By now, I have quite possibly finished climbing the highest mountain in Wales – almost certainly in the pouring rain. A saner person would have been at his desk with a cup of tea and a thesis draft progressing. An even saner person would have finished the draft before leaving…
One thing I have been pondering lately is the logistics of moving on from here. I arrived in Oxford with a big suitcase, a backpack, and a suit bag. Heavily laden, I made my way in the rain from the train station to Wadham. While here, I have picked up about thirty books. I also have about ten binders and a box of hanging files, mostly related to the thesis. If I am going to do another research degree in the future, I am probably going to want this stuff. Not bringing my environment related books here was a mistake I have regretted many times.
The most sensible option would seem to be putting the books and binders into one or more big boxes, wrapping the file box, and sending the whole collection back to Canada by the slowest and cheapest form of mail possible. Given that I will be working, rather than going to school, I won’t need it urgently.
Has anyone undertaken such shipping? How much can I expect to pay, either by weight or by size? Is there a better option than the normal mail service?
We looked into this too, since the luggage allowance has been reduced dramatically since we moved to Scotland (32 kg to 23 kg – a difference of 20 lbs x 2 bags = 40 lbs of stuff we’ll have to ship or dump!)
We found a couple of options with Mailboxes Etc. – a bit cheaper than Royal Mail, they try to get you the best quote possible with various courier companies. Still, the best we found was at least 100 pounds per box, and it would take up to 90 days to arrive.
Let me know if you find anything better.
It depends on your airline, but flying here BA let me take an extra 23kg bag for $120… which it much less than the airmail shipping costs for this weight. It may be worth distributing the heavy stuff among a number of bags and paying for the extra weight.
Please use a picture of Wales for this when you come back instead.
That is really expensive… I will need to give this more thought.
A.
As you have commanded, so it has been done.
Thanks. I liked the black and white best of the shots of you but this is good too (and your hat doesn’t seem to be trying to stray).
one or two hundred dollars, in the swing of things, is not much money. I’ve made over 300$ already this week, and it’s wensday, and I had tuesday off.
Some shipping options Bryony sent me:
Sevenseas Worldwide
Hythe Road
Smeeth
Ashford, Kent TN25 6SP
Tel. 0800 21 66 98 (Freephone)
http://www.sevenseasworldwide.com
SandrAir International Ltd
They have offices in Oxford, London, Swansea,
Bristol and Heathrow.
Tel. 0207 928 9080 (London office)
http://www.sandrair.com
Global 360
Unit A, Newman Court
Downs Road
Witney
Oxon OX8 5LY
Tel. 01993 700111
http://www.globalthreesixty.co.uk
Allfreight International Ltd
Unit 3, Hamm Moor Lane
Weybridge Business Park
Addlestone
Surrey KT15 2SD
Tel. 01932 853344
http://www.allfreight.co.uk
Excess Baggage Company
They have offices nationwide, including London,
Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester.
Tel. 0800 783 1085 (Freephone)
http://www.excess-baggage.com