Ohhhh yes. This all takes me back to 18 months ago when we moved from the UK to the US, and had a similar winnowing out of the crap we’d accumulated living in the same flat for 10 years. Except we ran out of time for the winnowing, so a bunch of stuff got packed up by the movers which we then threw away as soon as we unpacked it. The very best example of which was a collection of plastic carrier bags which had been lovingly wrapped in paper to protect them during the journey. And a lot of stuff still remains in boxes in the basement, over a year after it was actually delivered to us in our new house.
By some other strange coincidence, I also have an identical pig-footstool, though my movers were not as imaginative/humane when they wrapped it.
Good luck with your move, and enjoy the consumer electronics buying frenzy that you will of course have to indulge in now that all your UK stuff won’t work any more!
Ian Thomas

Good luck with the move, Danny, and welcome back. I always enjoy reading your work (met you when I spoke at SES in Chicago last December) but haven’t kept in touch as I had hoped. Hope your family has a smooth transition, kids especially, and it is amazing to see how resilient they are in a simplified lifestyle. I know all about the numerous toys that they never seem to play with – they always seem like a good idea at the time of purchase!
Best,
Joe

Hi Danny-
Best wishes for the LONG move. Now I am feeling really guilty for not visiting you, Lorna, and the boys while I was in the UK. I had many opportunities, though I did try.
Of course, you are always welcome in my home, whenever you are out here.
Good luck with SMX. I’m plugging away on book #3…proposal due tomorrow.
Shari