I am flying back to the UK on Thursday. My visa finally came through.
I’ve had seven weeks at home and I enjoyed every minute of it. It was four more weeks than I planned.
I don’t really know what else to say.
There’s lots I could say. Today, I upgraded the driver for my parents’ laptop’s card reader. It screwed things up so I spent a few hours finding new drivers for other bits and pieces.
I’ve baked a lot in the past seven weeks. Banana and walnut cake was my last effort. I’ve helped mum and dad with their new hobby of dancing. I’m really happy that they’re dancing now. They’ve been talking about it for a while.
Every couple of days, I walk 10 km — to the local park and back. There’s a nice lake there. Once, I walked for longer than I had planned so I bought a roast vegetable sandwich at the park café and had a mini-picnic.
I should have written in my blog more but there aren’t many interesting stories when I’m mostly by myself.
I will need to find a place to live in London. I’m looking forward to meeting new people. I usually quite like first meetings. Sometimes, I don’t have the energy for it but I’ve built up a large reserve in my seven weeks of rest.
Hey Joan! Great to hear you coming back. Hope to see you soon. Safe journey. I go to London almost every weekend now. Do call for lunch, dinner or musical if you like. Dom, Winson and Ian B are here too!
Hi Joan! My friend sent the address for this blog to me – probably because she knows I adore London and reading about people who are heading over. Congratulations on getting the visa situation sorted, did you use an agency to negotiate the process or did you DIY? From what I understand you basically have to promise to hand over your firstborn and even then you’d still have to deal with Heathrow officials.
Happy travels!
Hi Kahmen, it’s good to see you. Hopefully, you’ll get lots of updates from me about what it’s like being a London newbie.
I got a job first and the company agreed to apply for my work permit. They got a lawyer to look after the application. In addition to the work permit, I applied for a visa through the Australian branch of the British High Commission. That part was pretty easy (though expensive). So it would be fair that I didn’t use an immigration agent and didn’t DIY — the company did most of it.
Immigration is notoriously tough, so most people I know who apply for a working holiday visa go through an agent.