Finally! My passport is back avec working visa. How exciting! Thankfully it arrives on the eve of my departure to NZ. A really busy week this week - thankfully the stars seem to be aligning. Obviously there are some major hurdles to jump over the next couple of weeks... but I now have the green light to depart. Many thanks to all of you who have shown support and have been wishing me well!
Earlier in the week there was the distinct possibility that I would not be able to leave for New Zealand on Monday. The reason why? My passport. At the start of the week it was in Canberra, still awaiting for my work visa to be affixed. Thankfully, the passport finally came back via courier on Friday morning! Relief. Subsequent to this i've been able to finalise accomodation and will need to finish packing over the weekend. If anyone has any tips on this to do and see in Queenstown, feel free to shoot off some suggestions.
As soon as my passport was returned to me, I was able to get moving on some of the outstanding items on my "things to do before going to the UK" checklist. Signed off on my assignment letter and contract, and also applied for a UK bank account. Some other random tidbits that I was able to do was to arrange for an optometrist session on Monday, as well as re-book my flights to South America (for later this year).
Thanks so much to everyone for being supportive and wishing me well. It's great to have such good friends and i'm sure i'll be back from time to time! Obviously I still need to work on my drinking stamina.
That's enough from me this week as i'm still yet to finish packing for NZ, and still have HEAPS to do before I skip the country. As some would say.... all green!
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Only 9 days of work before i'm off to the UK!
I will only need to rock up to work 9 more times before i'm off to the UK, very soon! As another calendar week flys by I am more and more convinced that I should have given myself an extra week or two to prepare for departure! Now, it's not that I have done nothing over the week (i've not done terribly much), it's just that I may have underestimated slightly.
First thing that I managed to achieve over the week was visit the dentist. I haven't really been diligent as i've not been to the dentist for about a year... and it serves me right. I haven't been avoiding my dentist, as he's quite a good one, i've just been extremely lazy. Thankfully, there is nothing significantly wrong with my teeth - which is a relief! However, it was recommended to me that I take out my top left wisdom tooth. Sigh. Damn teeth! Will have to see if I can schedule this in before I depart.
I also sent in an overseas elector form into the Australian Electoral Commission this week. Just thought i'd get that out of the way before I go. What happens next? Julia Gillard decides to call the election for August 21. Might have to go try my luck over at Australia House when the time comes. I wonder if the major parties campaign outside Australia House in the UK? Hmm...
Onto my visa. My passport is still in Canberra, and I haven't heard anything. This is quite normal though, so i've been told. Hopefully there aren't any issues and i'll get it back this week. I'm due to depart for New Zealand on Monday the 26th... so hopefully i'm not going to be stuck in Sydney. That would be a real shame!
As for accommodation in Singapore en route to London. I've picked that this week as well. The Singapore Stopovers don't look so bad, courtesy of Singapore Airlines. I've chosen to stay at the Marina Bay Sands. There seemed to be quite a few ads for this on the news.com.au website over the past few weeks - it's new and it's novel... also saw a piece on it on one of the magazines I was flicking through at the dentist's... so it's fate! Haha. Will write more on it once I get there, looks nice!
Finally, I managed to get myself a new pair of shoes in preparation for the City to Surf on the 8th of July. Mizunos. On a related note, I went for a training run yesterday, and came out the loser. Comfortably ran 7km, but after a few hours ended up with a niggle around my left knee. Hope that disappears so that I can keep running. That's it for another week!
First thing that I managed to achieve over the week was visit the dentist. I haven't really been diligent as i've not been to the dentist for about a year... and it serves me right. I haven't been avoiding my dentist, as he's quite a good one, i've just been extremely lazy. Thankfully, there is nothing significantly wrong with my teeth - which is a relief! However, it was recommended to me that I take out my top left wisdom tooth. Sigh. Damn teeth! Will have to see if I can schedule this in before I depart.
I also sent in an overseas elector form into the Australian Electoral Commission this week. Just thought i'd get that out of the way before I go. What happens next? Julia Gillard decides to call the election for August 21. Might have to go try my luck over at Australia House when the time comes. I wonder if the major parties campaign outside Australia House in the UK? Hmm...
Onto my visa. My passport is still in Canberra, and I haven't heard anything. This is quite normal though, so i've been told. Hopefully there aren't any issues and i'll get it back this week. I'm due to depart for New Zealand on Monday the 26th... so hopefully i'm not going to be stuck in Sydney. That would be a real shame!
