Have We forgotten Anything? Forums

JackieO

OK - so we're off in 4 days and just want to make sure we haven't forgotten anything. Friends family and acquaintances say we must be, "Ever so excited", when in fact, all we seem to want to do is go to sleep.

Funny that.

Anyway - here's what we've done and we’d appreciate any comments or suggestions of things we may have forgotten:

saved like mad for two years,

put in our notice and left work,

joined Caravan Club and Motorhome Forums ☺

planned (sort of) a kind of a route of where we would go,

got the house in order, inside and out, ready to rent,

emptied attic of number one son’s belongings

fill attic with number one son’s belonging’s when he got chucked out of his flat

emptied attic of number ones son’s belongings once he got another flat,

bought a van on Ebay, travelled over to England to get it and brought it back,

translated manual from German to English (eventually)

put it through Manx test, (failed)

sourced and fitted 'essential' parts,

organised full service,

put it through Manx test, (passed)

taxed and insured it for IoM,

bought Manx number plates and fitted them,

stocked it up (items too numerous to mention but included essentials such as 2 day-glo jackets, red warning triangle, fire extinguisher, 2 sets of snorkels, fins, and a corkscrew),

got pet passport in order,

got rabies and annual injections for dog, Milbemax, Advantix, frontline for dog and cat for 12 months

found home for cat (2 times)

found homes for tropical fish, emptied and stored tank and equipment

rented house (3 times)

began packing all unessential items

carried 1000's of boxes up 3 flights of stairs to attic,

transferred our entire CD collection to Mp3 and laptop and ipod – ditto photographs,

bought GPS system and spent every night for 3 months in the living room planning routes from our house to everywhere in the world,

got cars serviced, cleaned and ready to store,

found storage for cars,

found storage for Commer,

researched and bought 2 pedal assisted bikes for trip,

bought and fitted basket to carry dog on bike,

organised European insurance for van,

and breakdown cover,

and health insurance,

and pet insurance

and house insurance for property owners wishing to let,

cancelled car insurance x 2 and Commer insurance,

saw advocate to arrange wills x2 and lease for house rental,

completed income tax returns x2 and informed tax office of changes to circumstances,

set up internet banking,

paid rates,

cancelled, TV licence, and direct debits for Sky, telephone, broadband, electricity, coal, and oil,

arranged redirection of mail,

photocopied all documents for travel,

saw GP and got prescriptions to see us through the year,

saw practice nurse and got inoculations for hepatitis A, typhoid and tetanus boosters,

saw dentist for checkups,

booked boat off Island,

booked campsite in Scotland,

booked campsite in England,

booked Gaslow conversion in England

booked boat to Holland,

cleaned and polished van inside and out,

painted postcode on roof of van in-case we are gassed in our beds and taken to Mexico

packed van,

Printed off MHF Pennant so everyone knows we're part of something very special! (decided against the yellow marigold and leek)

unpacked van and chucked out stuff we didn’t need.

So now all we have to do is finish packing the everyday stuff, clean the house from top to bottom and put our clothes in the van…

Anything else? ☺

chapter

check your passport and get a good road atlas and the most important thing of all to take is a sense of humour

johnandcharlie

It looks like I've got 3 weeks to go, I haven't got a lot of the things on that list done, and I haven't got the option of stuffing everything in the loft as I'm selling the house. AAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Rapide561

Hi

The best advice I received was along the lines of

"make sure you have all your correct paperwork. Most other things can be bought en route". How very true this is

Set up an I.C.E. pack though. ICE means in case of emergency. In the pack you need a photocopy of the log book, tax disc, insurance, travel insurance, passport, pet passport etc etc. Leave a copy with two different people in the UK and take a further two ICE packs with you. I found I need a copy of a passport for many things and it was so easy to just "say heres one I prepared earlier".

The ICE packs in the UK are essential if anything goes badly wrong - hopefully you will not need them - but for the sake of a couple of pounds at the photocopier, it is well worth it.

Russell

Drummer

I got out of breath just reading that list!

Enjoy & stay in touch Cool

baldlygo

Oldskool

Don't forget the teabags Wink

JackieO

johnandcharlie

Just come across this -