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A Large Family Farewell At Airport??

A Large Family Farewell At Airport??

Old Feb 19th 2003, 2:01 pm
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Default A Large Family Farewell At Airport??

Inspired by the recent thread about telling family of your plans to emigrate, I was wondering what peoples feelings / experiences are with having family say good bye at the airport?

I have to say my initial reaction is that I want to say goodbye to everybody at home rather than at an airport. My theory being that it will be easier all round to say goodbye where people can go back into their own surroundings to be sad or cry or whatever rather than in a big impersonal airport facing a journey home. Also on the more selfish side I feel that this is going to be an exciting moment for us as well as a sad one and I think we would quite like to leave without worrying about leaving sobbing relatives in departures!

I am so grateful to now be in a position to worry about these things rather than "when will we get our visas!!"

Any thoughts appreciated

Sarah
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Old Feb 19th 2003, 2:05 pm
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I agree I can't think of anything worse than your relies blubbing over you in public!! All you will be thinking about is YES we are on our way!!
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Old Feb 19th 2003, 2:23 pm
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Hi folks

When my brother left for QLD, we had a gathering at my house.

It was pretty lighthearted, we even had one guy drive from Poland to see him off.

Things were fine at the airport t0o... until he had to go through security.

Damm that was tough. We just kinda looked at each other and three of his friends broke down. I wasn't even thinking about emigrating at the time and it finally hit me that it would be a long time before I saw the miserable sod again.

I would strongly recommend dealing with the farewells before you go to the airport. We certainly will when we leave in August.

Good luck

Nick
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Old Feb 19th 2003, 6:00 pm
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Default Re: A Large Family Farewell At Airport??

[QUOTE]Originally posted by FOX
Inspired by the recent thread about telling family of your plans to emigrate, I was wondering what peoples feelings / experiences are with having family say good bye at the airport?

We have talked about this and have agreed to say our goodbyes here. It would be too much at the airport for myself and the kids.
We are going to travel to the airport by coach and stay the night at a hotel then taken to the airport in time for the flight.
Prices for coach, hotel and bus to airport are quite good children go free with full paying adults.This for us will also break the journey as two of us get travel sick.


Good luck

Liz and Mark
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Old Feb 19th 2003, 6:35 pm
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Default Re: A Large Family Farewell At Airport??

Sounds like the right idea. East Midlands airport do an airport transfer bus that we would catch, I think...

Still seems a world away yet..
Mash..
[QUOTE]Originally posted by liz and mark
Originally posted by FOX
Inspired by the recent thread about telling family of your plans to emigrate, I was wondering what peoples feelings / experiences are with having family say good bye at the airport?

We have talked about this and have agreed to say our goodbyes here. It would be too much at the airport for myself and the kids.
We are going to travel to the airport by coach and stay the night at a hotel then taken to the airport in time for the flight.
Prices for coach, hotel and bus to airport are quite good children go free with full paying adults.This for us will also break the journey as two of us get travel sick.


Good luck

Liz and Mark
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Old Feb 19th 2003, 6:42 pm
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How will you cope with getting a bus when you have 6 suitcases each !! You must use all of your extra baggage allowance!!

Goodness knows how we will do it, with 5 of us travelling we will have 20 odd cases, probably have to borrow a minibus or something and hire a trailer when we get there
Food for thought though!
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Old Feb 19th 2003, 7:09 pm
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by tinaj
How will you cope with getting a bus when you have 6 suitcases each !! You must use all of your extra baggage allowance!!

we have decided to travel quite light, we are shipping over some stuff and we are then going to start afresh.sold house 2 years ago now ( wrong move ) and moved into rented and had to get rid of most of our furniture then and we are not left with much.
There are 4 of us.

good luck

Liz and mark
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Old Feb 19th 2003, 8:36 pm
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No way is it 6 suitcases each. I know we can get double allowance but my guess was 6 cases total. Me hubby, 2 smallish kids.. Willing to be corrected obviously?

Mash...[QUOTE]Originally posted by liz and mark
Originally posted by tinaj
How will you cope with getting a bus when you have 6 suitcases each !! You must use all of your extra baggage allowance!!

we have decided to travel quite light, we are shipping over some stuff and we are then going to start afresh.sold house 2 years ago now ( wrong move ) and moved into rented and had to get rid of most of our furniture then and we are not left with much.
There are 4 of us.

good luck

Liz and mark
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Old Feb 19th 2003, 9:48 pm
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me hubby and 2 kids managed with just 3 large suit cases! one large hand luggage bag for stuff needed on the plane and two laptops! We had the double luggage allowance but didn't even go over with that lot!

