It's something we have been talking about for 3 years now but due to various circumstances it has never been possible. First we bought a house and then we got married, but now im in a dead end job selling cars, thats not for me i'm a policeman always have been always will be.
So the chance to relocate I must say happened purely by accident. We bought the Sunday newspapers as we do every Sunday, but on this day we got busy and I never read the papers till Thursday. I saw this advert from Alex Harp looking for Architectural technicians in Ireland, so i gave it to Sam so she could e-mail her CV to them. Well i don't think we were quite prepared for what was to follow.
4 May 2007
Sam got a phone call from Margrate in Ireland but unfortunately she missed the call, but said she would phone the following Tuesday.
8 May 2007
Sam gets the phone call and is so surprised when she is asked to come for an interview in Johannesburg on the Sunday, so she keeps Margarate on the one phone and phones me to ask if we can go, so naturally i said lets go.
12 May 2007
Well it's Saturday morning we have a morning wedding today which should end around 15:00 then it's a long drive to Johannesburg to Marks house for the night and the interview in the morning. We managed to finally leave at 16:00 for Joburg, what a long trip and at night too, i don't generally travel at night as it's not as safe as traveling during the day, anyway the trip up was not to event full we stopped at a couple of places to get coffee and the new Steers coffee at Ultra City is a no, no. While driving along the road just before Harrysmith we set off a speed camera doing 140km in a 80km zone so not sure what kind of fine that is going to be.
While driving we phoned Sandra my sister in law to wish her happy birthday and to tell her we will be there in the mng for coffee and cake. Arriving safe and sound we turned in for the night.
13 May 2007
We are awake bright and early Sam is very nervous as she does not like doing interviews, we have coffee with Mark and Liesel and off we go to Len and Sandy. They are very surprised by our sudden decision to leave and we had to explain that it's not really a sudden decision but a long one that has only happened now. We leave them for the interview in Sandton at one of the hotels.
We find the room where the interview is held and i wish Sam good luck and watch here as she closes the door behind her, i leave to buy a newspaper and wait for her. About 45min later it's over and i get invited to enter the room for a little informal chat, which is good because i have some questions to ask as well. All goes well with interview Sam is very relieved and we leave for Durban at 15:00. Arriving back home round about 21:00 we are tired and just want to go to sleep, but very excited about the possibility of going to work in Ireland.
31 May 2007
Day 28 of our adventure to Ireland Sam is having her 3rd interview tonight, her 2nd interview last night went ok, It was for a firm in Ballyclaire which is just outside of Belfast, they have come with an offer of £25000 to start with incremental increases but they don’t say when or how much. We are still waiting for the first firm in Coleraine to get back to us on a offer, I think we both would like to go there but initially I don’t think we should be fussy.
Her 3rd interview went ok they also want her, so now its just a case of which one.
(lost track of the date but it's a couple of days later) Well we have decided on Coleraine not sure what they are going to offer Sam but we like the sound of it. Sam will mail Ryan in the morning to let him know. Hey would you know no sooner had we accepted Coleraine and Bill offered her £25000 and a £1000 relocation money so it would seem our choice was right, right from the beginning, funny how that worked out, looks like we were meant to go there after all.
I have sent all my papers away and the only 2 I need to get is my unabridged birth certificate and Grannies full birth certificate, so that is a relief as I thought I would need more. Can you believe it at the moment the dept of home affairs is on strike so now I don’t know how lo this is gonna take hopefully not longer than I need it to be. It looks as if I should have my pension soon maybe the middle of July but even that’s cutting it fine. Sam has had conformation of her appointment with the firm which is great. It's just cutting it so fine with the time frame and that in it's self is stressful but allas I’m confident that God has it all worked out we just have to follow his calling. We have informed most of our friends and most were surprised and shocked, but happy for us.
07 July 2007
Well we have had a 3 week civil strike here where the people have not been at work and therefore nothing has been about our documents which is very frustrating for us because we have a deadline sort of, Sam has to start working on the 3rd but we think we will be there by the end of September, anyway i spoke to Natilie from Hassel Free immigration and she informed us that our certificates should be here in the next 2 weeks and we also found out that our passports should also be here in about 2 weeks. Now the thing that irks me the most is that i am still waiting for my pension money to come these people are so screwed up they just take there time you will not believe it and its so frustrating cause im in a crappy job and i just want to leave but cant yet until i have my pension money. Without the money i cannot do a bloody thing so i am at the mercy of these individuals how dont really care about the job they do as tomorrow is just another day.
