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August 24, 2004

Introducing me...by Michelle

Hi Everyone!

You found us early, but early in a great kind of way, and we're so happy that you did! Welcome aboard!

As I type this entry, I am surrounded by last-minute emergency contact papers, must-pay-right-now bills, a swamping flood of "To Do" lists and...an army of ants who have just decided that because I am moving out, they are moving in (I haven't told them yet how much the town taxes are, heh, heh, heh).

I have to admit that I'm a bit stunned by their timing because I cleared out the refrigerator and freezer this morning and there is absolutely NO FOOD, not a crumb, in the house! (Mebbe the ants heard about the new train link from my town to Penn Station--secretly suspect that the ants are yuppie Manhattan-type ants on the move ).

The reason for the chaos that is currently my life is because I'm slap bang in the middle of The Move from NJ, USA, to Rotterdam. No, not the Rotterdam in New York State but the Rotterdam all the way across the Atlantic Ocean in the Netherlands. I fly later today, so you'll have to forgive me for being the slakker blogger of the three of us, who promises to post a little bit here and there until I reclaim my brain cells and unpack My Entire Life at the other end! Possibly six weeks before my container, containing (because containers are good at containing) my Entire Life. So, thank goodness for all the Rotterdam Internet cafes that I am about to frequent!

Just a teeny bit about me before I pack up my modem (in five hours' time) and climb on the plane (later today)...

Originally from Sheffield in the north of England, I secretly think of myself as a nomad because I seem to wander from place to place! After Sheffield, I spent several formative years in Zambia, Africa, and let me tell you something--I'm definitely not a spider or snake kind of gal! (Or, come to think of it, a crocodile kind of gal, either.)

After a few years in Africa, more years in Sheffield ensued, followed by several years in London, where I worked in a gay bar, developed other peoples' vacation snaps, and generally had a great time being a poor singleton...and then, several years having a great time being a poor married.

And then Oh Patient One (as I fondly refer to my husband) was posted to Rotterdam for the first time, so we moved there for 3 1/2 years, generally had a ball, and then he got posted to New Jersey, USA, so we moved here, too, and after six years of having a ball here, we're now on our way back to Rotterdam again.

Oh Patient One has been mentioning Pune in India quite a lot just recently, too, and how wonderful it is there, and how great it would be to live there...I told him "so long, then" and to write frequently (is unfair to torture me with possible next move while I am currently swamped with this one ).

In between times we had two children, The Teenagers, who are the most amazing, wonderful, talented...okay, will stop doing the motherly "my kids best in world" thing, now. (But they are ).

Apart from being a nomad, and combatting ant problems, and falling-down ceilings (more on that later) I usually spend my days attached at the hip to June, my iMac (well, I think June is a nice name for a computer, don't you?) writing wacky chick lit stories for Avon.

Whew.

Inspired by all the crazy, it-could-only-happen-to-me disasters that have befallen me during The Move (like that kitchen ceiling), I will be writing a little column to fill you in on the trials and tribulations of transatlantic house moving. Or, in fact, any kind of house moving. So stay tuned for my "Diary of a Wacky Writer on the Move!"

That's all for now, because I really have to finish the inventory, attempt some slap dash domesticity (i.e. throw disinfectant down the toilets, mop floors) and, um, packing might be a good thing, too.

Hugs, and Tot Ziens (Dutch for Au Revoir)

Michelle

Posted by Michelle at 2:55 AM