Philk

2 weeks on Friday I'll be taking my one way flight to the US.

I had thought that in the few weeks before then I'd be going round seeing places for the last time but that hasn't happened - too much to arrange, crappy rain rain rain all the time and the end of the footy season !
So apart from visiting my local a few times at lunchtime for a last soak of the atmosphere I haven't done much in the way of goodbyes. Family is scattered across the UK and I'm not close to them anyway and no best friends that I'm going to miss

How did you deal with the last few weeks - do anything special or just organise ?

Brucky

For my last couple of weeks, I did some sight-seeing in my local town, and took a lot of photographs. My old home has a lot of attractions for tourists, and I enjoyed seeing these again.

And of course, I spent a lot of time with family and friends.

Bob

Played footie with mates and had beers at the pub with a few mates.

Did the local tourist sites, I'm from Oxford, so never bothered to do it before and knew most of the places, but was fun to be a tourist at home for a couple of days.

Wish I'd bothered to take more photo's, especially of the homely things like the local park and what not, be nice to show my little kids now where I'm from, even if they are to young to care.

Definitely best to tell folks you're leaving a few days before you actually leave, that way you don't end up having a last minute farewell thing which can be a bit emotional, or getting in the way of saying good bye to your folks or whoever is really important to you, that and it gives you a couple days to relax, chill out if you can and do any last minute things that crop up without feeling to stressed.

Good luck on the move!

Uncle Ebenezer

Working and packing.

WEBlue

Me too. It was hell.

Once I handed in my notice, it was down to sorting, doing the boot sales, then hauling stuff to whichever charity shops would have our junk (& some WAS truly junk!), & dragging the remains to the recycling centre. The recycling centre people knew me well. We wore out one shredder shredding old documents, then burned the rest in a friends' barbecue pit (--probably against local law).

I had no time whatsoever for revisiting favourite places & barely managed to say proper good-byes to some friends, which I regret . . . . What a nightmare.

N1cky

Had a party at the house with friends and daughters friends, and then hired a huge indoor play structure thing for a few hours, all the adults were on the huge slides... Really good laugh.

Had a family get together at a pub in Yorkshire.

Rest of it was hectic stuff, selling electricals, selling cars, freecycling guinea pigs...

SultanOfSwing

I'm swapping Northern Ireland for England in the title, there

Around the time I was doing my K1 interview I was listing a bunch of my gear on ebay to sell, changing £100 here and there into dollars when I got paid, drinking lots of tea and I quit smoking.

I quit work two weeks before I left to give myself time to pack and then I promptly left all my packing until the last minute. Spent a bit of time having the odd pint with my mates. Managed to arrange one last piss-up the Saturday before I left and just for fun Belfast was in the middle of quite a few big riots that weekend so we couldn't find a taxi home for ages.

I spent the whole of the last month before I left going in and out of the vet to check on one of my cats, who was run over by a car and had her pelvis shattered. I had to put her to sleep the day before I left

Bayleaf_01

We fly a week on Sunday. Last couple of weeks have been spent listing stuff on gumtree & ebay. Goodbyes started on Saturday & will continue now till the end. Still hoping to see some countryside, but with this rain, who knows!
Didn't think saying goodbye would be so hard, lots of tears & plenty more to come.

scclaire

Oh I am SO delighted that it's not just me who's experienced/experiencing this...

I'm moving to Louisiana (just me) on June 5th and had thought that my last few months would be visiting my favourite places in the UK, going to Cracow and Paris one last time bla bla bla, then in my last couple of weeks seeing places in my home town and saying a proper goodbye to family and friends and I have done none of those things- plus am still working full time until a week and a bit before I leave.

Instead, it's listing stuff on ebay, amazon, car boot sales etc etc. As time gets closer I'm feeling increasingly worried that I'll never get rid of all my stuff, pack all my stuff and be ready to go. I'm anticipating my last month is going to be more of the same.

I'm so glad others have been here before (even if I wouldn't wish it on anyone, if you get what i mean!)

Any hints and tips on how to rise above this in some sort of 'zen like calm?!'

sir_eccles

You mean other than running around like a headless chicken?

Brucky

The day I received the visa, I booked a flight leaving three days later.

99% of my things were already in the USA, but it was a mad MAD few days until I left.

Malibu Jen

I worked up until two days before i left. Even looking back now, i have no idea how i managed to fit everything in before i went. In the months leading up to the move i was very organised; doing car boot sales, finding tenants for my house etc.

In my final week I spent every evening with a different friend / group of friends / family to say goodbye. I was out drinking on my last two nights, and was still frantically packing things into my loft as I left my house on the morning of my flight (the tenants were due to move in later that day)..

Guindalf

I had major surgery exactly two weeks before I came over and had to clear out my flat in Bournemouth and take everything up to my parents' house in Clacton. I'm a pretty lazy SOB at the best of times, but I couldn't figure out why I had to stop and sit down every ten minutes! Had to get the surgery completed before I came here and would have been charged several thousands for it. As soon as the doc cleared me (on the Tuesday), I flew on the Thursday. Didn't really have a lot of time to think about anything.

What I didn't sell got stored and I came over with literally two suitcases - and one of those had a desktop computer in it!

Arrived on January 29th and got married on March 21st. Major rush!!

tonrob

Drunk.

kimilseung

Went up a few favorite Wainwrights.
I had planned to polish them off, but there is a reason I had not done the last ten or so, so I did not bother, and went back to my favorites.