One if by land, two if by sea

I guess that should be one if by air, and no doubt it would have been if they had planes back in Paul Revere's time.

It took me the better part of a day (not counting the past month's worth of enquiries to freight forwarders), multiple phone calls and emails, constant consultations of the calendar, and then a few more phone calls.

But it's done:  we've got air and sea freight locked down and scheduled.

Here's how it all works:

Air freight:

We, essentially, do nothing.  (I love this part)  A fella comes 'round to our house, looks at the stuff we're sending via air, confirms it will not exceed the maximum weight/volume, and then sends a band of little men around the following week to pack it up and take it away.  About two weeks later it magically arrives at our villa in Abu Dhabi.

Sea freight:

We do pretty much everything.  Pack up the boxes.  Hire a local removals company to be here when the container arrives.  Inventory everything that goes in the container, seal it up.  Ten days later it sets sail for the UAE, with an estimated transit time of TWENTY SIX days (Ben Hur wasn't available for the rowing crew), passing through the pirate-infested waters around Somalia:

A week or so after arrival in Abu Dhabi, and maybe, just maybe, without some hot-headed bureaucrat deciding to rifle through everything we own looking for porn, we'll have the fun of unloading the container and setting up house.

That is, yours truly will be setting up house while Mr. World Traveller heads over to the states to renew his driver's license.

I hope he has to fly economy.