Lezanne Kretschmer, Aspida’s recently appointed Head of Company Secretarial Services, shares a personal account and anecdotes of what to expect and what it takes to relocate during a global pandemic.

“We need to intercept the DHL courier!”

We soon realised after numerous calls and emails to the visa centre and consulate to coordinate the (without reason or rationale, very delayed) safe receipt of our passports, whilst faced with the challenges of:

Already having our furniture shipped to Guernsey from Germany;

Already vacated our apartment in Germany (“the visas will be ready in two weeks” – the words of the lovely bureaucrat still rings in my ears);

Temporarily living in Airbnbs and hotels on a week by week basis due to the weekly cancellations of our booked crossing from St Malo to Guernsey on Condor Ferries;

The weekly reorganising of the veterinary paperwork to ensure its validity within the requisite timeline for our pooch to enter Guernsey;

The ever-changing Covid19 travel-, testing- and quarantine requirements landscape of

THREE countries (Germany, France and Guernsey); and
Renting a transporter van in France (PCR tests, declarations, taking the train to Strasbourg France and driving back to Germany, to allow a one-way rental* within France’s borders, since one-way rentals across country borders are non-existent currently) to get the three of us safely to Guernsey (my husband, our furbaby Lilly and myself).

DHL courier successfully intercepted, passports in hand, final rescheduled veterinary paperwork done, checked-out of our final Airbnb and the rental van packed to the brim – here we go!

Auf Wiedersehen Deutschland! Bonjour la France! Banjour Guernsey? Or wait… perhaps instead À la perchoïne Guernsey? …

3 days cross country travel later (taking into consideration the night driving curfews in France) we finally boarded our ferry (scheduled and on-time!) and arrived in Jersey.

Testing done and boarded the new Condor Voyager, we excitedly (and exhaustingly) finally set sail for beautiful Guernsey!

As the beautiful face of St Peter Port emerges in the distance, we feel the lovely fresh sea breeze on our faces, we hear the gulls squawking and we start to feel the magic of the friendly island…. but wait, why are we turning around? Did they forget about us? We have to get off! Wait!

Docking failure due to technical difficulties. Back to Jersey. The Liberation to the rescue? No. The vehicle in front of us is the last one to get a spot aboard. Liberation full. Confined to self-isolating waiting room at the port of Jersey. 8 hours later. The Clipper to the rescue?

It’s night time, it’s raining, testing done, safely arrived at our new home, 14 days of self-isolation here we come. 15 hours later since departing St Malo. Breathe. We made it!

So, what does it take to relocate during a global pandemic?

Grit, tenacity, resilience, advanced planning and project management skills and most importantly a sense of humour!

(*The saga of returning the one-way van rental to St Malo France from Guernsey is a story in itself and perhaps better suited for another day over a coffee… all I can say is: “the adventure continues!”.)

About Lezanne
We are very excited to welcome Lezanne to the Aspida family and to the beautiful island of Guernsey.

Lezanne is an attorney and has more than 15 years’ experience working in company secretarial, corporate governance, private equity, trust and company administration, across multiple jurisdictions. Prior to taking a career break, Lezanne was Company Secretary for PSG Konsult Group in South Africa, a JSE listed financial services group.

Lezanne has a strong work ethic, is dynamic and resilient. She has recently been awarded the STEP Excellence Award for achieving a distinction in the STEP International Certificate in Anti-Money Laundering.

She joins our company ethos with a passion for volunteer work, ranging from animal welfare to elderly care support.

Lezanne will be leading the further development of our company secretarial services and can assist you with company secretarial and board support solutions to best fit the needs of your business.

Lezanne’s vision is to build a first class company secretarial offering, in line with the Aspida values and ethos of partnering with our clients in protecting and growing their business.

The strategy to achieve this vision being a combination of providing a clear, relevant, and top of mind value proposition of services and solutions, backed-up by an experienced and agile team of professionals, utilizing industry leading technological solutions and being a trusted voice in the industry offering robust and innovative solutions. Thereby giving our clients the peace of mind that they are well supported, guided and in good hands to enable them to focus on what they do best and grow their business.

To get in touch with Lezanne, please do not hesitate to send a message to info@aspidagroup.com