Boxes ahoy

When the boxes (all 25 of them I think) were finally packed and sealed and collected in England, I was quite confident that I would never see any of them again. At the time, the air freight was supposed to take about 6 days (therefore arriving at the end of March), while I was advised that the sea freight could take between 8 and 12 weeks, so I could expect it sometime in June. I actually got an email early in April to tell me that the sea freight had taken off (or the nautical equivalent – set sail?) and would be arriving in Shanghai on the 7th May. This took me by surprise, and prompted me to ask the shipping company where my air freight had got to. Numerous emails went backwards and forwards, they had lost the documentation, they had found it, could I confirm this, could I send that – this went on for an unbelievable four weeks, until finally last week I got an email telling me that the plane with our boxes on it would be landing shortly in Hong Kong. Goodness knows what they were doing in Hong Kong. Anyway, I have completely forgotten now what was in any of the boxes – if I could remember, I would probably be quite annoyed that the air freight took 9 weeks (and was actually beaten by the sea freight) when it was supposed to take 6 days. The only things I can recall are a couple of board games and a cake tin. I can only recall these because they're the only things we're missing. We have only one game here - Uno - and believe me, you can only play so many games of Uno.

Luckily, the relocation company has stepped in now, and is sorting it all out (for some extortionate fee). If all goes to plan (and they don’t confiscate all our DVDs – there is a limit on how many can be brought in apparently, although they don’t say what the limit is) all the boxes will be delivered to our door early next week. I’m dreading it – the thought of unpacking 25 boxes – when all I really want is my Scrabble and a tin to make Banana Bread in.