Lots to talk about!

I know, I know, it's been a while since I posted! I'm sorry - life has just been getting away from me!

Well, where to start? I went to Bath for Easter weekend, which is a four-day weekend here. It was about an hour and a half train ride from London. What a beautiful city!! I loved it! There are mineral hot springs there that were turned into a temple to the goddess Minerva Sulis and public baths by the Romans back during the Roman occupation of Britian. The structures had all fallen into disrepair and a cathedral was built on top of the temple. The baths were used for different purposes over the years until the 1800s when a entrepreneur decided Bath would become a tourist attraction, so he took it upon himself to build a city (build it and they will come!). So he did and they did! It became the fashionable place to holiday, and actually had a "season" (as in, "We're going to Bath for the season"). Anyway, that means that most of the building was done around the same time in a similar style so it is well laid out and quite beautiful. Everything is made of Bath stone, which is particularly good for building. There is a lovely abbey, with tons of windows, and remnants of the Romans here and there in bridges and whatnot. See the link below for pictures of my excursion to Bath as well as a Bath website with more information.

http://www.chrisinchiswick.zoomshare.com/1.shtml/Bath

www.bath.co.uk


I no sooner got home than I got sick and was in bed for two days during the week. I'm still recovering, and have been told by a frequent traveller that my slow recovery is likely due to the bad air in London. I have a persistent sore throat, and he said that is quite common for newcomers to have sore throats and breathing issues for their first six months.

Last Saturday, I went with a friend to a suburb called Watford. My friend had promised to help his buddy put up a prefab garden shed, so I tagged along. It was a great day - sunny, but not too hot. The wife, Loretta, and I got along famously and had fun. We made supper for the guys and the four of us chatted and played some games. A very nice day out!

This weekend I've booked a trip to Malta. I'm very excited! Malta is a tiny island just south of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea. It was the place where the apostle Paul was shipwrecked. My birthday is on Tuesday, May 2, and since Monday, May 1 is a holiday here, I took the opportunity for a long weekend and took Tuesday off. So I'm going for 4 nights, staying in a resort hotel and catching some rays! The island has an interesting history and I plan to do some checking out of ancient churches and chapels as well as walking around soaking up the culture and trying Maltese food. Too bad I couldn't bring Chipper, my Maltese dog, with me!! But I think he's happier in his home in Calgary. You can check out more about Malta at this link:

www.visitmalta.com

Not much other news to report. Been working a lot, getting caught up from my three weeks in Canada. They are doing some restoration work on our building, so it's currently covered by scaffolding and plastic, which means we have no view out the window and it feels a bit like a hothouse in here. We've been joking that we should be putting tomato plants in all the windowsills! I hope they're done the work soon, but based on my experiences so far, and the opinions of my coworkers, I'm not holding my breath!

As some of you might know, it was the Queen's 80th birthday last weekend. Lots of celebrating going on here, and I was pleased and touched to see that the British genuinely love and respect their Queen, and far from being outdated, the monarchy is alive and well. Queen Elizabeth is a brilliant monarch and leader, tireless and always gracious. She plays an important role in governing the nation and successive prime ministers from Churchill on have come to her for advice and guidance. A few days before the actual day, she held a birthday party for 99 people who have a birthday on the same day as her. Apparently the attendees were decided by lottery, so if you had the same birthdate (including year), you were eligible. So there were 100 (including her) octogenarians in the room together! I thought that was a classy thing for her to do.

Back in the saddle

I'm back in London, back at work, back to my life. It feels great!!

This morning I decided to stay on my train (instead if changing at Hammersmith), get off at St. James and walk through the park. I go through St. James Park, cut across in front of Buckingham Palace (yes, THE Buckingham Palace) and go through Green Park up to my office. There is a long pond in St. James Park, so I go over a bridge, and there are a lot of ducks and geese and even a couple of swans. It's so pretty. This morning the apple blossoms were starting to fall off the trees and making a carpet on the walkway. It was lovely!

I have to say that the English keep very lovely gardens and parks. They are well looked after and have lots of colourful flowers. Of course, maybe that's just these parks are big tourist spots, but I enjoy them thoroughly! Things are quite green here, despite the lack of moisture throughout the winter. I'm guessing it may dry up in the summer, but it's very nice now.

It's interesting how settled I feel. Since I'm all nice and legal now, I feel like a true resident. I've even noticed a lot more British slang creeping into my language.

I'm travelling to Bath for the Easter weekend. We have both Friday and Monday off, so I'm leaving Friday morning on the train and returning on Sunday night. It's very expensive to stay this weekend because everything is full up in Bath, so I had to get a family room, as opposed to a single. So I decided two nights was enough. I haven't done any research yet, so all I know is that it is the site of the ancient Roman baths and there are some nice spas there (although I won't be going into any of them!). I'll be busy doing internet research so I know where I want to go in my two and a half days.

