stressssss

Yep, it's building all right. I keep telling myself that in a couple of months it will all be worth it - and it will, but in the meantime the cortisol levels must be through the roof.

We are busy making sure that we have all of the paperwork for our residence payment. It include the usual documents: birth and marriage certificates, passport photos,insurance/liability insurance/work contract etc. It will be a bit odd to be seen as an 'Auslander' I am sure, but no doubt we will be able to get over that ;0)

The lease on our home is near completion. When that is done we will be asking the relocation agent to deal with the utilities - thank goodness for someone who knows how it is all done. The 6th of December sees the removal company coming to do a visual estimate - that's only 1 week today. The house pendulums from scarily tidy to looking like it has been burgaled - at the moment it is somewhere inbetween, since we seem to have several EU laundry mountains taking over the home. When I finish this post I'll be strapping on the the crampons and taking up the ice axe to do battle.

Next steps

We will be in Zurich this weekend to complete the formalities on our house rental. I confess to another sad cat-related moment yesterday - I was just thinking about 'phoning my mum to discuss pet arrangements when she house-sits this weekend when it dawned on me that she wouldn't have to worry about the cats.....the cats are thriving in their new home, but we are still trying to get over having to re-home them...

So I guess this is something to point out to would-be immigrants to Switzerland - make sure that when you and a landlord are speaking about pets that you make sure they now the type and number. For example, 'pets allowed' may mean one house cat. And remember, the rabies vaccine may not be effective in your pet first go round

As well as signing the lease, we need to arrange liability insurance for the preperty. I am assuming that we will need to arrange our contents insurance at the same time - thankfully our relocation agent will be able to help.

We are also going to begin the process of aquiring a
General Abonnement Card. although this may well have to wait until we are actually resident in January. Although the card seems expensive -about £100 a month per person, I believe - we will be making extensive use of the public transport system. To put it in perspective, to travel the short distance from where we live into the centre of Glasgow only cots about £60 a month.....

This weekend Number Guy did a splendid job organising the current house. We aim to have sorted the wheat from the chaff before the removers come to do an estimate. (I still can't believe it is going to take 3 days to pack this house up - yikes!)My plan is to keep the momentum going and throw out as much rubbish as I can - honestly, while I will never be able to live in a minimalist environment, I'll be making darn sure I don't buy any of this c*** again.

Having said that, they do have rather pretty toasters in Zurich....

Date set

Tickets booked....ulp.

have tried to throw out more rubbish today - trouble is, when I went into one of the rooms to chek out what I could binm all of it seems important....yikes.

Signing in the dotted line...

...next in a long list of things which are making the move more and more of a reality (I'd've thought Number Guy and I resigning might have been a major clue, but strangely not...).

It was a bit 'scary' signing the lease - the fact that it was in German didn't help. Fortunately one of Number Guy's colleagues was able to translate.

As someone who has very noisy neighbours in the past I like the way the Swiss don't beat around the bush - there are very strict rules about noise curfews, including 'no extensive use of water between 10.00pm and 6.00am.' Translated as - we can flush the toilet but not have bath/shower between those times. The hours for housework are also strictly regulated, with no noisy work during the noise curfew which includes lunchtime (12.00 - 1.30pm) and all day Sunday. Some people might find this too restrictive but we are quite happy about it - our only concern is that we accidentally do something which annoys our neighbours.

More official 'stuff' is looming, including registering with the police/local authorities when we finally move. So now we have to double check that we really do still have copies of birth/marriage certificates etc. Don't want to find that we need to get a copy a week before we leave.

Heartache

It doesn't matter how much I tell myself that there are far worse things in life than re-homing one's pets to kind loving homes, I am heart-achingly sad. I made the final arrangements yesterday and by this time next week we will be a petless household.

I would never compare 'losing' a pet to that of a relative, yet this is in fact a mini bereavement. While I tell myself that I am completely daft and need to get my priorities sorted out, there is a heaviness in my soul...

On the positive side, we will be signing our rental contract today. We may have another visit to Zürich before the end of the year - if this is the case it will give us a better idea of what to take - if we don't, well, I am sure we will take all the wrong things but as long as I take my knitting all will be well.

Entry the first

For some unexplicable reason I have decided to separate my move to Zurich from my main blog Twelfthknit. As to how I will manage blog posting when I actually get to Zürich, who knows?

So, to bring things up-to-date.... Number Guy has a fabulous new job in Zurich. I am a teacher of children ages 3 - 12 years old. The post that I have just given up was that of a nursery teacher, working with the 3 - 5 year old age range. When I get to Zurich I am
not going to work :0))) Instead I am going to concentrate on learning the languages of Zürich, travelling, crafting and just generally enjoying life in a new country.

The sad part for us is that our 3 cats can't come - we were all set up, they'd had rabies vaccinations etc but it just hasn't worked. They go to some great new homes over the next week or two....

Preparations:

Currently in the middle of organising health care - it's a little different to the UK. Everyone has to have a basic insurance policy of CHF150 per month. This, as far as I understand, gives one access to the equivalent of the British GP-based system. You pay the costs of care up front and claim at the end of the year when 90% of the cists are reimbursed. Now, despite the best efforts of a Swiss blogger called Sylvie, I am still a little unclear - I think it is 10% of all costs that the individual bears, not only prescriptions.

I have had some recommendations about doctors and I am also awaiting information from the British Consulate about English speaking doctors.


Someone from the removal firm is coming at the beginning of December to estimate our load - don't know what she'll think when she sees my yarn stash.....I am trying to organise this over the next few days...it's a daunting task.

We have found somewhere to live and are currently just waiting to complete the paperwork.

And that, I think, is enough for now. I will try to make the posts at least vaguely interesting, but am not making any promises ;0)