DOING LIFE

I’m writing this while sitting on a huge, comfy couch in a spacious holiday house in Old Hunstanton, Norfolk. D and I are about to have a leisurely breakfast, then M and A will drive down to one of their favourite pubs, we'll go for a 7km walk and have lunch. Yesterday we also started the day with croissants, then D and I walked about 8km along the coast path to Thornham, where we met M and A, went to Titchwell Marsh for some wandering and bird spotting (we spotted Rory McGrath in the car park, which was a highlight for me!) and then had lunch at a great little deli café. We’ve joked since before we left that our plans run out after the Norfolk holiday and, with the exception of a couple of family get-togethers and “Let’s have dinner!” potential engagements, that remains true.

Two days ago, our one month anniversary of arriving in the UK slipped by without any excited blog posts or tweets from us. In fact, it was only marked by us saying to each other, “Hey, did we arrive on the 4th?” and “Oh yeah, it’s been one month”.

There haven’t been that many blog posts from us, have there? I’ve felt a bit resistant to blogging about our comings and goings in the way I/we usually do when we’re over here (something like a daily diary with the super boring bits taken out and photos added in). Doing that feels like a chore – and I think it weighs so heavily because there isn’t really an end in sight. Other than our 5-6 month gallivant around Europe back in 2005 (when we started this blog), we haven’t been travelling for more than six weeks at a time. When we travel for that sort of period, the blog inevitably falls behind a week or two – but it’s easy to reminisce and pore over photos when we get home, and write the last few blog posts with a tinge of nostalgia.

That’s not going to happen this time. We’re not going home next week. We’re just doing life: it’s not going to pause suddenly and give us time to catch up with blog posts and photo uploads and postcards (we’ve bought half a dozen, written none!) and phone calls and conversations with friends and paperwork and whatnot. This is it, we’ve migrated/repatriated!

There are other things reminding me of the permanence of this move, too. I’m looking for jobs and internships (I’ve applied for one and have another half a dozen lined up to do when we get back to London) and D’s applying for his course. I need to set up a bank account, which is already proving difficult. I will need a haircut in a week or so and I’ll have to go through the whole horrible process of trying to find a friendly, inexpensive, decent hairdresser. In another couple of months, I’ll need to get my T injection. Before then, I need to figure out whether to register with a local doctor or if I’ll go to a travel clinic. At some point I'll get my examiners' reports back for my dissertation and I'll have to do some more work on that. Will I get a desk, go to a café every day, work on the couch? One of my favourite shirts has a big hole in the armpit and M and A don’t have a sewing machine. Do I buy one? Borrow one? Take the shirt to be mended (it’s an old shirt, not worth the money)? Throw it out? Or (if you know me, you’ll see this coming) keep the shirt inevitably until I manage to repair it (when?) or detach myself from it (might take a long time!).

Because this is a relatively long-term move, it’s hard to write as I usually would when we’re travelling for a month or so. Maybe once our plans run out and we get down to the business of making a more permanent life here we actually will have time to reminisce about our travels and edit and upload photos and write blog posts and do all this admin – but at the moment I’m just having a fun and relaxing holiday!

Now, for a toasted cheese sandwich and a cup of tea.

LAST DAY!

We've just woken up from our last sleep in our flat. We've been sleeping on the floor for the last week, as a friend bought the bed! Luckily some other friends have let us borrow some camp mattresses, and we have a bunch of fabric going to the opshop that includes a very thick curtain to use as a base layer!

I planned to write more here about the process of packing up the house and migrating, but in the end it's just been too busy. I submitted my PhD dissertation for examination just under two weeks ago; since then, it's been a whirlwind of packing, garage sale, moving things, catching up with friends, packing, cleaning, catching up with friends, visiting Melbourne's fine eateries, packing our storage container, packing, weighing our bags, sending boxes, packing, doing paperwork, packing, and so on. This has been much more stressful than finishing the PhD! I think I didn't (let myself) realise what a big thing it was not just to be moving house and going overseas, but to be vacating a house, putting things in storage, organising to rent the flat, moving to live overseas, etc. I'm thankful for all the things I did well in advance!

We have found a property manager to look after renting our flat while we're away - they come recommended by our financial adviser/power of attorney, so it is good to know they have a working relationship. The painter (friend's dad) is coming to finish off the painting and put up the blind, etc. tomorrow. The property manager will get the carpets steam cleaned, and hopefully everything will be ready to go for an inspection this weekend. I hope we get some tenants who like this flat as much as we do!

It's been sad saying goodbye to all our friends and family here - and to Melbourne itself, though I guess in a way I've been doing that for months. I think I've been pushing the bigness of it all aside, as I haven't had the time or space to do anything but organise, organise, organise. In fact, I think the fact we're leaving hasn't really sunk in at all - I didn't even have anxiety dreams last night. I'm also trying to be in the moment, to enjoy hanging out with friends when we do and give them lots of hugs, to listen to the distant sounds of trams turning the corner and birds calling in the day. Today we'll go for a quick walk along the creek and breathe the air. Tonight we'll see the lights of Melbourne spread out below as we take to the sky...

