Probably even more difficult than the actual move was telling the children...bearing in mind they were all adults and some had children of their own...Himself has five and I have three plus 'our' son...he was the only one who knew and had already found a little flat in the village.
The logistics were awful...because we knew they'd be 'phoning each other the minute they found out, we were trying to arrange to see all of them during the same evening before the jungle drums started...
Luke came for the evening to supervise everyone and stop them from getting into mischief and off we went...
We were met with blank stares. One daughter-in-law burst into tears and said we'd be blown up...a son asked had we thought about what we were doing and what were we going to live on...another asked how had we managed to get a mortgage 'at our time of life' and when I said I'd bought the cottage on my credit card his retort was 'don't be silly Mother'...so we sort of slunk round Suffolk being greeted with disbelief that we could possibly be so bold as to up and leave without so much as what one said was 'a proper explanation'
The following day I was doing the weekly shop, which was a mammoth task involving two big trolleys and I wasn't in the best of moods after the previous evening, when another small home owner stopped and asked how we were. So I told her we were off to pastures new and her jaw dropped..'.you can't do that' she said...you can't just swan off and leave the rest of us here trying to cope with our people and the paperwork and everything! And you needn't think we'll be taking any of yours either so just don't bother even thinking about it...
I threw a couple of bottles of wine into the top of one of the trolleys and marched to the check-out with steam coming out of my ears...for reasons I can't now remember, T. had come with me and he was a total pain in shops, having a penchant for chatting up little girls with a sort of gleam in his eye...given one of the trolleys to push, which he did with huge enthusiasm, ramming it into the backs of peoples legs...I did vaguely wonder, when I yanked him back by his collar for the twentieth time after he'd almost sent some poor soul flying...I did wonder what it would be like to saunter round a shop without being hampered either by small people in wheelchairs or by lumbering forty year olds with loud raucous laughs.
Back at home I poured a large glass of wine and sat at the kitchen table and wondered whether it'd be a darn sight easier to stay where we were and simply forget the whole idea.
I thought it would be a good idea to contact removal firms and get some quotes...we'd know what to expect to pay then. A couple were incredibly efficient...going round the house with their clipboards and counting the books and asking about the Goldfish in the pond and would we be bringing the piano...and the parrot. Others sort of stood about with their hands in their pockets and said they'd never been asked to go to Ireland before and was it somewhere where there was a lot of bombing...
And I 'phoned Andy, the Irish builder, and asked would he take a look at the cottage and let me know what he'd charge for the bathroom and for putting a new range in. He was the bright light and cheered me no end...but when I mentioned money he said what most Irish workmen say 'I'll not rob you'...over the nine months it took for us to actually move, Andy kept me informed about what he'd done and what he had planned for the following week and he even set rat traps...I gave up asking how much all this work would cost. All he'd tell me was that the entire cottage had been re-wired and approved by the electricity people and it'd cost exactly one thousand punt...but the electrician didn't want paying now...he'd wait until we came over.
Notes
Twenty or so years ago cottages were being sold for around 8,000 to 10,000 punts...about 7,000 pounds sterling. There was a fixed rate for the electricity...and a fixed rate to install a water supply...both cost 1,000 punt. No surveys were ever carried out...it was up to the buyer to decide whether or not their purchase was about to fall down. Solicitor's charged around 500 punt to do the paperwork and to provide you with a map showing your boundaries...
A person of Himself's age could apply for and receive what was called a Pre-Retirement pension...there was no obligation to seek work, though it was means tested.
Foreigner's or blow-ins, were mostly German couples when we moved...we met very few English people at first.
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Himself Telling Big Fibs...
