Waiting...

There's absolutely nothing happening on the planning front. I'm back at work supposedly working and Sameer is back at campus working on his thesis and going for interviews.

In other dramatic news, Izzy has assimilated the entire Dalvie household. She is now Queen of that domain.

And we're not really booking or planning anything. Just plodding along. Ho-hum. Tick tick tick. Waiting, waiting.

I'm BORED!!!

MBA ski trip prep

Last week, Sameer's classmate Patrick and his fiance Florence convinced us to go up to Zurich for the MBA ski week next March. We weren't sure if we'd be able to afford it but we checked the figures and decided to go for it. After all, when would we go skiing again? It's not like we have experience in that or know anyone else (other than Patrick and Co) who are into it.

So yesterday we booked the tickets. We have an early morning flight to Zurich on Saturay, March 8 (just after Sameer's birthday) and we return to London Tuesday evening. That makes it's a three night/four day affair.

I hope the weather is good at that time, I hope the renting of ski-related paraphernalia isn't too expensive, and I hope we don't break any bones!

Approved!

Sameer and I received identical smses this morning at twenty past twelve. "Your processed application for UK Visa is ready for collection at Cape Town Application Center." Sameer went to fetch the passports (while I went to look at wedding dresses with the sisters) and after 1:00 he called to say that we'd been approved. We each have a little stamp in our passports. Sameer's says "Highly Skilled Migrant Program, No recourse to public funds" and mine says "Highly Skilled Migrant Program, dependent(S. Parker). No recourse to public funds".

Yay! I'm ecstatic! Overjoyed! And generally exclamatory!!!

The changes, they are acoming

You know how sometimes a chapter of your life closes but you don't realize it until a long time afterwards, once you've had a chance to reflect? Well, yesterday after we moved everything out of our house and locked up for the last time, and drove out of the garage I suddenly realized that a chapter of my life had suddenly and definitively closed. I got slightly emotional but I managed to keep it together.

Then we took Izzy to Ferzana's house. She dashed under the bed and stayed there looking shellshocked. And that was when I got all weepy. She was never going home again and neither was I. And Sameer and I would never be alone at home together with our crazy-bat cat.

When we got to the in-laws house there were boxes covering every square inch of the bedroom and while we were trying to make some space I was just all lump-in-the-throat and ashen feeling. I went to bed like that, slept badly, and this morning woke up with a "Where am I?" feeling.

Work was like an oasis. A safe place where things were just like normal. My desk, my stuff, my colleagues - even my boss! So today I am very grateful for my work and my routine.

Hopefully things will get better and I'll start to feel more comfortable and roll with it. As my team leader was saying this morning "Just be flexible." She was actually speaking about work but I think in light of our non-plans for the next six months it was very good advice.

Visa Facilitation Service

We've just got back from the VFS offices in Strand Street after sorting out quite a big hitch. I meant to pop out of the office for a mere 40 or so (ie lunch) just to drop of the forms and sign stuff. But when we got to the offices and started handing in our documents they stopped at the deposit slips and said "Wait, you've paid the wrong fee..." It turns out that as of last week Thursday, the admin fee has gone down by R100. So we told them "It's fine. Just keep it." But they said no, they couldn't do that. So we had to pack up all our documents, go find a Standard Bank, draw money for the cash deposit, go to Nedbank, pay the deposit, and then go back to the VFS office. When we got there, we had to fill in some forms to get a refund on our original payment. Needless to say, we were a bit miffed by the whole incident.

Anyway, after that it went smoothly. We both handed in our documents and had our biometrics taken. And then we left - two hours after we'd started. I started to get a bit panicky over things like Sameer and I only having one bank account and my transcripts all being in my maiden name (Ismail) but I made a note of the first in my application form and I'm hoping they will look at our marriage certificate and figure out that my transcripts are in my maiden name.

Before we left, they told us that most likely we would know what the result is by the end of this week or, for the lastest, the end of next week.

Fingers crossed!

Anyway, I'm back at work now and have lots of edits to do.

Documents and evidence

We're in a state of mild panic. We're addled. Generally, we're in a panic about the forms that we have to fill in for both our UK and US visas.

The forms themselves are not that hard except that they want names and addresses and contact numbers for every place you ever worked. This is not hard for Sameer who's had one job but pretty hard for my constantly-job-hopping self. In addition to this, we need evidence of everything. That means marriage certificates, degrees, transcripts, letters from campus and work, bank statements, proof of other income etc etc. And we keep second guessing ourselves. Is this enough money? Is this enough proof? Have we lived here long enough?

It's all costing us a pretty penny but we're hoping it will be worth it. If we don't get our entry clearances and permits, it will be a whole lot of money wasted and probably lots of anger and disappointment.

So, this afternoon we're tracking down the last of the contact details and taking passport photos. Hopefully we can sneak a trip to Vida e Caffe into this as well. :)

And then on Monday, we'll send our VAF2 forms off to the British Consulate. And then there'll be quite a bit of a wait until our appointment at the American Consulate on December 10.