Flashback, pt.1: Moving into Bristol

Thought I'd go back in time and catch you up on our move into the Bristol apartment. Our container arrived the end of August and the goods were delivered Sept 2. Ian was working so my in-laws came and spent the day helping out (thanks Mum and Dad!). Things were off to a promising start when the lorry (truck) driver arrived on time with the container. However, they had put a 20' container on a 40' truck bed, which meant the driver couldn't navigate the narrow roads to actually deliver directly to our building. So, the unpacking crew had to shuttle our boxes from the container (parked down the street) to the building using their small van. It took three trips in all, and amounted to much more lifting and carrying for them. But they did a great job and I was pleased. They unpacked everything except a dozen or so boxes of books/kitchen goods/knick-knacks and fragile stuff - as there was no place to put those items until I had put away the rest of the stuff. I spent the rest of the week unpacking the remainder. Here are some pictures of the day (well, at least of all the boxes) - enjoy!





Oh, I almost forgot to mention that our unfurnished apartment was lacking not only in furniture (as expected), but also in appliances!! So we had to buy a fridge (being delivered above) and washing machine in the first week as well. We decided not to get a dryer, so all laundry gets line-dried. There is a funky clothesline apparatus in the bathroom that is getting much use now that it's too cold to hang the clothes outside. And while I'm thinking of it... washing clothes in the UK is a bit different. First, all the cycles on the washing machine are _very_ long. 70 min is typical! (There is a fast-wash option which is only 50 min). Second, there are a million wash cycle choices!! I have to look at the list of programs before each load I wash 'cause I haven't gotten the hang of it yet. But, the best feature is by far the delay timer. I can delay the start of a wash cycle for 2 h, 4 h or 9 h. This comes in very handy as I don't have time for the long wash cycles most weekdays, and I don't want to spend an entire Saturday just doing laundry. So I've found that I can load the machine at night (by 9 pm), delay it for 9 h, and the wash will be done by 7 am. Then it's just hang the clothes to dry and head out the door for school. Not bad, eh?