My job is alittle better at least i have my own office,own phone and a brand new company car, but it's still a crap job i am not a salesman never was never will be. So i am just trying to bide my time until i get my pension money then i am out of there so i can start sorting things out for our move. We have accepted Elliots quote for our move to Ireland as they came in way below the others but also because they did a follow up soon after sending me the quote and it showed me they were really interested in moving our goods.
13 July 2007
Well I have another story to tell, i finally got the pension department to put a urgent push on my pension i have to phone them on the 19th July 2007 to see where it is, in the mean time i was asked to leave Inspectacar as i was not performing, which is fine cause i was going to leave anyway, but this way they still pay me out till the end of the month. So now i am going to work in a restaurant to get some experience in that field so that when i get over there i have a little experience.
We should have our passports by the end of the week i hope if all goes well. I am still battling to find a place for us to stay over there as it is very difficult to do that from here
19 July 2007
Well i have been trying to get hold of Sup Bossert all day without any luck, and it's very frustrating cause i don't know what has happened since we last spoke, has it helped or is my file still lying on some persons table. The whole day up till 16:00 i tried to phone no luck so im feeling pretty low right now.
Moving to a new country was not supposed to be this difficult or frustrating, but i suppose seen as we did not have the money available and have to wait on other people to get my money released it has become very frustrating, but if it was not for Sam supporting me in the way she has i think i would have gone nuts, especially as im not working now and we have all these bills to pay, but im working on that too as i need to work sitting at home, even though i have things to do around the house to get it ready to sell is very frustrating.
20 July 2007
Well i started phoning early this morning and still could not get through so i left it as i had to go to a meeting with my accountant. I arrived back and phoned again this time i spoke to Chantel who has been helping me and she helped me finally by telling me the money is going to the treasury department on Tuesday. She told me to phone her early on Tuesday and she will give me a reference number.
So as you can imagine a great relief as it's getting closer for us to leave now, i can now get Liesle's mom involved as she used to work there or knows people who work there who can now help us getting it paid out easier as they have up to 2 months to pay out, 2 months we dont have.
As for the accommodation i sent out a number of requests to various guest houses for accommodation and a few replied but one gave me a property re alter in Portstewart who has got back to us and told us it wont be a problem for her to help us with accommodation, so thats a big worry sorted out, i think we will have to stay in a B&B for the first week just to sort ourselv's out, i will ask her to send me a couple of pictures of the place so that we can see what it looks like.
Also i have a couple who are interested in buying the Lada which i really hope they do cause then that is the most difficult one to sell off our hands. Selling the Toyota should not be a problem i think.
I have done alot of research on Coleraine, found plenty of pictures, got loads of info, found out the approximate price of a dececent 2nd hand car which is in the region of about 5000 pounds depending on what car you buy.
24 July 2007
I phoned Chantel to confirm and she said yes our papers will go through to the treasury department today, so i will phone Sharon tomorrow to let her know so that she can start putting pressure over there to get our money payed over asap. As soon as we get our money i can start making some sort of plans as we are still waiting for our passports and the last birth certificate from Grannie Jones.
30 July 2007
I phoned the treasury department and they said that if there are no errors then i might get paid by the end of August. I phoned the passport people in Pretoria as i have received my passport but am still waiting for Sam's to come, they said it's at 'action 12' meaning it still has to be printed so they said they would put a urgent rush on it as i told them we have to leave the country by the end of August. The emmigration people who are helping me have recieved all the paper work back that they need, i am now just waiting for Sam's new letter of appointment and a letter from our estate agent in Portstewart as i need a letter to say that we have accommodation up there. So it's getting closer but we will be cutting it fine as far as the time goes. I am hoping to be able to leave the country on the 22nd September but that only if all goes well which i am really hoping it will.
