Jackie's Blog

 We had a weekly countdown, and once we hit May it all became a reality. The house was due to close on May 16th, therefore the moving jobs became a little more personal. Literally cooking everything left in the freezer, and not buying anything other than fresh food. Starting to go through all my herbs and spices and getting rid of older ones or getting rid of those you buy for one recipe and never use again! I do buy some spices (especially Indian cooking ones) in bulk so some of those were vacuum sealed and packed away. The only foods you can pack are non perishable ones, so some dried food was also packed but why take up valuable container space with things you can buy later?  Starting to pull out clothes to take with us in the large soft but wheeled suitcases. This one was hard as we had to plan for at least three months living on a canal boat (with limited storage) through the English summer months and through the Autumn too. This meant layers- largely of thinner clothing ...

 You forget how a lot of different activities going on around you can make an old dog nervous. Dottie had already moved with us from California to Massachusetts. That time she was 8 years old and we drove with her across the US. You can find a blog of that journey in the archives. She was nervous then too as we self-packed to save costs but she recovered quickly.  Dottie, at 13 years old, was usually very relaxed, and being a little deaf in one ear would sleep for long periods of time but she started sleeping wherever we were. Usually by Dick's side in his office, or wherever I was in the house. Me being constantly on the move around the house made this much harder for her. Her dog beds were moved around more often which was also a little confusing but she still loved her walks.  By March, we had Dottie's place booked in the kennels on the Queen Mary 2 to bring her back to England and we had all the steps in place to ensure she had all the required vaccinations and checks...