Dismantling a life - part 2

I am sitting in an empty house, putting off cleaning windows and skirting boards for another hour. We have 4 suitcases and 3 beds, 2 folding garden chairs and a portable DVD player. That's about it. The beds will be picked up over the next 2 days, the chairs will be donated, and then we move on to a serviced apartment in Derby, then the Heathrow Novotel (via Legoland), and then onto our plane - homeward bound.

I have felt strangely serene since the packers took away most of our stuff. Now I can see past the piles of accumulated possessions to the final tasks in our move. The smallest details occupy my mind in the wee small hours - where is my Australian mobile sim card, what is my Westpac pin number, how can I thank all Dylan's teachers and friends and school?

Dylan told everyone at school on Monday that we were leaving the next day. I can see how he made the mistake - the momentum of the sorting and packing over the weekend, knowing the shippers were coming that day and the repeated mantra "not long now..." whenever he fussed. But his headmistress cornered me on Tuesday morning to say goodbye, along with all the parents and other teachers. She was visibly relieved when I explained he would be there until Friday, as his favourite teacher from last term, Mrs Fearn, had been almost in tears at the thought she wouldn't be able to say goodbye to him.

Maybe he is just milking the attention for all it's worth. But there is no doubt that the emotional strain of another move is also showing in him. Sam of course, has no clue what is happening - except that most of his toys have vanished. He seems to be just as happy playing with an empty toilet roll and a toothbrush though.

Dylan's first words as he came home from school on Monday were "let's play trains!" I explained the trains were gone, in the container. "Oh. Well, can I ride my scooter?" Also gone. "What? Well can I have some juice in the spiral cup?" Also gone. Even his bed sheets had been packed, he is sleeping under a naked duvet. We had the momentary "where's bunny?" panic that night, wondering if Sam's essential best friend bunny had also been shipped in the container by mistake. But thankfully Sam had just carefully packed bunny into his on-board-wheelie-suitcase.

One of Dylan's last English adventures was a boys weekend in London with Daddy. Very grown up, taking the train down and staying in a hotel for the night. I was rather jealous! They managed to fit in the Tower of London, Changing of the Guards, Buckingham Palace, Science Museum and of course Hamley's - as well as rides on buses, tubes, taxis and trains. Hamley's ("the world's finest toy store") will remain Dylan's all time favourite thing about this country, and I wonder if it will be his first stop when he returns aged 18 with a backpack, in his gap year?