02 August 2007
I have a few people who have phoned about the Lada but so far no real takers so i am hoping we can sell it by the time we leave. Im not at work at the moment as i am sorting things out here at home so that we can sell the house as soon as we have the visa in my pass port. It's rather frustrating sitting at home and not earing any money but thats just the way it goes i suppose.
25th August 2007
Well the Lada was sold today to a elderly gentleman so i was most relieved about that going, it was one of my biggest worries. In the meantime my pension money has come through, so that is a major breakthru, so now i can finalise my papers and send it up to Nalilie for her to check and then send it back to me so that we can go to the High Commission, as soon as.
28th August 2007
The papers went off to Natilie this morning so i am hoping it will get back soon as it's running close again to our departure time of 22nd September, im really trying to get this thing tied up by the 22nd September.
1 September 2007
Well it's a wonderful spring day here in Durban today, we went to the shopping centre to buy our luggage mighty fine i must say naturally Sam wanted the PINK bag and i settled for a nice red one. I still have not recieved my papers from Natilie yet so i'll be phoning her first thing in the morning to find out when she will courier them back to me. I would like to submit as soon as possible this week coming. I am picking up the cats traveling containers on the 4th September so that they can get used to them before they fly, which is the 11th September, but without the visas they cannot fly, so i need to phone Petwings to find out what we should do in the event that i have not recieved our visas by then.
We went on the Natal Midlands Meander on Sunday past for the last time for a bit of geocaching and to change a shirt and when we arrived at the shop we found out that the lady came from Coleraine a few years ago, so that was rather strange, so we had a good old chat and she said the town was lovely. She said when we come for a visit to Durban we must come up and tell her what we have been up to, maybe, maybe not. So far everything has sort of worked according to plan we are more or less on track, we wanted to fly out on the 22nd September but it looks like the airline is booked already for that date so its now to Monday and by the time we get our visas the flight might be much later so thats another reason why i need the visas ASAP.
3 September 2007
Well i phoned Natilie this morning and she said she would finalize the documents today and courier them to us today so that we can have them by tomorrow morning so that we can submit tomorrow even, otherwise early Wednesday morning. We are starting to have farewells soon we have one on the 15 Sep which will really only be one as we cant go round to everybody individually. This whole process has been very stressful for us as there was so much to do, and i was not working so Sam had added pressure to earn enough cash to keep the wolfs away. Thus far everything as more or less gone according to plan a few things were out of our control but we have learnt many things about going over and about ourselves, it has certainly made us stronger people although it might not seem like it now.
I have a pre interview set up with the PSNI police service of N/Ireland set for the middle of December so i am looking forward to that, not sure what it all entails yet but i am sure i will find out soon enough.
5 September 2007
I finally got hand in my visa application today even though i had to have my photos retaken cause the first lot that the people took were not good enough, so I'm going there to through my toys out the cot. They said 5-10 days but i'm hoping for 5 days max, cause i want to book my flight now and leave. i'm tired of sitting around and waiting for things to happen i need them to happen now so we can leave and start our new life together.
10 September 2007
Well will you believe it we finally picked up our visas today after starting this process at the beginning of May almost 4 months in the making but thinking back it was worth it. We went through some really tough times and it was not the nicest place to be in but it certainly made me a better person and more determined. I am certainly glad to be almost finished with this process as it was very stressful for us, i lost about 10kg over this time and i dont look as good in a pair of jeans as i used to, so i have some weight to pick up which i am looking forward to doing.
11 September 2007
Today we booked and paid for our flight out of here which is on the 23rd of September out of Johannesburg International on Virgin Atlantic at about 21:00 arriving 24th at Heathrow at about 06:55, we then catch a connecting flight on British Midlands to Belfast City Airport where we have to catch a train to Coleraine and then find our way to our b&b. A hell of a trip and i think some serious jet lag and everything else that goes along with it, but we looking forward to it now. We also found out we need to do a tax clearance certificate which we were not aware of so thats a mad rush of sorts but it will not be finished before we leave as it takes 21 days to do. So we will just leave and Sam's mom will have to do the rest for us. So its really very little time we have left here, we could stay longer but then we dont have to much time with my mom as we want to spend as much time there as possible.
