I am currently sitting at a table in the Telford Terrace apartment we rented since December - it has just gone 7:30pm on Sunday and the sun has set behind Mount Victoria. There are a few clouds in the sky but the wind has dropped to a breeze from the earlier 'roaring 40's' refreshing air. Why am I talking about the weather? Well for one I was trying to avoid starting with an apology for the delay in adding news, and another apology for not noticing that you had been missing the news...there, I managed to hide the apologies in the middle now.
But I guess the real reason I was starting with a weather news update was because there is a huge amount of Kev news since the last post on the 9th Feb.
Rather than drivel on I shall give you some very focused bullet points...here goes....
Job News
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Of the 3 jobs I recently went for the end result was all giving me interviews, some more than one. Two of them made offers, and I have accepted a very nice one of those! So yes, once I sign the contract tomorrow, I will be one of the latest additions to the Tower empire and a new Support Analyst in their Information Services team.
I will not bore you with too many details at this stage, but I will be providing a similar service to my Probation position, but with more liaison between contractors and less of the raw hands on programming. So on paper there is less to do but the package being offered is about £5k more, plus a bonus scheme and other benefits like life insurance.
Tower are a major insurance company with head offices in Auckland and an iconic building right on the waters edge here in Wellington, which is where I will be based. In fact the building is just across the bay from where I am sitting, so I can walk there in about 15 mins.
Visa News
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I am in contact with Wellington immigration office and once I get some paperwork sorted out tomorrow, I shall be handing in my working visa application. They have said that for the sort of work I will be doing, they can process the request in 24hrs - so I could actually be working by next week!
This may seem as it was fairly straight forward, but in actual fact I realised my police and medical certificates had both expired in Feb - so without a job offer before they did, I had to renew both of them over here. A top tip for anyone wanting to come out here is, providing you are confident you will pass the checks, get them done out here - I had my medical sorted within a day and signed off the next day, and the UK chief police officers association are now doing an incredible speedy 2 day service (for £75 mind you), which I then had DHL posted out here so within a week of filling out the form I had a new police certificate....if you need a visa police certificate in a flash you can check it out at http://www.dyfed-powys.police.uk/en/information/acrocertificates/
House News
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The rental on this place comes to an end on the 31st March and we will not be extending it as Caroline's house purchase has gone really well. To be honest I will not miss the place as apart from the bloody huge hills to climb up when walking here, there is something 'officey' about the place which makes it feel like a (very nice) hotel room. Still it served the purpose very well and has been stress free and it turns out, cheap, considering the position and views.
My UK house is now empty (see shipping below) and was put on the market on Thursday. I got an email on Friday night with an offer £11k below the asking price, which through some negotiation I have currently raised up to £4k below the £166,000 I was asking. I have not yet accepted this offer but I will know more on Monday I guess.
If I do sell it in the mid £160k's then I will have made £100k cash profit (after paying off my mortgage and legal fees etc), so I am now looking at investment options including things like off shore banking with 5% interest rates! Alternatively I could pump it all back into a new property out here and, with a small additional mortgage, I could get a city suburb 3 bed 1930's house. Or, as Caroline has offered (and in some ways needs) me a room rental in her Miramar home - I could do that for a couple of months and cream off the interest.
Shipping my stuff
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After what seemed like a show stopping 'no' from the shipping company when they discovered how many boxes of extra Kev stuff there was - they have now relented and will be shipping my 70 boxes and bed etc out with Caroline's stuff later this month. The ship will take 8 weeks to arrive in Wellington, and hopefully if I know which one it is, I will be able to watch it dock! As much as I like this laptop, it will be nice to have my computers and dvds available again.
Once it arrives I will either store it below Carolines 4 bed house (in the basement) or pay for local storage - but I am really looking forward to getting my bike back as I have yet to see anything like it in Wellington - you never know, but as I would be biking past Peter Jackson's studios in Miramar, I may get 'spotted' and be in a film!!?
Life and love
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This section can be completed with one name - Charlotte - who is still gracious enough to let me call her my sweetheart. She is currently job hunting and has about 5 applications on the go for communications/web content types of jobs. On Monday she should hear if a couple of them will be clever enough to give her an offer, but the waiting is taking its toll....arrgh, I remember what it was like as it was only the other week when I was in the same position.
Wellington still has a special place in my heart, along with Charlotte of course, and I am glad I made the life changing decision to come out here. It is finally coming together and looking good...of course you can never tell what is around the corner....mmm, I guess the threatened earthquake could be on its way!
Well there you have it, an wordy update, but now you know what has been happening!
Thanks for keeping in touch and sorry for not updating the blog earlier - but the last three weeks have been a little hectic and tense!
Oh, the blog title? It is from the latest Feeling album, which I have to say is pretty good (yes Daf, I know the press has been less than happy with it and you will not like it at all - but Penny should and it did get to number one). Anyway if you can listen to the lyrics to 'Join with us' track then I read this as a message to give up on the UK and come out here - but I would, wouldn't I?