I falsely promised that the blog was in hiatus for a couple of months but quarantine has changed that: what else am I going to do?! I'll do three instalments: one today, one on Thursday and one next Monday.
Mr. Ho and his team of packers/shippers arrived bright and early, as scheduled, on Tuesday last week. They came in armed with booming voices and palpable energy ready to attack! They didn't muck around either. Before we'd even adjusted to their presence, the whole team had invaded and the crew boss was busy asking what not to pack. He subsequently put little stickers "no" on all those items that were staying, and by the time we re-entered the main room, guys were making up boxes, taking paintings from walls, measuring, padding, testing and packing.
I was tasked with filling in seven pages of customs and quarantine declarations for the Australian authorities, while Cass flitted from room to room valiantly trying to make sure our garbage wasn't being packed: they were that quick and efficient. In the middle of the chaos, Wal and Annie dropped in to witness the mayhem, but couldn't get past the boxes blocking the front door!
Amazingly, the entire process was completed in about three hours. They'd allocated the whole day, but realised early on that the extra time wouldn't be needed as they had an 8 strong team and there was no rain, which had been hovering around when they did the original assessment. Two "blue trucks" did the trick and all our stuff was on the expressway to the port city of Keelung where it would be packed into a container then, fingers crossed, shipped to Australia: it's such a leap of faith really, but it happens successfully all the time so why not for us?!
The house felt so strange denuded of her accoutrement and we had yet another "moment"....what are we doing?! We got cleaned up and continued cleaning and carting rubbish respectively. Those guys up at the garbage/recycling depot are no doubt pining away for the mad foreigner who seemed to visit endlessly, all day, day after day! Cass went and gave a small gift and card to our local chemist who has looked after us for all these years. We went together to visit our friend Betsy and take a photo (see above), and also give some more towels and a gift to the vets at Dr. Yang's.
The next day, Wednesday, was our last day in Taipei. Mr. Lee and Linda came up to fix up some bills, give us even further refunds on our pre-paid rent and to say goodbye. Linda took various group photos which she subsequently posted on Facebook with very cute filters, frames and quotes...so cute! After yet more trips to the garbage depot and more cleaning and sorting we felt vaguely ready to finish packing then head off to our last visit to Din Tai Feng.
We ordered all our favourites and enjoyed them as usual, but it was becoming so overwhelming we almost couldn't bear it. We bought some Japanese custard puffs for later on then headed home for more last minute tidying and an early night. Up at 4 a.m., we packed the sheets and towels into garbage bags, got suited up for travel and awaited Daniel's last arrival. Of course, he was right on time and we were on our way to Taoyuan for the last time.
On Thursday, I'll publish the second of three special "quarantine" posts with the final instalment next Monday. The next one will be about airports with no people, planes with few people and army and police guards at the other end!