Baggage survey from Kyiv at last!

[Stravaig]

We were evac'd from Kyiv in January. Pickfords are contracted (by the employer) to send us our belongings. We've been chasing them for months. It's now December! I don't want to live indefinitely without what I consider to be essential kitchen kit - you know, stuff like plates and mugs, etc, plus some appliances. Their agent seems to be a bit feeble-minded. He keeps turning up at our Kyiv flat unexpectedly (at least three times) and then expressing bewilderment that there's no one there to let him in.

But now perhaps we are a step forward. We have the results of his "survey". Bathroom1 appears to contain all kinds of unexpected things. We never used bathroom 1 - it had a badly wired jacuzzi which we didn't consider safe to use.

Bathroom 1 apparently has bath items and a food processor among other oddities. Then there are heaps of things we don't even know what they are.What is the frigale in David's home office? Why might we want to ship an office shelf? My home office apparently contains dresses and dishes.
Eventually David (husband) figured out that bathroom 1 in the survey is actually the kitchen. I've heard that sometimes people might pee in the sink but to mistake a fully kitted out kitchen as a bathroom...? Huh?


If this was a third world country where the people lacked education this would be quite understandable, but even lowly workmen in Ukraine are usually well-enough educated and generally speak reasonable English. So I've no idea how come Pickfords has hired this guy as their agent.

Oh well, maybe we'll be reunited with some of our belongings soon.

[oldherbaceous]

These things are sent here to test us, Stravaig, and test us they certainly do….very frustrating for you.

Not deliberately going off subject but, I was just wondering how long some people have been in the same house?
We have lived in the same cottage for 35 years….quite unbelievable!

[Geoff]

We bought our barn in late 1984 and moved in, albeit far from finished, in July 1985 so we just beat you there. We have heard our son telling people he was brought up on a building site.

[Westi]

35 yrs for us as well. Mind we just moved up the road 4 houses & had been in the other one about 5yrs previously but out grew it. The owners were looking for a private sale & over the fence chats alerted us & they accepted our offer as we already had the mortgage in place & were looking. We were elated to stay in the close & most of the neighbours have lived here for decades as well.

[Clive.]

59 years in this house give or take an occasional venture away....suspect that's why I'm surround by accumulated "junk" ...well, maybe why..

C.

[Primrose]

We,re a steady lot on here! A modest 45 years here by comparison. House was a new build, built on the plot of a big back garden.

Part of our proposed lawn area, unknown by us at the time, was the site of the previous owner,s semi underground concrete air raid shelter. We could never figure out why that part of our subsequent lawn kept flooding until we subsequently dug deep down and found its semi concrete roof, Builders had just covered it over with topsoil!

[retropants]

25 years for me! I can't quite believe it!

[Stephen]

While I can't match the stability shown by others here, I have lived in just two properties since 1981. My parents had just one house from 1955 to 1999.

I think these habits are bred into us, either staying put or peripatetic.

[Stravaig]

Now I seem to have developed a nervous tic in my left eye. Dunno if it's directly related to this. The Pickfords guy in Kyiv has now come back late Friday to say he'll be there first thing Monday. Doesn't the idiot realise there are other people to be consulted?

The embassy has said they can do it, (thank heavens that they're being so kind) so we will co-operate too. I think we all just want to see the back of this guy. And. It would be nice to have some of our possessions back after it's taken him almost a year to organise it.

Gee, I would happily shoot that guy. I NEVER SAID THAT!

[Primrose]

I guess you just have to be grateful Stravaig there,s a chance of getting your stuff back again and that somebody is prepared to do the job. Most people would turn down a small fortune just to not have to be anywhere near Kyiv at the moment!

[robo]

March 1971 we got married and two weeks later moved into our new house ,my mate in his small redifusion 5 cwt van moved all the stuff we had ,the stair carpet was fitted and held in place with 60 mm oval nails I put the bedroom curtains up on a half inch rope and the same nails I won’t go into the rest as it gets worse I’m still in the same house can’t see any point in moving

[Primrose]

Robo. It,s amazing how little we all managed with in those days isn t it, and yet still managed to live happy lives. I do sometimes think the"consumer revolution" has sometimes drastically skewed some of iur values. The time/energy saving devices have obviously drastically improved our lives but there's an awful lot of "consumer tatt" out there which is of rather dubious value.

[Diarmuid]

I remember saving up for ages to buy our first fridge,an Indesit. The cheapest you could get. It was ok though. I brought it home in our Ford Pop.

[Stravaig]

Primrose - I don't think you have any understanding of what it's like.

I've lived in several war zones (four? five? dunno, I've lost count). I'd willingly go back for a few days to get this sorted out but I'm not allowed to. So, no, I'm not particularly grateful to a guy who's taken nearly a year to do next to nothing even when the city was not under attack.

Some of the older guys here will have done National Service or maybe even have been regular soldiers. Anyone who has lived through war will know that apart from the sh!t food and living conditions it's 95% boredom and 5% terror.

If you've not been through that yourself, you don't know what it's like.

[Stravaig]

OK, our Kyiv stuff is now in the UK. But we weren't told it was being shipped and thus had no opportunity to insure it. And it was such a hazardous journey. (This whole fiasco beggars belief.) Gee, it's hard to imagine worse service. Anyway, apparently our shipment consists of about two dozen boxes of "kitchenware", goodness knows how many boxes of "papers", among other things such as "box" and "shelf".

I don't expect to have every teaspoon itemised but it would have been useful for some sub-categories, eg cutlery, crockery, pots and pans, etc. As it is we have a load of mystery boxes from a big household and we don't know what the heck is in them. That's going to make for some fun and games after they've delivered (to our self-storage place) next week. We will have to unpack and inspect every box (about 200).

And apparently the packers just helped themselves to anything that couldn't be shipped, eg the contents of our drinks cabinet. We'd have preferred to give that to our colleagues and hope that they could maybe raise something for Ukrainian charities. I think it's theft to take our stuff in that way and if that is indeed what happened I'll be furious!!! And take a typical accountant's revenge and invoice them.