As for accommodation in Singapore en route to London. I've picked that this week as well. The Singapore Stopovers don't look so bad, courtesy of Singapore Airlines. I've chosen to stay at the Marina Bay Sands. There seemed to be quite a few ads for this on the news.com.au website over the past few weeks - it's new and it's novel... also saw a piece on it on one of the magazines I was flicking through at the dentist's... so it's fate! Haha. Will write more on it once I get there, looks nice!
Finally, I managed to get myself a new pair of shoes in preparation for the City to Surf on the 8th of July. Mizunos. On a related note, I went for a training run yesterday, and came out the loser. Comfortably ran 7km, but after a few hours ended up with a niggle around my left knee. Hope that disappears so that I can keep running. That's it for another week!
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Visa Updates and Flights Booked
London is just that little bit closer as another week rolls by! I should really knuckle down and start preparations for the big relocation. However, the big tick for the week is that i've got a departure date locked in. T-minus four weeks and counting... i'll be skipping the country on the morning of the 9th of August.
So the first item of news is a visa update, specifically continuing on from where I left off - biometrics collection. On Monday I headed down to the British Consulate down at the Gateway to get my fingerprints recorded. I rocked up, sat down, and waited to be called. As I was the only person there, the wait was extremely brief. I've never had my fingerprints taken before so this was a novel experience - something which will be a regular feature once my adventures begin in the Northern Hemisphere! Strange note: the only thing that I seem to recall whilst waiting was the slogan "Better Work, Better Britain" emblazoned against the wall alongside a silhouette of the United Kindom and the national flag.
Fingerprint collection was quick and easy, even though there were a few minor complications. Normally, all you would have to do is press down hard onto an electronic touch pad, and the prints get recorded. However, as it was an unusually cold Sydney day the first attempted read of my fingerprints was not successful. After rubbing the tips of my fingers (to warm them up), the second attempt still came up with a blank. Apparently my fingers were too dry, as well as being too cold. So, out comes the dettol hand sanitiser. After some sanitiser and kinetic therapy on the fingertips - success! Mugshot, stamp, stamp and i'm out the door. The whole process was done inside of 15 minutes. Easy.
As I prepared all of the supporting documentation for the visa prior to trekking down to the British Consulate, I immediately sent my visa off for processing post-fingerprinting. A couple of days pass by and I get an email confirming that my visa application has been successfully lodged. Hopefully, this means that i'll be getting my visa back sometime this week. Exciting times!
I've got a departure date locked in, Monday 9 August. Well actually, a first day at work is locked in for Wednesday 11 August - just working back from there! After doing a quick internet search on flights, i've settled with Singapore Airlines. I probably could have gotten a cheaper deal in the end, but i'm partial towards Singapore Airlines. I'll be flying on A380s for both legs (Syd->Sing and Sing->Lon), and staying overnight in Singapore. I will figure out where to stay later on! Now, "why are you stopping over in Singapore?" is a question that you may ask... well... i'm thinking that 24 hours in transit is just way too long!
Finally, what have I got to do over the week ahead? I'll need to organise short-stay accomodation in London (temporary place to stay until I find a proper place to live) and i'll need to get myself sorted for an upcoming NZ ski trip (27 Jul - 03 Aug) that I signed up for before I even knew about the UK offer. Plenty to do, so I had better stop writing!
So the first item of news is a visa update, specifically continuing on from where I left off - biometrics collection. On Monday I headed down to the British Consulate down at the Gateway to get my fingerprints recorded. I rocked up, sat down, and waited to be called. As I was the only person there, the wait was extremely brief. I've never had my fingerprints taken before so this was a novel experience - something which will be a regular feature once my adventures begin in the Northern Hemisphere! Strange note: the only thing that I seem to recall whilst waiting was the slogan "Better Work, Better Britain" emblazoned against the wall alongside a silhouette of the United Kindom and the national flag.
Fingerprint collection was quick and easy, even though there were a few minor complications. Normally, all you would have to do is press down hard onto an electronic touch pad, and the prints get recorded. However, as it was an unusually cold Sydney day the first attempted read of my fingerprints was not successful. After rubbing the tips of my fingers (to warm them up), the second attempt still came up with a blank. Apparently my fingers were too dry, as well as being too cold. So, out comes the dettol hand sanitiser. After some sanitiser and kinetic therapy on the fingertips - success! Mugshot, stamp, stamp and i'm out the door. The whole process was done inside of 15 minutes. Easy.
As I prepared all of the supporting documentation for the visa prior to trekking down to the British Consulate, I immediately sent my visa off for processing post-fingerprinting. A couple of days pass by and I get an email confirming that my visa application has been successfully lodged. Hopefully, this means that i'll be getting my visa back sometime this week. Exciting times!
