Residence Visa

Finally managed to complete and submit the NZ Residence Visa application. I hadn't realised just quite how detailed this needed to be - medical certificates, x ray's, police certificates, photos, you name it, I needed it!

I thought that I would walk it into the NZ application centre, rather than risk posting it so I took it in last week. I was the only one in the application centre!

Galvin's

We met up with Alex and Matt for an evening meal at Galvin's. Located at the top of the Park Lane Hilton in Mayfair, this restaurant has some amazing views across London. We were lucky enough to be seated at a table overlooking the back garden of Buckingham Palace!

Food was good but not worth the expense...still the view helped to compensate.!

 

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Chief...the star of the show...

If ever there was a prize for the most unMalamute like Malamute, Chief would win paws down. He is simply daft and would not survive one night in the "Tundra".

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Mars Edit

Trying a new blogging Editor...Marsedit...hopefully this will make the picture uploads easier...

The Gadget Show

SJ and I went to the Gadget Show at the Weekend...we'd been meaning to go there for some time but just never made it for some reason...

It was actually smaller than I thought it would be but it was VERY busy!

They had some mean looking trikes though...

The Bean on the road...to be fixed...

One out all out

The Bean is off tomorrow to be fixed before it can be sold...the garage will be very empty...

The Sunbeam

One of the first things I've had to look at selling in order to effect our move to NZ has been my two vintage cars. This has been such a hard thing to do - they've been in our family since 1977.I know its the right thing to to do, I haven't been able to use them in the last few years hardly at all and there is nothing worse for them than sitting in the garage basically rotting away. I would have had to sell them anyway this year, its just the big E has made it more of an imperative.

The first to go is the Sunbeam...this is they one that is currently running with a minimal amount of problems. It was really sad to see it being driven away, however I know that whomever buys it is going to love it...

Next is the Bean but that has to go for mechanical work first...that's off at the weekend...

Things are hotting up...

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Shame its not the weather...that is as cold as ever...

No, what is happening is that SJ and I are moving to New Zealand! SJ accepted a role within her current company that is based out of Auckland and so we're off!

This has been in the planning for some months so its not like this came as a complete shock, but now we've made the decision, there's just so much you have to do and think of. We have lists about lists about lists...we have the dogs to move (injections / blood tests / quarantine / kennelling, etc) as well as selling two vintage cars, a house and sorting out rental for the other house. Thats's besides the Residence Visa, police checks, medicals, removals, etc, etc, etc...!

SJ will likely move out at the end of June to start her position end of July - I will not leave until the end of August as the dogs have to wait six months from when they had their rabies shot and have proven they are producing antibodies...this means the earliest they can enter NZ is about 12th September, so I'm going to wait until then before coming out. Fingers crossed, they have their blood test next week.

Once this is sorted, I can get them booked into the (limited) list of approved kennels in NZ. Luckily they only have 10 days quarantine apparently. There's a myriad of different shots / test they need before then but the Rabies one is the main one and takes the longest.

Tomorrow I'm off to have my Chest X Ray and Medical...amazing what you have to go through despite SJ being an NZ Citizen (as well as UK and Australian).

Having told anyone at work yet...need to choose when to do this carefully...my plans on arrival are to do up a house that is owned by SJ's family so I'm looking forward to getting out of the Rat Race for a while.

More snow!

It continued to snow throughout the weekend leading to some quite big drifts by the time we went over the Chase on Sunday morning.

The dogs loved it though...it was way past their bellies!

 

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March Snow

Been a reasonably quiet week. Had to travel to Dusseldorf on Tuesday but was only for the day. The rest of the week was spent in the office and not a lot else.

We came up to Staffordshire yesterday...just before the BIG FREEZE. Woke up this morning to around 6 inches of fresh snow...the dogs absolutely loved it. Supposed to continue to snow throughout the day and finally stop sometime tonight...

 

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Travels

Just waiting for SJ at Heathrow and was looking at the Arrivals board. Out of the 48 cities listed, I've been to 26...some notable omissions:

Berlin
Copenhagen
Madrid
Barcelona
Milan
Zurich
Stockholm
Rome
Venice

Need to do some European travelling!

Nice and fresh...

I walk through the village church every morning and there is often an amazing early morning sunrise. Thought I would try and capture it today. It was taken on my iPhone camera and is a surprisingly good quality.

Humdrum

Well there wasn't an upgrade although I did have an exit seat so not all bad.

Back in the UK now for a while - day trip to Germany next Tuesday but that's about it.

SJ travelled to Seattle yesterday - back at the end of the week. Like ships that pass in the night at the moment. Still leaves me to get on with the endless list of stuff to do around the house!

This week is also busy at work...travelling to Northampton this morning, Leeds tomorrow an then our boss of bosses is in on Thursday. Ho hum...

The ride...take 2

I'm at Calgary airport, early as usual. Just waiting for the flight to board. This is the plane I'm travelling on...full flight apparently...maybe an upgrade?

Last night in Stampede

We drove down from Edmonton to Calgary on Tuesday. It's about a 3 hour drive and pretty boring.

The temperature dropped significantly though - when we left Edmonton it was around zero but by the time we reached Calgary, it had fallen to about -10. The other noticeable thing is that Canada is incredibly dry so you constantly had this powder snow blowing across the carriageway...seemed dangerous, but they're all equipped for it with snow tyres, 4WD etc.

Calgary was the home to the 1988? Winter Olympics and is a strange mixture of cowboys and snow. Whilst we were there it actually snowed significantly ...I guess not unusual for this time of year.

Block Heater

I've been wondering what the Block Heater is in the boot of the rental. Well, I think I've figured it out...at each of the parking bay's at the hotel, there is a stanchion with 2 electrical sockets - I initially thought this was for electric vehicles, but now I've realised it must be to plug the Block Heater in...I note the weather forecast has it down to something like -15 later this week...might need it!

Ship in a bottle

As part of the WEM, there is a Pirate Ship parked at one end of the Mall. Quite amazing actually, it moves along rails at certain times of the day.

The ride

Picked up a Volvo XC 30 as a rental. It's actually quite nice. Good interior but a bit small - fast though!

West Edmonton Mall

Spent the day at West Edmonton Mall or WEM for short. It's apparently the largest shopping mall in North America and I can certainly confirm this is one big place! Over 60 fast food outlets!

(Canadian) Outback

Have arrived in Edmonton, Canada. Somewhere I've been looking forward to coming to...Canada is not somewhere I've been before but it's always been a place I wanted to visit.
So far it's lived up to its reputation...cold and snowy!

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Dog beds

I never realised just how much Malamutes love their beds..seriously, they could advertise the things, they look so comfortable in them. Chief is normally the one to settle in, however Indi has a good go as well...

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New Zealand, Bali, Oz, Singapore

New Zealand and Australia 2012 / 2013

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