Weeks before Departure
July 2006
The summer holidays start. Daniel is coming back home. His job in Czech Republic is finished and the sun is shining !!!
More or less 5 weeks are remaining to finish the car and 2 months to organize all the other aspects of the trip. We have a heavy agenda. We are even obliged to refuse some invitations...
The children finish the school
year with very good notes and have some difficulties to leave their buddies.
Promised - Sworn : we will make a party with all the friends before
leaving!
Lisa leaves for 10 days with her friends to Virton
She has a lot of fun there.
Our
friends are also preparing their departure : 2 years to the USA with Mathieu, Flo, Elise &
Laszlo, their 4 kids.
Elise & Emma - real models
Mathieu gives his final tricks to Sacha concerning the Pokemon game.
Sacha becomes Albert for 2 days and stays with his Godmother,Pascale and the rest of the Ingalls family...
Emma will also
stay with her Godfather and will play a lot with Margaux.
All of us have had a check-up at the dentist. The vaccines are made for everyone.
We sold our car and Pascal and Eric lent us their cars. Then it was the turn of Papy & Nanny to lend us their car.
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Luka
wants to help his dad all the time. When he does not walk with the saw in hand,
he has his hand in the muffler. It is a bit hard to work and supervise this
small Mister at the same time. He is often climbing at the top of the ladder. He
has also an annoying tendency to empty all the boxes of screws and nails on the
ground...
Sometimes we ask the other kids to supervise him and then he does not
imitate any more his dad but well the 3 others: high heels and jewels like his
sister Emma ...
We spent a WE in France to celebrate Marie & Thomas 's wedding. The girls are proud as they are 'demoiselles d'honneur'.
Some friends announce that they have decided to go for a 3 month trip in Australia with their children Maude, William & Matteo.
We have a
party with our Japanese friends. Our children love to play with Kazu.
We were looking for a nickname for the defender. Our children have found it quickly : KAZU.
On the pic, Kazu carries Luka on his arms. Beside him, Jerry & Kiyoka.
The evening before, Sévérine, Laetitia, Michel & David joined us for a BBQ.
Preparation
to empty the house is ongoing.
Material and clothes, to be taken with us in our bags, are ready too.
We end the preparation for the stock of medicines ... Daniel considers that we take too many medicines with us ...
Catherine
organises the last 'women restaurant party' before departure' with her friends
from university .
We receive the 'carnet de passage' for the vehicle. Passports for the children are ready too.
August 2006
The weather has changed! It rains and it is cold which is not the best weather to continue the preparation of the car. ...
Bernard
et Steph give us a training about Medical first aid in case of ...
Emma receives from Nanny & Papy her first school pack a little bit earlier than normal. She should have received it the 1st of September.
Daniel
installs brand new tyres all terrain on the land rover.
Mr Pairoux gives to Daniel a deep training about how to repair the tyres in all conditions.
We start using SKYPE with Cécile, Catherine's father & our friends in the USA.
Important Milestone : the loading of KAZU in the container
The car has to be at the Port of Antwerp on Wednesday 9th of august, at 8 am.
Final work on the car is done on Tuesday morning. Daniel buys the missing repairing parts in the afternoon, while Catherine picks up the stickers for the car decoration.
Loading of the car starts in
the evening, the kids have already left and are by Nanny & Papy... There is
still free space in the car and we think that we have forgotten something... The
trailer however is full. Daniel knows already that during our first stop in
Argentina, we will take some jerry-cans outside the trailer ...
We go to bed at 2 a.m, just after having finished the bill of loading for the customs.
Wake-up at 6 a.m. We are excited. We've been told that the loading in the port is a mess. We shall see very soon.
According
to our forecast, we will be obliged to empty the roof rack in order to be able to
go inside the container. We expect to lose time and to create a bit of mess in
the port.
When we arrive, the welcome is perfect, everything is ready and on top K+N booked a high cube container with extra space in height for us. It is fantastic and the loading takes less than 1 hour. Yeap !
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We visit Kühne + Nagel to give a copy of all documents for the car, the bill of loading, the 'carnet de passage', the declaration of values and a key.
The container will be shipped on the Monte Sarmiento. It is a German container carrier which travels from Hamburg to Buenos-Aires.
The forecasted date for the departure from Antwerp is the 16th of August. The expected date of arrival in Buenos-Aires is the 2nd of September. We will be in Buenos Aires the 1st of September in the evening...
In only 3 weeks we'll start our expedition !
Kids are just coming back from Liège, where they bought books for the trip with their Dad.
Emma makes her last check-up with her prefered cardiologist, Dr. Massin. Luka gets his last vaccines from his paediatrician, Dr. Heinrichs.
David and Hélène invite us for a great dinner at home...it was excellent !
Catherine organizes a WORLD TOUR for the school friends. Great success. Thanks Anne Cri for the idea ! And thanks to Nany, Anne-Marie, Annick, Nicole, Lucette, Ingrid, Mariana, Margaux and her friends for your help.
During
the emptying of the house, Catherine sprains her foot... . Not really the right
time...
Since
then, Catherine wears a slipper all day long. Nice look...
Kazu comes to visit us with his family. The program : Fun fair in the village, restaurant in Liège, Japanese games, tennis with Leo, a great player etc
Wardrobes are getting empty...strange fealing ...
Just 2 days before we leave, we organize a big party with the family and the friends...Everybody is in a good mood and the next day we discover the barn full of empty bottles...this must be one of the reasons why we had so much fun !
Kids also have fun...
In
the evening, Uncle Walter and Catherine's family sing a song, specially
created for us !
Thanks to all of you for your good mood. We will not forget you !
