We applied for our international driving permits today and we will be able to collect those tomorrow. Organising a bank account however takes slightly longer and we had to go to the bank today for a little guidance on filling out the mass of forms needed for what should really be the simplest of actions. Once we've completed our application forms (yes, there are that many!) it will take six weeks for the account opening to be processed. Apparently the delay is the British banking system, which requires that all application forms be translated into Latin by Catalonian Monks. Or so I'm told. Fortunately we have been enlightened as to the required information for the forms so it should proceed smoothly, if a little slowly.
That's all for now, I'm going to break with tradition and upload an entry on the day it occurred : )
Duncan and Bronwyn visited us yesterday after their trip to the British High Commission to sort out Bronwyn's Visa application. This should be straight forward for them as Duncan already has a work permit, the only concern at this point is time, as they are scheduled to leave next Friday. it occurred to us as we said goodbye that the next time we see them will probably be in London.
I spent an hour in the bank the other day 'taking care of business'. This included collecting all the appropriate paperwork needed to set up a bank account in the UK, insurance for our possessions while in storage and most exciting of all, purchasing some foreign currency.
We are going to start moving the boxes we have already packed into the storage locker this weekend. This will help make room for more packing in the flat and will make us feel like we are making progress as well. There are only 3 weeks left till we leave Wellington!! And with that in mind I will stop blogging and do some more packing.
Not much else to say at the moment, so in the meantime you might want to play this.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE for the 20th - oops, sorry I forgot.
Because of the change over in blogging software, the previous days entries are now being uploaded all at once. I'll be updating our itinerary section today or tomorrow, adding in details about hotels etc, as requested by Jane :)
We've spoken to the storage locker people and we now definitely have a storage area for our mountain of possessions. This pleases us no end as we were beginning to wonder whether they would have a locker available for us. We may even start packing some of our boxes away.
We now have about 4 weeks left in Wellington. The weather has packed in so I suspect it's trying to make the move away as easy as possible :) 4 weeks isn't really a lot of time I've decided, so I think I'd better go do something slightly more productive than blogging.
Duncan and Bronwyn have adjusted their itinerary after Duncan accepted a job offer in Wimbledon, this means they will now be arriving in London a week before us. Enough time for them to prepare a Cliffs Notes version of the underground and other necessities for us :)
That's all for now folks.
Other than that, the house is a mess!! Aaaargh!
Hayley and I took Hayley's Mum to the airport today for her trip home. She had been taking care of Grandma after her bout in hospital. We will be seeing her again very shortly so it wasn't a long farewell.
As a treat to myself for being so clever, I disappeared to the beach for a couple of hours and relaxed in the water. I suspect I may be sub-conciously trying to stock up on visits to the beach as I sense there may be a distinct lack of such distractions where we're headed. I keep telling myself the Greek Islands aren't that far away!
We are currently in the process of setting up our domain name for this website, so you may encounter strange things like pages not loading while I sort out the necessary html to make it all work seamlessly. The homepage.mac.com/... address will continue working but to simplify things we will also be accessible via www.nickandhayley.com. So feel free to update your bookmarks and spread the word.
As of Saturday (the one we've just had), Scorching Bay is now our favourite beach. The water was crystal clear, the sun was hot, and Hayley even went for a swim or two.
ALERT: Actual content follows: We now have all our travel documents. This includes airline tickets, hotel accommodation vouchers and rental car vouchers. It makes for an impressive folder of travel goodies that will shortly be worn out if we don't stop fondling and playing with them : )
I've got a list of sites as long as my arm to add into our links page, but rather than add them all at once, I'll be adding them one at a time to try and drive up the site stats. Homestar Runner is the latest addition, and it are awesome champion. Find out for yourself.
Shout-out time: A big hello to Fiona in the cold north, skiing her heart out in Canada. We hope your having a good time and we look forward to seeing you and hearing all the wonderful stories. PS: Don't forget the duty-free : ) Also to Charlotte and Craig, heading down to Chch where Charlotte is now enrolled in journalism school. We hope everything goes smoothly with the move and that you guys have an awesome time there.
I think that's fulfilled my contractual obligations for today. I'll try and upload a few more sites for everyone to check out over the next few days, and maybe there'll be some content too.
Hayley handed in her notice at work today and we have also let our landlords know of our intentions to leave. So today has been another big day with regards to wrapping up loose ends here.
I've added a new game to our links section, so if you've got a few minutes to spare you might want to try it.