As for the goodbyes, we were staying at my parents at the time and my dad was taking us to the airport in his Landrover, all the family turned up and there was a big gathering as we were loading up. Loads of photos were taken (you can see how miserable they all looked on our website www.thebalefamily.com ). There was complete silence in the car on the way to the airport and Dad just dropped us off said quick goodbye and left. One friend met us at the airport to see us off. I think that was a good way of doing it, as no one felt they had to hold back the tears as they weren't in public, and I think they all felt better having a good cry with other family members there to support them! Funny thing was, that was the first time I had ever seen my Mum cry, and my oldest brother let go too, bit of a shock that one! but once we were at the airport we could concentrate on how exciting our new adventure was going to be!

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Old Feb 19th 2003, 10:03 pm
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When we left we rented a car (to get the huge amount of suitcases in) and stayed at an airport hotel the night before. Having gone through tears at leaving work, then family party, the last thing you want is to be feeling sad and emotional when about to board the plane for your new life
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Old Feb 19th 2003, 10:06 pm
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The problem is that family forget for the moment why you are doing what you are doing and just think of things like 'when will i see you again'
If this country was not the way it is now and the way it is becoming (apart from the weather of course) you more than likely would not be leaving.
Having been through the depatures of family and friend which is a lot worse than you think it is, i would highly recommend doing your farewells at home not at the bus station/airport,after all i'm sure everyone is welcome to your new homs in your new paradise at any time at all so you needent feel too guilty about it all ! !
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Old Feb 20th 2003, 1:30 am
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Default Re: A Large Family Farewell At Airport??

Sarah,

As we were living in Germany when we left for Oz, it really wasn't an issue for us. Rellies came over from the UK to visit us in Munich i the preceding months, and we said our goodbyes there and then. A couple of our close friends came to the airport with us, but that was more to help with our 9 items of baggage than to specifically say goodbye ! I would definitely recommend doing your goodbyes at home, if for nothing else you'll be juggling tons of baggage, and probably worrying about a million things. If you have kids, crying rellies at the airport might unsettle them.

Good luck,
Paul.

Originally posted by FOX
Inspired by the recent thread about telling family of your plans to emigrate, I was wondering what peoples feelings / experiences are with having family say good bye at the airport?

I have to say my initial reaction is that I want to say goodbye to everybody at home rather than at an airport. My theory being that it will be easier all round to say goodbye where people can go back into their own surroundings to be sad or cry or whatever rather than in a big impersonal airport facing a journey home. Also on the more selfish side I feel that this is going to be an exciting moment for us as well as a sad one and I think we would quite like to leave without worrying about leaving sobbing relatives in departures!

I am so grateful to now be in a position to worry about these things rather than "when will we get our visas!!"

Any thoughts appreciated

Sarah
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Old Feb 20th 2003, 2:16 am
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Pread was so right - the thought of crying relatives at the airport around the kids, a nightmare, I was in tears leaving the house (I cry when I leave the family for two weeks! and I often work away from home). One friend came in to help with bags - him and hubby both had wet eyes, both kids seemed bemused by the fact that we had built up going to a new country as something wonderful and then were being all sad about it. Once the people had gone we had big smiles and were as postive about the next big step. Best tears I have now at airports - welcoming people when they come see us here!
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Old Feb 20th 2003, 8:50 am
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Not at the airport. Can you imagine how unsettling for any children the sight of crying relatives would be, especially if they were close to Granparents etc. It is the most awful moment and certainly not one for public to gawp at. 24 hours on a plane is hell enough let alone being even more upset than you need to be.

I hate those Goodbyes, I have the face of my dad fixed in my mind forever, hes 6'3 and 16 stone, but he was shaking like a leaf as I walked through those gates, my daughter then cried the entire way to Singapore, I would give the world never to have to go through that moment again.
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Old Feb 20th 2003, 9:08 am
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Thank you all so much!!

I was pretty sure we had the right idea, but as it is a discussion I know I will be having with my mum this weekend just needed some encouragement!!


Sarah

Can't wait!
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