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June 17, 2006
Florida vs New York
Weeks ago, having finally "settled" in our 450 square foot apartment, with a kitchen half the size of the one on Platina, we decided to have our personal things delivered from storage in Florida.
Now, "settled" is a relative term. We felt more "settled" on Platina, even though we rarely stayed in the same place for more than a week. Here, while we have stuffed the luggage into the corner of a closet, we have 3 books and a stack of newspapers. Not our usual collection of stuff.
Packing it all up in Fort Lauderdale seems like yesterday. We had used the forward cabin to consolidate and pack, realizing only as the truck was pulling up to the top of the dock to take our things away, that the biggest of the boxes were not going to make it through the doorway, nor the hatch above our heads. An emergency repack solved the problem, and with seconds to spare, the movers arrived and took our things away.
The logistics had been challenging. How many times does a mover get a request to move from a boat, to storage, then sometime in the future, to New York.
I am happy to report that Florida was a cinch by comparison. Despite calling several weeks ago, the movers hummed and hawed and pardoned themselves for having issues with delivering anything bigger than a chick pea into the guts of Manhattan. I made it easy on them - how about early Saturday morning. No traffic, easy place to find. No problem.
Chis and I woke early this morning, had a bit of breakfast and 10 minutes with the New York Times, then hoofed it down 6th Avenue to 23rd Street and the West Side Highway (about a 5 block walk from our the apartment we move to in September). We arrived 5 minutes late, and no sooner the dispatcher called to say that the chick pea would arrive late. Flat tire on Statten Island. Oh, great.
We killed time, went to Balducci's Food Market, wandered past our new apartment, and back to the storage place where we were due to meet them. We waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, at about 11:30 they arrived. Good thing I speak a little Spanish. Welcome to New York. Welcome to the USA.
At last, we have our stuff. 16 boxes went into storage, and little came out in a napsack, plastic bag, shopping buggy and our DVD case. The rest will stay in storage until the final move in September.
Shopping buggy, you ask? A gift from the manufacturers of our darling Platina. What, did they think we were ancient with blue hair? Well, we used it a few times while we were on the boat, but in New York City? Well, when one lives in this density, one does not hop in the car to drive to Loblaws to pick up a week's worth of groceries. It's suicide to drive in this city (see previous entries describing the food chain on the streets of Manhattan). It's a more European approach - shop fresh, shop daily. Because that's all that you can carry. So the shopping buggy survived the post-Platina purge.
We are excited for several wonderful little things: (i) our Chinese cast-iron teapot, (ii) my collection of tiny Chinese bowls and dishes, (iii) Chis has his wide-screen laptop again (I miss him already), (iv) the duvet, and (v) my chef's knife.
And our little treasure. All the way from La Rochelle, France. 8 (now 7) crystal glasses that are stemless and shaped like tulips. We have enjoyed these along our journey, and are now amongst our most well-travelled treasures. Amazing that we lost 1 glass on the back of a tractor-trailer truck between Fort Lauderdale and New York, but 10,500 miles at sea and not even a scratch.
Posted by dave at June 17, 2006 07:28 PM