How to Move

Elevators in apartment buildings here are generally really compact — 4 people maximum and maybe a bag of groceries. Definitely not designed for moving furniture. We got a front row seat of the apartment building across the way … one couple were moving from their 9th floor apartment on one side to a 10th floor one, slightly over. First you hire TWO trucks with extendable ladders which can reach the tenth floor, but they have to be nimble enough to squeeze through the security gates, past a line of scooters, miss the trees and potted shrubs in the courtyard and position themselves directly under the appropriate balconies. Stabilizer legs were deployed, ladders extended, then retracted (wrong position) … one team member on each balcony directing …. truck driver below operating the ladder mechanism … and of course the home owner chipping in his (or her) two pennyworth. There was a lot of shouting (despite the cell phones) hand waving and pauses for discussion … all with cigarette lodged firmly in corner of the mouth. A trial run with wheeled basket … up and down. Then with sides down, creating a flat platform. I counted about 9 people involved … the two truck drivers, two workers on the ground moving stuff, four more up on the balconies loading … and one PR guy who supervised the front doors … kept the tenants up to date on what was happening … chatted with delivery persons, mail man, old dears heading off shopping, etc.

Once in place, the operation was pretty slick. Boxes, chairs, suitcases, household goods, furniture, blankets, potted plants were all loaded onto the wheeled platform … nothing was secured or strapped on, no hard hats worn. Down the platform would hurtle at great speed … wobbling precariously … stuff rapidly transferred over to the second platform … whereupon it would zoom up at break-neck speed to the next apartment. We hung out the window thoroughly enjoying the show…. and speculating on the probable cost involved. Can’t have been cheap.