Advertisement
Published: January 17th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Family room
My parents enjoying our new flat Well it’s been over 7 weeks since we arrived back in the UK. It doesn’t feel real. We both had an amazing time travelling.
We arrived back on Friday 9th May and were very blessed to be able to move in with friends (Andy & Liz) in St Johns. They live down the road from our old job/house. We completed Christopher’s Visa application as it was due to expire on the 11th , two days after getting back to the UK. We need to be able to prove with letters, bank statements, etc that we were married and planned to stay married and continue living in the UK. Which is easier said than done if you have been on holiday for 5 months before and your previous rented place was through your company and all bills were deducted prior to getting paid, so no bills for the house in our name… we got everything together that we had (bank statements, gym membership letters, etc) and sent it off, with a lick and a very BIG prayer.
Now the next job was to find somewhere to live and a new job - we decided that we wanted to locum until
the end of the year so that we could travel more and see Europe as we have been here for just over 3 years and only seen Paris (which was amazing).
I phoned the company I worked for (Pet Doctors) and received work straight away which was amazing (one week back at my old job) and I also send out my CV to some other local companies. Christopher sent his CV to loads but there was just nothing, so we waited…
We then started looking for somewhere to stay: Have you even tried to rent if you can’t prove an income and show bank statements showing an income - the last 6 months bank statements showed us spending money all over the world - not a cent earned! AND we had sent them off to the Home Office for the VISA application and the bank can’t print out more than 8 weeks at a time without 2 weeks notice. I do wonder about banks sometimes.
We also received our little blue Peugeot back from friends who had used it while we were travelling - she needed a service badly: the hissing brake had got worse.. £££
We took her
in to have her MOT which she failed and had to have the brake fixed £££. We took her to a friend’s garage who fixed her up really well, replaced brake ‘thing’ and clutch ‘thing’ and spark plugs, etc and she passed her MOT!
We had also started looking for a second car as with both of us commuting we both needed a car. We spend every day for the next week looking at flats. Really wanted somewhere that would feel ‘homely’, we finally found a 2 bedroom first floor flat in Knaphill. Really nice and airy, but the problem of proving an income was still there and neither of us had a job. We asked if they would drop the monthly amount as we could move in straight away. The flat had been empty so this was good for us and that we could move in straight away was good for the landlord. We passed all our ‘personality checks’, but still couldn’t prove we could earn enough for rent so the final option was to pay for the first 6 month upfront AND 1 ½ months deposit!! This hurts a little (I mean a lot) as we had just
been on holiday for 5 months.
The process was started and we arrived to sign the paper work and collect the keys - when the estate agent turned round and said that we had to have our passports as proof that we were legally in the country and who we were… Guess what? The Home Office still has them as it takes 6 - 8 weeks to process the visa and if you ask for your passport back, the visa is cancelled; no refund (£750). And as the visa by now would have expired Christopher would not legally be allowed to stay in the UK.
WHAT NEXT!!!
After a long wait and many calls - the letter acknowledging that the Home Office had received the passport was enough and we received the keys to our new flat. This was Thursday the 22nd and we were going to have to move out of the work provided accommodation by Friday. We moved in to our flat over the weekend! Finally things started feeling more organised.
We had now been back in the UK for 3 weeks…
My parents arrived on the Saturday 24th May. It was really nice to see them and share our travel stories. They had just returned from a long boat trip with friends near Birmingham. We spent the week travelling around the area showing off the lovely countryside; it was amazing they had arrived during the UK’s week of summer. We went to Windsor Castle, Guildford and Guildford castle, Newlands Corner, Shere Village (Sorry to whose who have no idea where these places are!) They are all lovely castles and quaint villages. During all this time we were still looking for work. My parents then left us to visit mum’s family in Holland and catch up with friends in Germany.
We were very lucky to find a Renault in very good condition (owner had only advertised it on the ‘net that morning) and Andy, a friend who works for Renault ran the checks - which came back all clear. So we bought her.
My first ‘real’ locum job started on the 2nd June at Kynoch Vets. I was so stressed about starting. The first day was so great; every one was so friendly and welcoming. I really enjoyed my two weeks there. I was then off to a different branch which was busier and a bit more stressful but once I got to know everyone was also enjoyable. Christopher started his locum for the same company about a week ago. It has been long hours for both of us but we have enjoyed working for the company as they are very PEOPLE orientated. I have just sent off my invoice for my month’s work. It will be so nice to have some money in the bank account again.
So we are now living in our flat, working hard and glad it’s weekend!! We are so grateful to all our friends who have supported us on our return.
I now have a week off with my parents before they fly back to SA on Thursday, they have just spent the week in Wales with my aunt & uncle. Not sure what we’ll get up to but will be glad to spend some time with them.
I really feel that we hit the ground running on our return, but am also glad to be back!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.066s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0385s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb