One stressful week later

What a week - I think this is the longest time I've gone in the UK without posting some drivel or another! The reasons are good though. The first being, that my Highly Skilled Migrant Visa application is now GONE, in the post, out of my hands, towards some little old immigration worker in Sheffield somewhere. I will wait to see if I am successful before I start spouting advice about how you should, or shouldn't make this application (as I did it myself to avoid the £800 agency fees - a smart move? we will see). But suffice to say, if you do this application yourself, and it doesn't take you hours of hard work sweating over meticulous detail and stressing about getting every little piece of evidence you can, then you haven't worked hard enough! Mine had header pages, an appendix, blood samples, everything! (ok, maybe not blood samples, but it wouldn't surprise me if they'd asked). This past week I've been between banks, past employers, a notary lawyer, the library, the post office etc more times than i care to remember. All I can say is, lucky I am unemployed and don't have to find time out of an office job to get all this done! (relax Pru, breathe in). Anyways, it is now gone, and my fate now lies with the gods....cross everything for me!

The second reason why my posts have been sporadic of late, is that, being big bad poor working travellers in Putney,. we have for three happy months been, well, shall we say 'borrowing', our neighbours unsecured wireless internet connection. And you wouldn't believe the inconsideration, but they've gone and slapped a password on the damn thing! (the boys are adamant that no-one has been surfing porn, but we can't think of any other explanation as to how we were busted). Anyways, any person who has lived in England for any amount of time will know that getting any kind of service man to connect you to anything can take a stupid amount of time, so I have taken to frequenting the 'wireless internet' scene in Putney. This means prostituting myself around all the various cafe's which offer wireless internet and seeing just how long I can make one pot of tea last so as not to appear i am sponging off their services (even though it is completely clear that I am doing so - the other day I sat on one cappuccino for five hours).

I always used to fantastise about living like this when i had an office job.. ie sip cappuccinos in cafe's all day...but let me tell you it is not all it is cracked up to be. For one thing, I've never noticed just how many young mums and therefore, screaming children, there are in Putney. Millions! And they all seem to sit right beside me. Always. One little toddler spent a good five minutes poking my bum yesterday. And you have to smile and say 'oh isn't he cute' and give that knowing smile to the mum who looks kinda embarrassed even though you really just want them to leave you the hell alone. Actually, when I looked at the mother of the bum-poker, she looked shocked and in a high-pitch squeak said "it wasn't me"! well, duh! Am i sounding really awful? Blame it on the stress of a visa application!