Packing and unpacking

Once I told you how I traveled all around and still do whether it is for business or leisure, I love traveling and I love experiencing new things in life. However most of my travels happened for reasons beyond my control, the family and I had to go to places and settle for a while or longer than a while to either gain something or obtain other things, this is not the subject of the blog this morning.

If I tell you that I am a Bedouin, would you believe it? Well I am, as I have been in so many houses since I was less than one year old till now. In Bahrain we lived in three houses (till the age of 16), then I moved to study abroad, where I lived in 2 houses during the four years of study. After graduation, I returned back to Bahrain to be a guest in my parents' house; literally I was a guest, as I traveled to few places, like India, England, Switzerland and Italy, for few months at a time, and over there I lived in flats or hotels; then I moved to Dubai to get married, we stayed in the chalet of our friends for few months, then to a flat, then to my parents house as they moved to Dubai, then to another flat, then we moved to England again, where we lived in a house, then back to Dubai and lived in my parents newly built home, then to a flat, then to our newly built home, which was the only one we stayed in four years in a row, then again to my parents house, then to New Zealand; first we lived in Auckland, rented a nice house for few years, then moved to Hamilton; prior to finding a house, I stayed with my son in a little flat, while the girls and my husband continued to stay in Auckland till they finished their third term in school; meanwhile my son and I looked for a house, once we found it, we stayed in it for a bet longer than two years. Then we sold it and bought a little house for my son to stay in as we decided to move back to Dubai. When we reached Dubai, we stayed at my parent’s vacant house, for few years, then we were homeless for three months, then we moved to our house in the springs. I hated that house, to the extent that I would be either in the office or at the club till 10 at night and I would only sleep in it. I looked for another place and found the dream place in Green community; This is our last house for now, and believe me, I intend to stay in it, until I die, so help me god.

Have you been counting? Well, in 55 years, we moved 25 times. All these times I have been packing and unpacking, I cannot remember how many sofa sets, and bedroom sets we changed, and I cannot remember if we kept the curtains or not, or bought new sets of dinner ware or cutlery, I do remember that the newspapers and boxes will be collected, and the important stuff will be wrapped into boxes, and unwrapped and put into their place when we reach our destination.

The funniest packing and unpacking happened when we moved to my son's wee house in Hamilton, we didn’t have much money then, so I didn’t want to bring a door-to-door company as we normally do, so I hired a truck, and drove it myself between the two houses, we would carry the things and stuff them in the truck, while my friend stuffs them in the new house, and the other friend stuffs things in boxes for us to carry to the truck in the old house. Of course the after math is so great, as we have to clean the house, and keep it ready for its new comers.

Also the cat, we lost her, so we had to provide slips with our phone numbers to the neighbors and the new owners to call us in case she returns; the cat belonged to my little one, and she called her Insane, the whole thing was so insane really as we had to run from a place to another to see if she had returned. Anyway, one rainy day ( Hamilton was famous for those heavy showers) we got a call that she was back to the house, we all run over there to collect her, grinning all the way to the supermarket, buying her a new toy plus food. When we finally decided to move back to Dubai, we had to find a cattery that will house Insane until they found her new parents. I miss that cat, she used to stand next to me when I prayed, I used to think that she was praying with me.

Those were the good days.

Something very funny happened the other day. I was collecting old books to sell for the charity book sale at the college, so while I was rummaging through my stuff, I found four sets of beads. I was trying to remember where they were from and when did I buy them? well, don’t laugh please, I got them when I was 18, from the Kurdistan side of Iraq; we had gone there for a tour during our spring break, and the girls and I decided that we would buy something to remind us of that place, the beads where my souvenir for myself. I think that and few of my university books were the only things that had remained with me during the years that we wondered around the world, trying to find a better place to live, or a better life style.

Human beings are funny creatures, we are never satisfied with what we have now, or what we had yesterday, we are always racing to be the best, live in the best, and own the best, once we buy something, then it stays in the past, and we start to hunt for a better thing. We buy the car today, tomorrow we will be looking at the neighbors’ cars and comparing, if we had got a better deal or they did. When will we grew out of these things? I will never know.

So, if you were planning a move, call me, can pack your things in seconds. It is all in the way you organize them; the vases in one place, the paintings in another, the cloths stay in the cupboard, and the last thing to be wrapped is the furniture. Do this, and you will never lose anything. I think my sister in law will laugh at this blog, as she has been through a similar thing all her life too.