I'll let you know how it all turns out!

I can see clearly now...

Well, it's all coming together! I obtained the declaration and faxed it to the British High Commission this morning! I'm now playing the waiting game again. Sigh...but I think I should hear tomorrow for sure.

In other news...I sold both my houses on Monday! The same day! The Linden house went to a guy from Calgary who bought it for his son and his son's friend, who are going to be working at Courtney Berg for the next year and a half. The Calgary house went to a nice young couple - their first house! I got decent money for both and they both close on May 1. So, as of May 2 (my birthday!) I'll be debt free!! How cool! No mortgage, no loans, no credit cards, no nothing!! What a great feeling. So, maybe that's why my visa was taking so long - God was keeping me here so I could get the houses sold and finish sorting everything out.

I am so excited about going back to London! I can hardly wait!! According to my colleagues over there, patiently waiting for me, spring has sprung indeed. The weather is nice and getting warmer, the flowers are blooming and everything is lovely. I am really looking forward to doing some exploring in earnest now that the weather is nicer. So many outdoor things I want to do - wander through Hyde Park, visit Greenwich, take some trips into the country - Brighton, Cornwall, Stonehenge, Yorkshire. Not to mention Scotand and Ireland and the rest of Europe!

I've been doing some shopping here in Canada- stocking up on things like microwave popcorn and deoderant. I also got some more towels and stuff. Everything is just so much more expensive in London, that it makes sent to buy as much as I can here and bring it with me. I just hope I can get my suitcase closed! lol

Well, I should end this epistle. I'm encouraged by the light at the end of the visa tunnel. I'm feeling good - like it's really going to happen this time!

Cheers!

Home is where the heart is.

I realize it's been several weeks since I posted last, and that is because I wasn't planning on posting until I got back to London. Well, I'm still in Canada! It's two weeks and on the way to three. Sorting out the visa paperwork is proving to take longer and have more red tape than I had originally anticipated. But, more on that later.

When I logged on and saw the title of my last blog, I smiled to myself. I've learned something very interesting. Somehow, over the last few months, London has become home. I noticed it shortly after I arrived in Calgary. Now, of course, part of the reason is that I have no place to call my own here. I'm living out of a suitcase, staying with friends or my parents. But it's more than that. I really want to get back home now, to London. To my flat and my neighbourhood and to work. I miss the office and the guys I work with. I miss learning or discovering something new every day. I miss my flat, with it's view and it's little washer and U.K. television shows. I want to go home and get back to my life.

Now, I'm sure there are a lot of you wondering why I'm still here. Well, here's the story.

I think I've mentioned that when I lost my passport the day I flew out, I also lost the visa that was stuck inside it by the British High Commission. So, when I came back to Canada on Thursday, March 16, I couriered an application for a new visa off the the British High Commission (along with my passport). On Wednesday, the following week, I received my application back, with a note advising that I hadn't sent them enough money. A real blonde thing to do, I hadn't double checked the amount required and sent $157 instead of $187. So, I turned it around the same day and sent a note along asking that they contact me if they couldn't get it to me by Friday, since my flight was due to go out on Saturday.

Well, no passport/visa arrived on Friday, but late in the afternoon an email arrived advising me they had received my application and were processing it. I rebooked my flight for Tuesday, on the basis that the first time I got the visa, it only took them a day or two to process. I waited for word or the document, but nothing arrived by Tuesday, so I rebooked my flight again for Friday.

Thursday afternoon I finally received another email from the British High Commission. This time, they advised me that in order to process my application, they would need a letter from me explaining why I'm reapplying, a new work permit with my new passport number on it (the work permit took almost a month the first time!) and proof that I was financiall able to maintain myself over there (what part of "work permit" makes that unclear?!). I replied with a letter via email explaining why I'm reapplying and that I had filed a Declaration re Lost Passport when I got my new passport, which would prevent anyone else from using my old passport and visa. They emailed me back the next day saying that they would just require a copy of that Declaration and would then finish processing the application. Happy Day! I was very excited that I was in the home stretch. That was Friday afternoon. I phone the passport office (toll free number to Ottawa) and they advise that to get a copy of this document, I would have to go through the Access to Information people! So, the Access to Information legislation is preventing me from obtaining my own document filed by myself with the government. My tax dollars hard at work! I faxed off an application to the Access to Information people, telling then that this is urgent and describing the situation I was in. I've heard nothing from them. If I don't get anything by tomorrow, I am going to the passport office in Calgary, camping out in their offices until they give me a copy of this thing. It's really quite ridiculous. Give me City of Westminster Waste Management any day!!!

So, my flight is rebooked for next Friday, and I am going to do everything possible to make sure I am on it!! Pray for me!!!