The Bat has flown

I've just come back from Heathrow having taken The Bat to her flight this evening. Everything went very smoothly, she even got a seat over the emergency exit, so she'll have plenty of leg room. It's an eleven hour flight, she gets in at 4:30pm and she will be met by the man from the agency who has decided he will be taking her straight to the language school, where she will be teaching, to meet the director: just what you want after an intercontinental flight. Only then will they take her to the accommodation, we hope.

So, we really are going, there's no turning back now! Even up until Wednesday, when the agency who bought the ticket still had not sent her the confirmation of the e-ticket, there was a possibility that it might all fall through. They have got almost nothing fully correct in this whole process and have caused no end of aggrivation.

My countdown to departure on Aug 11th now begins. Thankfully I have don't have too much to do. In a couple of long sessions these last few days we (or rather The Bat ) have managed to pack together the essentials into 23 packing boxes ready for freighting out to Seoul. Let's just hope there is going to be space in the apartment for our belongings and us.

What I find most difficult about packing, is that it is time for a clear out and I hate to be forced to get rid of stuff. I especially hate to throw stuff away. We generated four bin liners of rubbish and nine bin bags mostly full of clothes to go to charity shops. We seem to have accumulated so much stuff that we are now giving away, I just hope our donations will not go to waste. I have always wondered what the charity shops receive and how it is all handled, and how much they have to discard or recycle or sell. It can't be an easy job, maybe there will be a charity shop in Seoul I could work in as a volunteer to see what it's really like.