well, we made it.
to anyone I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to properly, I’m very sorry. one of our plan B’s in case I wasn’t feeling up to dealing with the move was for me to stay in west cork with tom’s dad. when it came down to it I was ok with packing clothes & books into boxes, but the thought of standing around with beatrice in my arms while the movers wrapped up the furniture was just too much for me, so I escaped out to andy’s from monday night until we left at the crack of dawn on thursday morning.
at 6:15am thursday morning, while shoving the last few bits of laundry and our toothbrushes into the bags, we discovered that louis had dissapeared. tom and andy set out with the box of cat treats in hand to try and capture him, while I changed a dirty diaper and contemplated the possiblity of having to leave louis behind. andy had been giving us a hard time about moving an ordinary “clonakilty cat” across the atlantic, but I think that really he was just sad to see him go and would have really liked to have louis around his place to catch mice and perch on the porch. tom spotted louis and with a shake of the cat treats he was captured once again and we were ready to go. at 6:40am we packed up the car with our 4 large bags, beatrice in her carseat, louis in his case and the stroller wheels on top of it all, and we started up the road to shannon. louis starting mewing immediately, and then pooed in his box within the first half hour or so. I was starting to seriously doubt my decision to bring him at this stage, since he sounded SO miserable and it was only just the beginning of our journey.
the airport experiences were smooth for the most part, despite the delays involved in importing a cat and having to get a work visa issued. we arrived at each gate just as the plane was being boarded, no earlier and no later, which is cutting it a bit close but we were never too close to make it. beatrice was an absolute star the entire time, sleeping through every take off and landing. air hostesses and fellow passengers alike stopped by to coo and exclaim, “what a quiet baby! how old is she?” everyone wants to stop and look at the baby, and it really is a good way to meet people. feeding in public spaces wasn’t as embarrassing as I had feared, thanks to a tip from jane – wear a cardigan! I still had to change my clothes once after a milk leakage early on, and beatrice had two changes of clothes after poo blowouts, but we still arrived in vancouver clean and dry so I’m calling it a success anyway.
18 hours later we got into a cab and started driving to our accomodation. this is the only time in my life I’ve moved back to a city that I used to live in before, and it’s been interesting to see what things I recognize and what has changed. some things, like the lights on the north shore mountains, seem eternal. like a constellation that hangs only in the sky above vancouver. other things, like streets full of boutiques, are totally different. yesterday, trying to keep ourselves busy in order to get over jet lag as quickly as possible, we went walking through stanley park. there is a statue on a rock beside the sea wall, and I remarked to tom that the mermaid statue was still there. when we got up close enough to see her and read the plaque, it turned out that she was actually just a girl in a wetsuit. we remember what we want to remember, I think.
anyway, like my experience of labour and delivery, our experience so far of moving has been that it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. beatrice did not cry the entire way. louis did not die of a heart attack in the airplane or jump out the window of the apartment immediately. he did try to crawl in a tiny hole beside the dishwasher, but he hasn’t tried to do it since. nobody asked me to stop breastfeeding. and yesterday was REALLY tough (my own jet lag plus a wakeful baby who has slept on the plane for several hours is a bad combination) but we got through it without hurting each other and I feel like a new woman after a good night’s sleep.
I know there will still be difficulties ahead. while we were walking around yesterday it really felt like we were on vacation. i kept saying, “we live here!” I remember feeling like that when we arrived in cork, and it took about two weeks for that feeling to go away and when it did it was replaced by an empty feeling that took much longer to pass. but I know to expect it now, and I’m hopeful that it won’t take as long for me to make some friends this time around. we actually met a couple with a baby at the sushi place last night, who had the same stroller as us, and parted ways after exchanging emails.
So, in summary: we went through the hole and came out the other side, everyone survivied the journey in one piece and life in vancouver looks hopeful!

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