I've got a departure date locked in, Monday 9 August. Well actually, a first day at work is locked in for Wednesday 11 August - just working back from there! After doing a quick internet search on flights, i've settled with Singapore Airlines. I probably could have gotten a cheaper deal in the end, but i'm partial towards Singapore Airlines. I'll be flying on A380s for both legs (Syd->Sing and Sing->Lon), and staying overnight in Singapore. I will figure out where to stay later on! Now, "why are you stopping over in Singapore?" is a question that you may ask... well... i'm thinking that 24 hours in transit is just way too long!
Finally, what have I got to do over the week ahead? I'll need to organise short-stay accomodation in London (temporary place to stay until I find a proper place to live) and i'll need to get myself sorted for an upcoming NZ ski trip (27 Jul - 03 Aug) that I signed up for before I even knew about the UK offer. Plenty to do, so I had better stop writing!
Sunday, July 04, 2010
Blogging Series 3 - Preparing for the United Kingdom
Well, well, well. It looks like the blog is getting it's third series - and this one may be hanging around for a while. I seriously thought that this blog was dead, but it looks like it's still surviving somehow. Go figure! So two themes for this post today - bringing back the blog, and a few notes on preparing to head off to the UK. Woo!
As many of you out there are already aware, i'm off to the UK for work. Very exciting, and very unexpected... and also the reason behind me metaphorically picking up the pen once more. Now, I intended to head offshore to tick the "Worked Overseas" box, but I didn't intend for it to happen so soon. An opportunity came up, and in the end I decided that it was a reasonably good time to head off. Upon speaking to some of you good folk, I was reminded that I used to blog - props to those who actually tormented themselves with my ramblings. So here we go with Season 3 of my stochastic blogging!
A brief summary on how this all came about. I was notified of an opportunity late last month to work in the UK, and a verbal agreement was settled a week after that. So things have really moved along quite quickly. Speed is the name of the game here, as i'm really only expected to be in the country for another 5 weeks or so - plenty to do! I don't think i'm setting the world on fire with the pace in which I need to pack up and go, but the time between being asked to go and actually going is quick by any measure.
As i'm expected to scoot out of here in approximately a month's time, there's plenty to do! Now, i've started the visa process already - and that's expected to take approximately a month all up. The process for getting a UK visa is slighly different depending on the type of visa that you're applying for, but all of them follow the same general theme - online application, recording of biometric data, issue of visa. I'm up to the biometric data stage, where the Brits take a copy of your fingerprins - and that's scheduled for tomorrow.
Now the visa's not the only thing that needs to be sorted out. There's an ever growing list of things to sort out before heading off! Things that i'll need to do over the next month will be things such as opening up an UK bank account, finding accomodation in London, packing a few boxes of things I need and shipping them off to the UK. Plenty! Clearly not really doing much on this front as i'm still blogging. Haha. Hmm... well on that note i'll leave it there. More updates to come, I promise!
As many of you out there are already aware, i'm off to the UK for work. Very exciting, and very unexpected... and also the reason behind me metaphorically picking up the pen once more. Now, I intended to head offshore to tick the "Worked Overseas" box, but I didn't intend for it to happen so soon. An opportunity came up, and in the end I decided that it was a reasonably good time to head off. Upon speaking to some of you good folk, I was reminded that I used to blog - props to those who actually tormented themselves with my ramblings. So here we go with Season 3 of my stochastic blogging!
A brief summary on how this all came about. I was notified of an opportunity late last month to work in the UK, and a verbal agreement was settled a week after that. So things have really moved along quite quickly. Speed is the name of the game here, as i'm really only expected to be in the country for another 5 weeks or so - plenty to do! I don't think i'm setting the world on fire with the pace in which I need to pack up and go, but the time between being asked to go and actually going is quick by any measure.
As i'm expected to scoot out of here in approximately a month's time, there's plenty to do! Now, i've started the visa process already - and that's expected to take approximately a month all up. The process for getting a UK visa is slighly different depending on the type of visa that you're applying for, but all of them follow the same general theme - online application, recording of biometric data, issue of visa. I'm up to the biometric data stage, where the Brits take a copy of your fingerprins - and that's scheduled for tomorrow.
Now the visa's not the only thing that needs to be sorted out. There's an ever growing list of things to sort out before heading off! Things that i'll need to do over the next month will be things such as opening up an UK bank account, finding accomodation in London, packing a few boxes of things I need and shipping them off to the UK. Plenty! Clearly not really doing much on this front as i'm still blogging. Haha. Hmm... well on that note i'll leave it there. More updates to come, I promise!
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