Birmingham (wooo!)
- a quick trip to see some castles in Cardiff with one of my favourite Welshies
- a stopover in the Costwolds to for a visit and a pub walk with another friend (hopefully)
- setting up a church and a village hall
- a FREAKING WEDDING!!! of two fabulous, talented, amazing brass players

and then

- a 7am flight back home to NY (with a cheeky layover in Dusseldorf, hello breakfast beer!)
- 4 days at home to see the parents, grab lunch with a few old friends, hike, bike, sail, and stroll through beautiful Upstate NY.

**and FINALLY**

-  NY ~> PHIL ~> Doha ~> Kuwait!  Leaving at 5pm Eastern Standard Time and arriving THE NEXT DAY at 8pm Arabian Standard Time.

But before all of that, my life currently looks like this :

Why, yes, that is a whole bunch of bubble wrap drying on the washing line!  I drove up to Stockbridge just to pick it up from a lady that posted it on Freecycle!

A.  It was free
B. It's my tiny effort to keep useful things out of landfills.
C. yay, free!





If you're ever considering uprooting your entire life and moving halfway across the world (for the second time...) here's just a small sample of the things you'll need to do:

     

1. Sell car
2. Close bank account
3. Find a new bank
4. Cancel phone plan
5. Research shipping companies
6. Pack
7. Finally eat all of the random things in the back of your cupboard
8. Cancel gym
9. Turn off direct deposit on everything
10. Cancel broadband
11. Pack
12. Clean
13. Sort out post-car transportation
14. Use all of the gift cards you've been saving for a rainy day
15. Drop everything to meet friends for a drink
16. pack
17. Sell EVERYTHING ELSE

It's a blast, really.....



Anyway, that's life right now.  More pictures when I can actually see the floor of my flat....