Leaving

Everything's a bit strange at the moment, I'm a sort of last hurrah round my family and friends. I've been up north to see my aunt, uncle and cousin and my best friend in Leeds. As I write this I'm at my brothers house taking as many photos of my sister-in-law and nephew (the wee cutie aka the wee stropmeister today) as I can and unfortunately I've got to go to a funeral on Monday but it does mean I'll get to see a whole load of the rest of my family which will be lovely. It hasn't really sunk in that I'm actually leaving. Next week.

News

I GOT IT!* WOOOO! *Pending official confirmation of course, she only told me over the phone, but I don't care!

Someone is out to get me

Seriously, I swear they are. There was a recent light at the end of the tunnel and, although it's a little early to confirm, I'm certain it's an oncoming train. I had, from when I applied for my visa, 49 days in which to supply them with extra information, at the end of which time they would hopefully make a decision if I'd given them all that they wanted. All well and good. Apart from the fact that one of the things that I need to get is a CRB (Criminal Records Bureau for those not in the know) check and they can be an absolute pain. To pu this in perspective, I had to get one for each country I've lived in for over a year, ie Australia and Britain. I sent off for the Australian one a week after the British one and 2 weeks later got a letter back. Given that it takes 4 days for a letter to get there and 4/5 days for one to get back, I thought that this would be an acknowledgment of receipt but oh no, it was the check. Wonderful! They did it in 2/3 days! Fantastic! So, why, 38 days after applying, do I still not have my British one? Surely there's something wrong there? Anyway, the CRB check aside, (I'm not really worrying about it because they're notoriously slow and I have a receipt to prove I've applied for it) my 49 days is up this Thursday and I have to send them my Aussie CRB check and a couple of other things. Then some utter bastard decides to have a postal strike. Why NOW?! Last week - fine! Next week - brilliant! This week? Utter bloody disaster. So today, having sent everything special delivery - which can't guarantee next day delivery, or even this week delivery actually because of the strike, but can guarantee that when they resume work it will be given priority. Yippee. - I've had to ring them up and tell them all this. Not only that, Graham's mobile phone got stolen on Saturday. He's lost (in no particular order of importance) all the messages I've ever sent him, 4 months worth of pictures of fish, pictures of me, all his phone numbers and the only way I have of contacting him. Or that the immigration office have of contacting him. This has not been a good week. I am getting good at stripping paint though.

visa stuff

So, they received my application. I now have 46 days (and counting) in which to get certain information to them (or at least prove that I have tried to get said information, which given the rate at which police process stuff, is more likely to be the case). In the meantime I'm keeping myself busy by being completely accident prone (I broke one of mum's REALLY good wine glasses the other day, tipped our dinner over the carpet and split the bottle of wine as well - was not impressed. Also watched a biker nearly slide his bike under my car. How he managed to get back upright I don't know, and I suspect the driver of the car coming the other way doesn't either and I broke a till at work - all in all a good weekends' work) and continually going back to the website of the place where I want to get married and looking at nice pictures of the cove where I want the wedding to be and the reception and the rejuvenation spa... But for now, I'll just keep counting the days...

*phew*

Well, I can breathe a brief sigh of relief. After the initial panic I realised that I had read it wrong. What it meant was that 2 statements from friends and family will not be enough on it's own. So I need other evidence. Which I have. It was a bit ambiguous though hence the flap about not enough statements. All in all this means that I don't have to wait for another 2 months or so for someone who may, or may not, send me a certified copy of their birth certificate and can, in fact, lodge my application. Which I will do tomorrow. Yay! Still have to wait for the police and health clearances though. Can't win them all. *Do not ask me why, but this post although I posted it, didn't actually appear. For an update, I have now sent off my application. Woohoo!

I screwed up

I am so furious with myself. In all of the stuff I read about getting this stupid visa it said that ANY medical checks and police checks that I do prior to applying for the visa would not be valid and I have to wait for the department to request them before I do anything. So far so good. In going over everything with a final toothcomb I came across one little NB at the bottom of a page that said something along the lines of 'some countries allow you to apply earlier'. Having emailed the embassy in London I've found out that here is one of them. Great. If I'd found this earlier I could have HAD all my police checks READY rather than having to wait for them now. I can't believe that I missed that in all the times I read all the info on the visa. AAARGH! Mind you, I still can't apply for the bloody thing as the other thing I've found was another little NB that said normally witness statements from only family will not normally be considered enough. Given that the only one that I have from a reliable source that isn't his parents decided not to furnish me with a copy of their birth certificate or passport, needed to prove that they're Australian, I've got to wait for them to do that anyway. Given that it's taken me 2 months for them to give me the right information about Graham's work (we asked for it in May, I got it last week) I think I've got a little time. For crying out loud! All I want to do is go back and marry my fiance - WHY IS THIS SO DAMN DIFFICULT?! I've also had another tooth out so am sore and grumpy. Grr.

On the road again

I have a confession to make. I haven't blogged about coming home. Which I am. Right now. I'm in Brisbane at the moment, flying out tomorrow to London and thence to Wales to see my lovely family and get a job and earn some money to pay for my visa to return. I've not blogged about it for the simple reason that the Other Half and I have been blocking it out for some weeks now that this day was coming because neither of us wanted it to. It's not that I don't want to see my family, because I do. It's not that I don't want to see my home and my friends, because I do. It's because it's the start of a separation from my Other Half that will last certainly for months, and really we don't know how many of those. It all depends on the Department of Immigration and how nice they want to be to us. We've not been together long but we know one thing, both of us, for certain and that's that we want to be together and not being together is going to be really hard. The Other Half isn't an internet sort of person so this relationship is going to be carried out the old fashioned way - with phone calls and letters, proper letters. Just don't ask me in a month or so what my phone bills like because I will probably cry.

Aaargh

Ok, so the steri-strips are off the head, I now have a stubbly (practically bald) patch on the back of my head with a large purple strip of glue straight across it. Great. I'm leaving Bowen on Monday, it's all a rush, so many things to do, so little time to do it! Getting the Other Half available to get things signed and authorised is no picnic I can tell you! I shall be glad when this is all over and the decision on my visa is safely (I use the word in hope, rather than certainty) in DICA's (no longer DIMIA, I think I preferred that acronym though) hands. Eek.