Well Bugger Me!

Have I been on a roller coaster today. Take a piece of me, no, take two! I'm not sure there's any more to go around but what's left of me feel free to scavenge.

At 5pm ish I got a text from mum (btw, Yay mum for mastering the art of texting and of leaving her mobile on!!!). She sent, and I quote "hi dearest need address royal mail arrived BIG HUG NOT OPENED MA". My stomach immediately sank. I think you all know dear readers that I have been waiting quite anxiously for a parcel to arrive from London containing my response from the British Immigration Agency in regards to my UK stage 1 HSMP visa approval. This would decide the next stage of my life. Big moment. Well, I immediately rang mum and demanded she open the thing, and got the shock of my life when she said, quite mildly, that I'd been approved.

oh.

right.

Hadn't been expecting that. I was kind of appalled and kind of happy and kind of teary and kind of... well, no, completely thrown. Mum wanted to send the package to me asap so I could apply asap (thank you love!) but I had to process and so told her I'd let her know when I'd read up about the stage two bits I had to do.

Then I proceeded to let all and sundry know, as you do, that I'd been approved, not really knowing myself how I felt about it, but sure that very soon, I'd be winging my way back to the UK and my life there.

So, I got home in a state of shock, and told Dad and Carol and had a whisky to settle myself. Then I went onto the Internet and discovered, to my absolute horror, that I wasn't quite finished jumping through all the hoops and that the next one I had to go through was ringed by fire. The BIA have mashed the old and new processes, so whilst I qualified for the old, I now had to also qualify for the new... The next hurdle was proving I had money and in an Aussie bank account and it had to have been three for three months before I could apply.... but...but...but

Oh Crap.

So now I have a minimum three month wait. And only then can I apply to see if they'll accept me as a potential citizen of the UK. I so want to be there right now. And I had planned to go over after Christmas too, to see everyone and clear out my crap and go skiing one last time.

Now, well I won't be going skiing in Jan, but I could possibly, maybe, probably, hopefully be able to go skiing many, many more times.

Come on March, I want to see you as fast as possible please. Then I can apply... again.

And then, who knows, I might actually get a definitive answer.

I hope.