Tomorrow we'll be in London.

VISA: I HAS ONE!

Today I went and picked up a package from the Post Office. Inside was pretty much all the paperwork I sent for my visa application (they kept copies of only a few key documents) and my passport with a brand new visa inside! It's valid from the end of September 2011 to December 2013, multiple entries allowed, no recourse to public funds. It unfortunately lists me as "Sex: F", but then, that's what matches my passport. I'm just pleased to have it in my possession!

VISA APPLICATION: HARD COPY

A couple of people have privately asked about what you need to submit for a UK settlement visa application. I thought I'd record what we've sent off to give others an idea. Here is the (slightly abridged) list of the forms and docs we sent.

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1. Application forms: VAF4A and passport-sized photograph; VAF4A Annex (ELT).

2. Identification: My current and previous passports; my current birth certificate; copies of DB's passports.

3. Personal statements and letters of support: Personal statements from me and DB, outlining the history and meaningfulness of our relationship and some of our plans for the future; Supporting letters from two friends and my parents vouching for the sincerity and longevity of our relationship.

4. Details of joint commitments: Title and homeloan details for our flat; joint and bank statements going back to 2004 (one per year); copies of our wills made out to each other (& our families).

5. Evidence of cohabitation: Copies of both our drivers licences showing the same current address; Bills, invoices and receipts linking us to the same address going back to 2005 (one per year).

6. Details of our financial situation, accommodation and potential for employment in the UK: Financial plan drawn up by our financial adviser; Statements for our joint and individual bank accounts for each of the past 6 months; Both our payslips for the last 3 months; Evidence of enrollment letter from my uni; Both our CVs; Letter of invitation from DB's parents for us to stay with them (including photos of the room); Proof that DB's parents own the house in which we will stay.

7. Further supporting evidence that we have been in a relationship akin to marriage and have been cohabiting since 2002: Copies of photographs of us together with explanations of where we were and what we were doing; Photocopies of postcards, wedding invitation and thank-you cards addressed to us both.

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You are meant to send in the original and a photocopy of every piece of evidence you submit. I sent my parcel off yesterday - it weighed over 1.3kg! I used Australia Post's Platinum Express (the visa people don't accept registered post), which cost me about $30 (including self-addressed return bag). I used the tracker this morning to see it safely delivered to the Sydney GPO Box Centre. Now it all gets shipped off to Manila to be processed.

And we wait . . . eep!

ONLINE VISA APPLICATION

Well, I've submitted the online component of the visa application for settlement in the UK. It's been a very long time in the planning - finding out how much it would cost, when to apply, what documents we'd need as supporting evidence, and then getting everything together, making photocopies of the original docs we'd need to send off for our records (and having just done the application I realise we need ANOTHER photocopy of EVERYTHING we're sending so they can keep a copy, too).

I have an appointment in the city for them to collect my 'biometric data' on Monday, then I need to send everything off to get processed (it goes to a PO Box in Sydney, and they take it to the regional processing centre in Manila). Hopefully I will then have a visa!

(Processing times vary. this site says, "Settlement and Certificate of Entitlement to the Right of Abode are currently being dealt within 6 weeks." On the link, however, it says that, in March, 100% of the 97 applications for settlement were processed within 90 working days (plus 3-4 working days each way for postage and shipping). That's . . . FIVE MONTHS! However, 95% were processed within 10 working days, so let's hope mine goes smoothly.)

They can post-date the visa for up to 3 months from date of processing (i.e. if they approve my application on 20th June, the visa can start any time up to 20th September). I know my travel might be outside that date, but it's better to get in early in case my application takes longer (which it might, since I'm trans and who knows what they'll think of that).

I'm a bit adrenaline-y at the moment!

If you want to know more about the process, let me know and I'll type out a bit more.

FUTURES

(I love the way that futures hover, unmanageably big, beautiful and slightly out of reach, like a kite, but inevitably there’s the process of trying to catch at it, to tug down a string to let it become at least mildly real)

~ Wildly Parenthetical's words

There will be more discussions of futures on this blog in 2011, I think, as we start attaching the strings of bureaucracy and reality to our kite-like fancies of moving to the UK in September(ish).

Conversely, the knowledge that "this will probably be our last summer/autumn/winter in Melbourne for a few years" makes me all the more determined to immerse myself in the wonder of the present, to let it seep into my pores. Perhaps there is part of a desire to carry an embodied memory of this home with us wherever we go, like prune-y skin after a bath.

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D's Australian citizenship ceremony is on January 26th. After that, I will start collecting paperwork in earnest for my UK visa application.