Short week

Yup I’m going to say, or at least write it again.

Its Friday all over again.

OK this one seems to have come around a bit faster than normal, but that is probably because it was a four day work week rather than a five day week. Oddly enough back in New Zealand this weekend is a long one. 

Queens Birthday Weekend in fact. 

Some kiwi’s will remember it not for  a weekend of fun

Off work, but the weekend their house began to fall off the hill. Yes that's right I said fall of the hill.

It happened in a wellington hillside suburb called Berhampore and Kingston. It reminded The Man and I of a similar but quite a lot larger event in Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty.

Then the houses were undermined after a lot of rain. OK you might say a lot of rain would do it. Of course I would, but in the Tauranga case the storm water drained not into proper drains but into the ground.

Ground which became so waterlogged it simply gave way.

Fortunately in both events nobody was hurt.

Small rhymes

Hmm

Cannot think what to write tonight.

It brings to mind one of a group of autographs we would write in each other’s books. And that had me wondering if anyone collect signatures these days.

Can’t think

Born dumb.

Inspiration won’t come.

Bad ink

Bad pen.

Gobble gobble

Amen.

Well it went something like that. Then there was this one

When you get married and have twins,

Don’t come to me for safety pins.

And then this one too

2Ys U R

2Y’s U B

I C u R 2Ys

4 me.

But I think the one I liked the best was one that my Mum wrote. If I remember rightly it went like this.

If you’ve had a kindness done, pass it on.

It wasn’t meant for you alone, pass it on.

Le it wander down the years.

Let it dry another’s tears

‘Til in heaven the deed appears.

Pass it on.

It's all in the way you say it...

Do you ever think about the words we use?

Well I do.

The English language is very complicated with words that sound the same but are spelled differently

For example

through, and threw.

ewe and you

hair and care

stair and stare

tongue and rung

stew and shoe

Then there are the expressions we use.

In a roundabout way, swings and roundabouts, drive around the roundabout, funfair roundabouts.

And we can plant a tree or work on an engineering plant. 

Set a jelly, set wheels in motion, have a full set of something, set fire to it, and set it down.

Lift things up or lift them down, take the lift, have face lift or have an experience that is  uplifting.

You can be a mine of information, go down a mine, lay a mine or say something is mine.

John can take the road on the left, feel left right out or get left behind.

There are all sorts of traps for the unwary language student…

Frustrations continue...

What a disappointment. After such nice weather over the weekend, we woke up to rain and chilly weather this morning.

Oh well put the sunscreen away and get out the brolly.

The rain has hung around all day.

I nearly jumped out of my skin at about four o’clock this afternoon.

Suddenly there was a very loud announcement saying that ‘fire has been reported in the building’, followed by instructions to stay where we were until further notice. The message was repeated several more times before the disembodied voice advised us that everything was Ok and apologised for any inconvenience caused.

It is six months to the day since The man sent visa application in. If you’re a regular reader you will be aware of the problems that The Man has been having with his visa application. If not, scroll back and have  good read. 

Unfortunately I don’t have any good news. Him and I are more frustrated than ever.

The following is a direct quote from the paperwork that accompanied the acknowledgement letter.

Issue 1: Progress

How long will my application take to consider?

Our service standards are to completed 95% of cases within six months, although we do aim to concluded case quicker than that. However certain cases are more complex than others and do take longer to conclude. We do agree to expedite cases in certain compassionate and compelling circumstances such as death or serious illness of a close relative. Documentary evidence must be provided in such circumstances

If you have not heard from us, and the six months target has passed, then please visit our website www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk for further guidance

So as instructed I visited the website, and what guidance did I find? 

Absolutely NONE!!

After much googling and searching I found the following information page

Waiting times

Settling in the UK

This page contains our service standards covering applications for settlement made inside the UK. The service standards explain how quickly we aim to decide these applications.
The service standards
We will:

• decide 95% of postal applications within six months; and
• decide 90% of applications made in person at a public enquiry office within 24 hours.

Hang on…isn’t that what I just read? 

Yes it is. And that is all I could find.

And have they achieved their standard?

Um…don’t have to be a genius to answer that one do you

How frustrating is that!

It really was much too nice a day to stay in, so we didn’t.

It’s a while since we’ve been to Greenwich, and it isn’t that far away so it was a good choice and easy to get to

 

On the overground to New Cross gate and then hop on a bus to Greenwich.

We had a wander around an outside street market selling all sorts of bric-a-brac, Ok so it was mostly junk. Around the corner was the covered market which is a slightly smaller version of Covent Garden Market. 

I waked past a stall that had a sign saying ‘Going Home’ and next to that was a fluffy to Kiwi.

I couldn’t resist asking the stall holder where home was. New Zealand of course. Only 46 days to go, she told us. 

Seems that in January they had applied for an extension to their ancestry visa, just one day late. Yes that’s right just a day late and they were given their marching orders. Passports confiscated not to be returned until they are on the plane out of the country.

A few weeks ago they were told that they had just a few weeks to leave.

Trouble is they have loved here for many years and own their own house here. The border agency wouldn’t take that into account. Not only that they had to go back to the border agency to get a photocopy of their passports  so that they could book their tickets out of the country.

With family in the US and Australia they booked a trip home via those two countries. When they took their tickets in to prove that they were going the response of the counter staff at the border agency was, ‘you can’t do that you have to go straight back to NZ’ The kiwi’s response was ‘no I don’t’. Then the counter person said ‘researched it have you?’ and yes she had. 

Like us she was very disenchanted with the service from the border agency.

We are still waiting after almost exactly 6 months.