cottlefish

I'm a USC who's lived abroad for 7 years, and I'm moving home with my UKC husband. We're flying from London to Boston on Wednesday at 7 p.m. (eeeee!) and we're pretty much all set but for a final flat clean and some little packing bits.

I was just curious what everyone got up to in their last couple of days in the UK before the big move! It's our wedding anniversary tomorrow, Tuesday, and the plan is to hopefully have everything finished by the end of the day today so we can luxuriate/probably be a bit nostalgic. (Fingers crossed things don't devolve into total last minute panic - we seem to be in a pretty good position at the moment.)

Anyway, if we've got everything nice and tidy, I might steal some of your final-day ideas so we can just have some British chill out time

penguinsix

A touristy thing you've been meaning to do.
A visit to the grocers to stock up on some last minute candy and sauces.
A walk to some of the more personal places (where you met, had a party, etc).

If at all possible, clean and move out and spend the last night in a hotel. Don't worry about the last minute items at the last minute--just head out suitcase in hand on your new trip.

civilservant

I stayed at the Hilton at Heathrow the night before (flight was at 9am) - I agree with penguin, relax in a hotel if yo can afford it.

Speedwell

Agreed. My husband overnighted in a Heathrow-area hotel and enjoyed it. Before then he had a bit of an "American wake" as they call it in Ireland, though instead of a big gathering to mourn the person moving overseas, it is now a more intimate gathering with a fair amount of booze and slaps on the back and gifts of things that take up needless room in the suitcase. Did I mention booze?

cottlefish

Thanks, guys

We are staying in our flat the last night, but just because our flight isn't until about 7:30 p.m.! We are doing our final check-out at 2 p.m. and then cabbing it to Heathrow. (We only live about five miles away). We went back and forth on the hotel thing for our last night - and it was only down to cost in the end. Probably should have found ourselves a nice hotel with a jacuzzi or something

Flabound oneday

we were in rented which ran out 3 days before we left. we had sold all our furniture etc (last few days was fun) so put our dog into kennels on the Saturday and stayed with my mum...very nice being spoiled and fed to the nines.....the Monday we just got everything together and left early Tuesday. it was the last day of November and started snowing hard as we left for Gatwick....took off in a blizzard...mutt got delayed by 2 days !!!

cottlefish

Poor pup! We sent our cats ahead to my mom last Thursday. So nerve wracking! Our furniture etc is gone. Just freecycling the TV today and giving the place a good scrub. Think we just want to be there already!

WEBlue

Staying in a hotel is good; we stayed in a local self-catering flat once the furniture was packed up & shipped on its way. We thought we had planned ahead and everything would be finished in a timely way.

However, we found the last few days were still chaotic, as the husband had found several caches of old documents we weren't shipping that needed shredding and our UK shredder burned out, necessitating buying another cheap one that was a total pain to operate. We also had to haul all the left-over bits & bobs off to the recycling centre and clean up the house. Dealing with that empty echoing house after living there for so many years was ...tough emotionally.

We did some socializing in the last week, but by no means would I call those last days relaxed. Hope yours go differently though! Good luck!

Bob

Nice time to fly, a freak heatwave of 80's F.

The good bye thing with friends/family is best done a few days before you go, then gives you time to say good byes to those closest a day before you go, better than on the final day as you'll have enough crap to do.

Go around with a camera and do the tourist thing at all the local places you fancy, the park, pub, stuff like that. Especially nice if you've got kids.

yukichon

Do you mind me asking who you used to send the cats and what was the cost?
We have two cats we need to fly to Denver ...

cottlefish

We used Pet Air UK. They offer two different tiers of service, and we went for the gold tier - this included them completing all the customs paperwork for us, including the fitness to fly certificate with vet exam. We actually compared the cost of having them do this vs our vet, and it actually came out cheaper to have them take care of it. This also took the documentation out of my hands, which was good, because I really didn't need one other thing to worry about! It was £1090 total. When we got the original quote, silver tier was about £900 but this didn't include transport to the airport or the customs docs. We don't have a car, so this was big help.

Overall we were happy with Pet Air. They sent us about four texts on the day they picked the cats up, and another on the day they dropped them off. (They picked them up on Weds morning in their very lovely, sturdy crates and did their vet exam that afternoon. They spent the night at the cattery, and were checked in for their flight with BA out of Heathrow at about 6 a.m.) My mom picked the cats up from the airport and, while she said they REALLY smelled, they were dry and clean inside their crates. Pet Air do custom made crates that have vet approved bedding or something that absorbs all the pee and poo.

After quite a bit of research, we just really liked the tone that Pet Air used. Other companies talked about the cats the same way they would talk about a box of books, and that just rubbed us the wrong way. They are our babies! Pet Air have a really good Facebook page. I totally shouldn't be a sucker for that, since I work in PR myself, but it totally worked. One good social media marketing activity and I'm in

I've read good things on this forum about Virgin, too, for pet transport. Our cats are adjusting okay to my mom's house - they slept a lot the first two days, and are only just getting their eating and playing back to normal. I keep forgetting they've only been there a couple of days - feels like they left ages ago!

Hope that helps.

yukichon

Thanks so much for the info, that really helps. We will use the same service as it seems your love for your cats is the same as ours. I am a bit panicky about when to let them go outside again once we move, especially as thee will be a lot more wildlife where we live, such as coyote, mountain lion and bear.
Sounds like Pet Air do really care, so that's what we need.

cottlefish

Yeah, we're a little bit cat-obsessive over here. We've had my mom uploading photos of them to prove they're doing well for the last week. Reunited tomorrow...

Agreed on the "going outside" front. Also I've noticed Americans just don't really seem to let their cats out as much. We will be living in/around Boston in Massachusetts, and I'm just not up for the coyotes or the cars. (Foxes and cars in the outskirts of London did me in.)

yukichon

Our cats are outdoors all the time, and they never leave eachothers side. We will have to let them out but will keep them in for a month or so, and then they can have supervised outdoor trips lol....one step at a time!

Rose tea

A week before I left, I wrote a list of all the places I wanted to go to in my beautiful city, all the food I wanted to eat one last time, and all the people I wanted to see one last time.

Then I got a wretched cold and spent the whole week huddled under a blanket watching TV. Oh well. There was some USA national parks documentary on a travel channel and it actually inspired me for my trip and relaxed my nerves, so all worked out in the end.