There is a line in any Lonely Planet book that warns you to lay out your clothes before you leave, look at them and then put half of them away again. For anyone travelling and lifting their own bags, this is sage advice. While it may seem unnecessarily minimalist, a week or two of slugging a portly bag is apt to convert you.

In light of that it must be remembered that we are not holiday makers coming for a week or two. We had spent a considerable amount of time trying to devise the least amount of clothes for the move. We tried to carry as little as possible and make it as versatile as possible. In a way that is what we accomplished, but still ended up taking rather a lot of stuff. In all, seventy-six kilos of stuff. If you are filling out your scorecard, that is 167 pounds of clothing. I foresee a new requirement for those intrepid enough to visit. They will be required to mule some of our excess stuff back to Canada.

For a moment, put eighty-five pounds in perspective. That is like dragging around a fourth-grader. Not that I advocate dragging any school children about. Bear in mind also that it wasn’t just a quick lift in the airport and a push in the cart. We had to get these boulders across London when we got there.

We checked in with the nice people at MyTravel airways and found out what we suspected. Our cases were overweight. Way overweight. Way, way overweight. In all, we were sixteen kilos over the limit! At a penalty of $16.00 per kilo, that worked out to a hefty tariff. The counterman was good enough to reduce the penalty to $160.00. We do not travel light it seems. On the other hand, in the realm of moving, we do move light.

Despite having to labour under the added bulk of our belongings, the plane managed to groan into the air. Our flight was perhaps the smoothest one that I have ever been on. There was what amounted to no turbulence. Really. None. Smooth as glass. Jo and I sat in first –class and enjoyed the nice meal, bar service and T.V. The upgrade to first-class was worth it in just the added legroom alone. There must have been a favourable wind because we arrived at 4:30am, which was about half an hour prior to schedule.

So, a little bleary-eyed and worse for wear we were on the ground in our new home. It is tempting to say “The adventure begins here”. But that would not be accurate in light of all the work that went into getting to where we were. It could be fair to say, however, that at this point, the heavy lifting begins. Watch this space and follow as we traverse The Capital.