TUESDAY 2nd MAY
Had a fantastic sleep and didn't want to get up when my alarm went off at 5.50am. Was packed up and in the restaurant for a fabulous breakfast at 6.30am. Photographed Fair Isle as we cruised into Lerwick Harbour – a fabulous sight indeed! Arrived at 7.25am.
Fair Isle from my breakfast table!
Arriving at Lerwick Harbour – 7.25am
Kindly photographed by Jill Wilson!
Jill and Rob Wilson (who moved here from Norfolk, just over a year ago), very sweetly met me to say hello at the ferry terminal – I was very touched by this, so kind! Thank you both so much for driving all that way from your home to meet me! Jill and Rob also stayed with me for a while and escorted me to my new rented NHS house. Then Jill joined me on a very short walk to the hospital reception to pick up my house keys. We returned to the house, to find that none of the three yale keys fitted the front door! However, one of the keys did get us in the back door.
It was generally a more spacious house than I had thought (from videos previously sent to me), although the kitchen is far smaller than mine was in King's Lynn. I have a huge honeysuckle bush, filling my entire view from my living room window and there was a Blackbird and a House Sparrow in the garden.
Jill and Rob headed home (read their Shetland blog here). The biggest issue today, was going to be parking up in this narrow little street for Ian Reid's Removal lorry, which was arriving at 10am. A short while later, the car that parked up behind my car had left and I realised that once I moved my car, there would be just enough room for the lorry to park up, so I didn't dare leave the street, in case someone else tried to park there. The lorry arrived at 9.45am and I moved my car – they just squeezed in between the parked cars, very lucky indeed! It took them until around 1.30pm to unload the lorry.
It felt surreal, being here. Knowing I have actually moved here, is so exciting! Its taken a tremendous amount of hard work to get myself here, an insane amount of throwing, selling, charity shop drops, auctioneers and trips to the dump and now it has all paid off. I'm here in Shetland!!!
Ian Reid's team did a fantastic job getting me here and offloaded all my boxes where I requested, nothing was too much trouble, very kind and professional. After they left, the first thing I did was collapse on my sofa for a short while. Now, instead of being sensible and putting my bed together or starting in the kitchen, I decided to do the least important thing! I arranged all my plant pots under my living room window and opposite here, on the other side of the footpath underneath and next to the huge honeysuckle. With the heavy concrete bird pond in place and a few of my garden ornaments, it looked prettier than it did in my old garden! I also met some of my lovely NHS neighbours, who live in the same block of houses as me, including a couple of very sweet looking toddlers, who were intrigued by my garden ornaments. The garden is communal, between the four houses, but only three of us here at the moment.
My TalkTalk Internet service was supposed to go live today – surprise, surprise it didn't! Several phone calls later, I was assured it would be on by the evening...... it wasn't.
I also managed to unpack and arrange the living room in the afternoon to make it look as nice as possible. Stood all my lovely leaving cards from sisters, friends and work colleagues, up on the coffee table. Unboxed some Shetland and Fair Isle books and placed in my parent's wedding present black bookcase and its all looking very homely indeed. Later on, I was so tired, that I slept under a blanket on top of the mattress!
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