Our move from Singapore to LA

I know you’re curious. How did three adults, a cat and an eight week old baby do on this 24 hour odyssey? Overall I’m going to say, it went well. Here’s the story as I remember it in my jetlagged state.

Three packers from Altair Global came on May 6^th and spent 7 hours in our place meticulously making custom boxes to fit all the furniture and bubble wrapping delicate things. The din of all that packing tape was deafening and to add to that our neighbours were jackhammering at the same time. Austen loved it. Our helper arrived in the afternoon to clean and by dinner time all the big stuff was done. To celebrate we headed down to My Thai in Holland Village to spend one last night in our hood.

The next day the 20’ container arrived to take our boxes away. The landlord and agent came by to take the keys and officially transfer the remaining year and a half of our lease to our friend, Stefan. We were extremely lucky to have a really nice landlord and a good friend who was willing to move at just the right time to help up out.

Our final night was spent staying with friends and having a BBQ in the humidity we’d soon find hard to be able to comprehend. 

The travel day began at 1:45am. We left for the airport at 2:15 and were at the check-in desk at 3am. Here we are with three baggage carts, the baby in the stroller and Kopi-o in a carrier at my feet.

Even after checking our bags we still had four pieces of carry-on luggage, the stroller and the cat carrier. Walking through the airports was a gongshow. Kopi-o and Austen were quiet and well behaved except for one time that Austen decided in the middle of the Narita airport that he needed to eat RIGHT NOW and made a wail that pretty much confirmed to passersby that we were actually torturing him. 

Kopi-o at my feet

Austen in his carseat on the plane

Between feeding and changing Austen we also had to try to get Kopi-o to eat and use the litter. We did this by taking him in his carrier into various bathrooms and producing a small tray of his litter and a little travel bowl of food. The whole way there he refused to pee and only ate one bite of his food. It was very frustrating but I can’t say we didn’t try. I think he fared ok though. He never panicked and was very happy when a hand came into his carrier to cuddle up to.

One really funny difference I noted passing from Asia into America is that in Asia people think pets are icky and are all goo-goo eyed over the baby. In the US people think babies are icky and are goo-goo eyed over the cat. Kopi-o is now the number one most celebrated member of our travel party.

So we finally landed in LA and cleared customs. Our first stop was for coffee and then burritos before checking into our serviced apartment. Everyone crashed for five hours while Kopi-o conducted a thorough parameter sweep. After a late dinner out we are now stretched out on the bed playing white noise because it’s too quiet to sleep. We’re also freezing! I somehow never got a chance to finish pulling my winter clothes out to pack so all I have are a few silk sundresses and one thin sweater and it’s 16 degrees at night! Good thing we’ve got plenty of duvets to huddle under tonight. 

That's all for now. We're going to attempt to sleep again and will update the blog as we settle in this new home.