The weekend which followed was a 3-day Bank Holiday Weekend for the UK - which is why our farewell was mid-week, as a lot of our friends would be off travelling over the weekend but since we were off on the Monday we also needed it to finish packing. And, boy did we need that whole weekend. I have tried to be frugal in what I have acquired during my time in the UK, as there was always the likelihood of having to move on. However I discovered 2 things - moving back 'home' is a completely different kettle of fish than moving to another city elsewhere, as you don't want to ditch items or clothing only to buy exactly the same stuff on the other side; you also don't have your old clothes to re-acquire when you arrive as you would going home; and despite being frugal, I'd managed to amass quite a fair amount of stuff. A lot of stuff got chucked - the UK train magazines, some of the UK train books, un-needed posessions that had been aquired somehow or extra clothing items which were worn or I didnt absolutely need. But there had been suits and clothing I'd had sent or brought over as I thought I might need them - and some I have. But the cold weather items, which are heavy and bulky, needed to be kept as if Berlin comes off for us I will need them for winter or winter travelling. The same broadly goes for Sasha's stuff.
When we'd booked our plane tickets to Berlin I added one 20kg bag for the hold, and Sasha added 2 20kg bags (we worked out 2 bags was cheaper than booking 1 heavier 32kg bag - plus you got extra weight), the idea being Sasha would likely have more stuff than I but my overspill could go into the 3rd checked bag. Nice theory - reality was all my clothes, technology and stuff added up to about the same volume as Sasha's and possibly was heavier. My big purple trundler bag, which I'd had to pare down from 40kg to 20kg the night before leaving NZ was back up to 40kg somehow. How? well it was now carrying other items I'd had sent over from NZ that I needed but couldn't take with me at first (which both tended to be heavy and bulky), plus with all the winter stuff I'd acquired and would need for the future European winter should Berlin work out. After multiple passes at removing more stuff, we still had too much stuff. In the end, we had to buy some extra weight for one of Sasha's checked bags (up to 26kg), while I had to do the same for my bag (buying the maximum of 32kg, as I could not get it less than 30kg) plus we had to turn Sasha's carry-on trundler case into a checked bag (of only about 12kg) and Sasha took another bag full of stuff as carry-on. It was obvious too that some of the books I wanted to keep had to be sent on - but any parcel over 2kg becomes highly expensive. Books are heavy! so only the bare minimum were kept, the heaviest one or two were taken with and the rest sent on in 4 parcels to Mum & Dad's (and in the process I forgot to tell them that I'd done that and to expect them!). So finally, late Sunday night we were finished packing, all legit with bag weights so no nasty overweight fees at the airport, but had an extra bag than we intended and two bags heavier than we intended. But all of our lives, all packed away once again.
So Long, London - you're an immense city with a population twice the size of NZ, with far too much going on during the day to be able to do everything you have on offer, you can be cold, rude, over-busy, roads after roads after roads of Coronation Street-esque buildings that all look the same, buses that go nowhere fast but you have a lot of them, and for a Metropolis everything curiously shuts down at Midnight each night because the Tube doesn't run any later (even after you promised to introduce it, and of course no one wants to catch night buses if they can help it!). But for all that, you have a charm of your own. You're a city which has endeared itself to me, but I know that you will never love me back. You don't sparkle because you're covered in dust and grime, but you do glow. I will visit you again, most definitely - when that will next be, I do not know...