SGS

..and so we’ve finally relocated to Hong Kong, a little over 4 months since we first talked about the possibility. A month ago we were on a Holy Land Tour in Israel and Egypt. Subsequently, we had less than a month to pack EVERYTHING! Most things were either sold at our garage sale, and then given away to op-shop (we realised how materialistic we were when we pretty much stock up half their wares!)

Saturday 16th April was our Mega-Moving Day. We loaded up a hired removal van with furniture (mostly borrowed from the Chia family – thank you!), moved our bed to my parents’ in Mooroolbark, loaded up more of the Chia furniture which was stored at Steph’s grannies’ and then relocated them to various homes in Dandenong North and Berwick. We would like to deeply show our gratitude to those who helped us move: Bryan, Siang, Jeremy, Peter, Daniel & Claire, Yih Wen & Chia Yee, Karl & Canmy, David & Sam. Thanks go to Hangers & Corinne, Tulae and Liam for buying our big-ticket items!

Few interesting things happened in the final week to our move:

• First, never deal with Diamond Dry Cleaning. Ever. Not even if you get 4 rooms for $60 on Scoopon. You can get your rooms done for around $80 with a better cleaner (let me know if you need a contact). When you call their number, it’s just a switchboard – they have some weird management system where they keep saying “the booking department will contact you shortly”. A couple months ago I had to call twice to confirm the booking. It was on the second time when I mentioned I needed to confirm the booking due to the overseas trip when they finally conceded. And it wasn’t fixed – they said they would call the day before to confirm the time. Well, the ‘day before’ arrived and when I made a call at lunch that day why they haven’t called, we got the same response. An hour later we were finally contacted by the “booking department” acknowledging the day, but not the time! On the day itself I had to call that morning and they said something slightly different: “we’ll put an urgent call to the booking department and they will contact you shortly.” Wow. At 1pm, we get one more phone call from them: “I’m standing outside your door.” Enough said.
• There was a miscommunication with the home cleaner – perhaps on my part. It was understood that by last Thursday at 1pm the home would be ready for the property agent to do their initial inspection report. But on Wednesday we get the call: “We are coming in 30 minutes!” Kor-blimey! Those 30 minutes was the most frantic ever as we cleared the boxes and goods in the living area AND kitchen, moving it all into the garage!
• Then there was Sh*ttyBank, I mean, CitiBank. Who ever thought opening two joint-accounts mean receiving no less than 8 separate letters? Or two different cards (one is a standard ATM Citicard, the other a Visa Debit Card)? Or I had to fill in a separate application form for the proper card? Or that the application form ‘was not received’ by CitiBank? Or that upon a request for another form via express post, it was sent by snail-mail? And that it was a form for the wrong card?
• As a former engineer, I get peeved when upgraded technology is really a downgrade. Like the security door at Steph’s Mum’s apartment. When a car goes through, the gate stops opening and immediately closes so other cars don’t follow. But when you are trying to buzz a resident and he lets you in, and a car exits… well you’ll need to buzz again. Well, I wasn’t happy having to buzz 3 times!

To say the least, relocating really put me to the test and I did lose it on more than one occasion… The short trip to Bangkok over the Easter weekend did me a lot of good – food and relaxation. But I think I’m still trying to destress and settle at the same time! Did I mention the MAS staff did not tag my luggage at Melbourne Airport? Thankfully the Baggage Services at HKIA were able to locate it and forward it on the next Cathay flight. The boxes air-freighted from Melbourne were already here by the time we returned from Thailand.

Life is a dichotomy: I love stability, but I like a good challenge. This has got to be one of the biggest decisions we’ve made together. Praying that it would be one of the best. 🙂