Embarrassingly I only seem to blog every 6 months. I should probably just give up blogging altogether but worried people will think I have died. Very far from it!
This year and the end of last year has been a whirlwind of excitement and admin. We had a fantastic week in the Eastern Cape at the end of March. One night in Graaff Reinett, few nights in Port Elizabeth with Arno's parents, and 2 heavenly nights in Storms River Mouth (if you're an OG blog reader you'll know it's my favourite place ever). In April we went to Bloemfontein for a night for my graduation. (I passed my Postgraduate Dipl in Financial Planning). Will post pics of all the above below.
The BIGGEST news though is that Arno got a job on Isle of Man. He went there for a day when we were in the UK in Dec as well. It has been a massive task so far this year to get unabridged birth certificates, police clearance certificates, TB certificates, proof of relationship (I could apply for a spousal visa because we've been living together for more than 2 years), sell the house, get rabies certificates for the cats, write an English exam, resign our jobs, wait for Arno's Certificate of Employment from the IOM government, and finally - apply for the visas.... which we did 3 weeks ago.
We are very excited for this adventure! It's a BRILLIANT opportunity for both of us career-wise! I've obviously had to do a LOT of research about the medical side of things, and I've already made contact with Harefield Hospital in London, for transplant things. At the end of the day my medical care will work out SO MUCH CHEAPER than it is now. It's absolutely ridiculous how much of my salary goes towards medical expenses here. I won't cancel my medical aid in South Africa altogether, but I will move to a much lower plan, so that I can upgrade again one day if we had to come back. And save a LOT of money.
The island has a massive backlog in their immigration department, so the turnaround time for the visas is 75 working days once it reaches IOM after 3 weeks in the UK. So at the moment it looks like we'll be going over in Sept, but it could be faster. Fingers crossed. Unfortunately we don't get progress reports, so we will be hearing nothing until we're notified to fetch our passports. Eeeeekkkk.
Time for bed, see highlights of year so far below, and tomorrow is 6 years 7 months with these amazing lungs!!!
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