And So It Begins

Well this is prob the craziest week of my life. It has been full of stress. Things going wrong all over the show and even though you have paid a lot of money for people to do a job for you or to receive a service things still dont work out quite as planned.

So Monday had arrived and at this point i thought i had covered all bases. The removals men arrived at 8am and set to work on the house. Due to insure we werent allowed to pack ourselves and they had to do it all themselves. Its a very strange feeling to have other people going through your things and putting it into boxes. They cracked on through the morning and were finished by early afternoon.

I went into town and seeing Romford in all its glory convinced me even more that moving stateside was the way to go. I went into the bank to inform them of my change of address, to cancel my direct debits and to arrange a money transfer for when the house sale goes through. I had assumed that i would be able to transfer money between my english and american bank accounts while i was in Vegas. As it turns out i need to be in England to be able to send the money. The bank wangle is for me to post date the transfer to friday as i wont be receiving the house money until Thursday.

Monday night I drive the 50 miles to a friends house how has done me a big favour by buying my car off of me. He paid me for it 2 weeks ago but let me keep the car until the last minute. I pick him up and we stop off at another friends house. I have my sky+ box and a number of other electronic items in the back of the car that im giving to him as they are no good to my in america as they use 110v apposed to our 240v. In poker you meant a lot of self-centered, selfish people who are solely in this world for themselves and are quit happy to nip and con there way to anything. On the other side every now and again you come across so really good people who become more than just people that you know across the felt but actually become real mates. Leaving these people behind is one of my few regrets about leaving England. You get a different banter on the tables in America.

Tuesday and the removals men were back at the house at 8am again and the container was due at 9am. They had a few last things to wrap but were pretty much there. 10am comes and still no container. The boss makes a phone call and discovers that there was fog at Tilbury (named from the plague) and he was running late. So they hang around for another 90 mins and still no container. More phne calls are made and it turns out the trailer has broken down as it has lost air pressure. 3pm and the guys are finally packing the container. As its locked shut i sign the paperwork and take the copies. 6 weeks time and I should see it all in Vegas. Fingers crossed.

Its a very strange feeling to be stood in the house where you have lived for the past 4 1/2 years with no furniture surrounding you. On the living room floor we had 3 suitcases and 2 rucksacks. As it turns out the 2 rucksacks are a million times more valuable then all the items in the container. We left a double bed so we had a comfortable nights sleep. Well half a nights sleep we got picked up at 5am.

5am and its dark as can be as im loading the bags into my friends car who is taking is to Gatwick. There is a thick frost on the ground and fog in the air. Im sure when its 120 degrees in Vegas in the summer ill be pleading for a bit of rain but this weather im not going to miss in the slightest. The drive to Gatwick goes quickly enough. My last drive around the M25 for a while. The cat ( Sheridan) is in the back with Nancy in her box. Sheridan thinks she is on her way to the vets and doesnt know why its taking so long to get there. We arrive at Gatwick and after 10 mins find the Continental cargo shed where we were to drop Sheridan off 3 hours before her flight. I walk in speak to the guy at the desk and give him my paperwork and tell him what flight she is on. He looks at me as his 2 brain cells try to communicated with each other. He tells me he has no cat booked to fly on that plane, he has no paperwork for it, no kennel for them to go in and if he did the flight is delayed anyway. I make a phonecall to the company that I booked with to arrange her transfer and i get the boss of the company. He assures me all is booked and in order give him 5 mins on the phone and it will be fine. 5 mins later and the goon comes back to the desk telling me that he has the paperwork has the kennel and that her flight will be leaving on time. It takes an hour still to get everything sorted Sheridan got weighed in her kennel and she was off with her passport in hand.

So its back in the car and the short trip to the south terminal to drop off our bags. I had already checked us in online. we flew premium economy so upstairs on the plane for us. I hadnt told nncy about paying for the upgrade as she would only tell me its a waste of money. I knew this would be a very stressful day for her and she doesnt normally sleep on the flight but i hoped she might this time. As we get our boarding passes we are told that our flight is running late about 1hr so we had plenty of time to wonder around the terminal. We went and got breakfast, made phonecalls to say goodbye to a few people and soon enough we were on the plane and getting greeted with champagne.

The flight passed as quickly as a 10hr flight can do. I slept, Nancy didnt dispite my efforts. Arriving at Las Vegas we were expecting a grilling coming through customs as we dont have our residents visas yet so we have flights book for 90 days time back to England. We got a few questions but nothing to cause a problem and we were through to pick up our bags. The bags were on the belt already waiting for us. We were out the doors and into the Vegas sunshine. Nancy lit up a cig straight away and we made our way to the car rental centre. We had booked a rental car for the first week. Nancy has been doing all the driving i need to do some soon to get used to driving on the wrong side of the road like the rest of these crazy yanks.

So apart from a little detour when i sent us the wrong way we were straight up Tropicana and on our way to the estate agents. We paid the remander of the security deposit and 1st months rent signed the rental contracts and got the keys. It was so good to get into the house and drop the bags. We had a few hours before we had to go back to the airport and pick up Sheridan so we decided to go out to the shops and pick up some supplies. We also need to buy new cat bowls food and a litter tray as we cant let her out for 3 weeks.

Sheridans connecting flight out of Newerk was delayed so she was now landing at midnight. We got there a little early as again we had to find where we were picking her up from it was a couple of miles away from the airport entrance. I went in a saw the guy and he told me to come back at 12.30 and she will be ready waiting for me. I took my ID then to save time later on. I went out and sat in the car with Nancy she didnt want to come in as seeing her in the kennel earlier at Gatwick had upset her. I go back in the half hour later and through the glass door i can see her sitting some 10 feet from me. She saw me straight away and was calling out to me. Next came the bad news. It turns out that she was supposed to go through customs when she landed in Newerk and she shouldnt of been allowed on her connecting flight until she had done so. They were now telling me that as she hadnt cleard customs we would have to come back at 8am when a cusoms officer would be in to clear here. The guy in Vegas didnt want to be responsible for her over night so he kept on to Newerk to get her cleared. He faxed her documents back over and after about 2 hours on the phone they finally cleared her.

We had a 20 minute drive up to the house. We had Sheridans bowl ready for her and she came straight out of the kennel and scoffed it all down. She had a wonder around the house, explored in every room and gave it her approval. We sat up with her for about an hour and then it was time to go to bed and put a finish to our first day in Vegas.