Ok so in exactly 8 days I leave Christchurch, that’s 6 working days, which are the only type of days that matter to any government office – like say the British High Commission in Wellington. I guess you could say I’m getting slightly anxious with regard to the process of my UK working holiday visa application. And yes I am all too aware that applying for it so late in the piece in no ones fault bar my own. That doesn’t ease my mind any, unfortunately. Still. Visa First (the company through which I applied, basically just so they could check my crap and increase my chances of actual acceptance) told me there is a turn around of 15-20 for visas usually. So my timing for possible processing kind of just scrapes in on the lower end of that scale. From the date the British High Commission received my application to the last date I can receive it (while still in Christchurch) is 17 working days. Technicality much? How can it actually take that long anyhow? Efficiency is the name of the game people. (/end bitterness over fact that I am pulling double and sometimes triple shifts and yet people in visa office certainly need not work this hard). Am hoping aforementioned bitter rant does not wreck my karma and screw up any possible positive resolutions in way of accepted and received application.

I need to receive my *hopefully* accepted visa application and passport (yes, I currently have no passport, it is with the British High Commission too) before NEXT Friday. Because I leave Christchurch to road trip up to Auckland … and fly out of Auckland to London 2 weeks later on Friday 22nd August. So – I won’t be returning to my apartment in Christchurch, meaning if my application and passport arrive after next Friday … I’ll have a hell of a time trying to get them… being as I’ll be living out of a campervan for the time between leaving Christchurch and flying to UK.

To rectify this awful wee pickle I’ve found myself in I’ve been trying to get in contact with the big wigs in visa applications at the Embassy in Wellington. I phoned the general enquiries line and they gave me an 0900 number to phone instead, informing me that I would be charged $3.30 for the joy of using that 0900 number. They also suggested I send an email. So I wrote up a big wanky sounding letter reminiscent of the fact that I’ve spent the last week doing legal assistant work…and I sent the email off. A few moments later I received an autoreply informing me that they would endeavour to reply in 5 working days. That takes us to next Tuesday at the earliest. Yeah. Ok. That would be too late, buddy, seriously, if my query could wait a week, would I even be making said query?

So I tried calling the number, redialing for most of yesterday… and most of today. Busy signal everytime. Can’t begin to tell you how frustrating it’s getting. The hotline is apparently open until 8pm so I’ll keep trying until then. Anyway, the shitty thing is that even if/when I do get through … it’s still not definite that my little situation can be helped. As in, I’ll probably get through just to be told that there is nothing anyone can do to speed up the process and stiff shit, deal with it. Uhohs.

Looks like I might have to change my flight date and either fly back down to Christchurch to pick up my paperwork… or pay for reception at my apartment to courier it to… somewhere… or stop off at Wellington & pick it up from the Embassy (?) on the roadtrip from Christchurch to Auckland …. Or postpone trip indefinitely? … AND those options are assuming I even get granted the damn visa. If they deny me then I truly am up shit creek without a paddle, aren’t I? Buggar.

Please Universe/British Visa In Charge People in Fair Wellington Town: grant & deliver me a visa to England land this week? Or next, at the latest. Seriously. The end is in sight so I'm feeling a wee bit nervous about UK stuff at the minute. Me & the boy are set to leave Christchurch in 2 weeks. We'll then trip around NZ for another 2 weeks, then fly to England. So that means I have two weeks to recieve my visa... & then... well, not sure exactly what happens if I don't get it sometime in the next two weeks. Or erm, if I was to not be granted it at all. That would suck. & change the plans for the nxt year of my life. Not sure how, but I'm sure it would. Time will tell, right? Anyhow. The L Word is on. And I got me some perving on Jenny to do.

Customer Service Rep today, Legal Secretary tomorrow... tis the life of a temp. Keeping my fingers crossed that an approved UK visa gets couried my way this week. Though that may be all too eager on my behalf. In other travel related news, I have been researching campers for me the boys road trip from Christchurch to Auckland.. and I think we can get a good price on a Jucy Camper with a shower & toilet (kinda icky but will save on hostels & shit, I'm poor enough as it is let alone deducting road trip money then converting whats left to pounds, I'ma be livin' on crusts when I first get to the UK ... or goon. Probably goon.)

Anyways. Rambling. Go see my new TL article! It's .. like. ... rad. Or something. Lordy I am beyond sleepy. I'll write something more literate tomorrow. After coffee. (Had a good latte at the Gift Fair job this morning. Suprising considering it only cost me $3.50, bargain!).

OHmyLORD. I have not felt so full since like yesterday when I consumed 24 dumplings for dinner, yes really ages. I am attributing this feeling of bloated, indigestive disgustingness to he garlic naan I had over a curry lunch for the boy. Curry & me are good mates, I only ever have a mild mango curry anyhow so it never upsets me... garlic on the other hand, no go zone for me, I usually have plain naan but garlic naan came with the neato lil combo I had & I hate causing a fuss asking for menu variations. ANYWAY. Feel less than fabulous so am flat out getting some relaxing in before heading to Job #2 in an hour.

Overall, today was an extraordinarily productive day. I spent 2 hours in Starbucks writing an article about body image for TL. Also taught someone learning english that the correct expression when someone sneezes is "Bless You" (yes, random). I went to my biometric appointment at the immigration office. I booked my flights (via singapore, oi!). I sent off my documents and passport to the British High Commission (bye bye passport!). Did some groceries. & organised work for tomorrow, sunday and possibly 3 days next week with my recruitment agents. Tomorrow is reception... don't particularly like reception gigs, not much room for error... and it's corporate law so I have to at least look like I know what I'm doing - so hopefully its a quiet office with an uncomplicated switchboard.

Aight. So thats all from me, off to watch tellie and such (yay, shortland street!).

PS: I can't believe Sarah Silverman and Jimmy Kimmel broke up! I thought they were so cute together. ...Does that mean I get Sarah now?

I think the Universe was laughing at me today.

Not So Excellent Stuff To Happen To Kate Today:

Went who knows how long with blouse button open exposing bra & lady bits to staff at the law firm I temped at (and I thought people were staring cuz I was looking hot in my corporate gear. Sadly, no, they just saw boobs.)

My half days work turned into an 8.5 hour straight shift. Not SUCH a bad thing.

Ended up with toilet water all over self when cleaning loo at second job (special much?).

Slipped in puddle of urine (not mine) while scrubbing out a urinal. Ew & ew. Ended up with urine seaping through jeans into my thighs. Big massive ew. Poured bleach on self, it burnt, immediate regret & slap self for being retarded, twice over.

THERE WAS MORE... but the other things kind of pale in comparison to laying around in some random dudes piss.

BUT the day was certainly not all bad. In fact it was quite fabulous. Super duper excellent news: I recieved a courier with documents from the company handling my UK visa application. Basically, they've looked over my submission and reformatted as per British Embassy heaps important rules & guidelines & stuff. The only thing I need to fix is getting the copy of my bank statements certified which I expect just means a stamp & signature or something of the like. I have my biometric interview on Wednesday afternoon then I can send my documents straight off to the British Embassy people in Wellington... THEN it is a 15-20 (average) expected turn around for rejection or acceptance of application. Hoping mine falls into latter catagory. Because I haven't quite formulated a Plan B.

And on that note I am off to write for my poor neglected TL.

PS: Photos & write up about my heaps awesome road trip to the west coast & queenstown coming soon. Too tired now.

My flatmate probably thinks I'm in here getting myself off over Kate Moenigg or Leisha Hayley or something. I've been sitting here saying "YES. YES. YES. YES. YES YES YES YES YES!! YES. YES." in an attempt to reclaim my bogan accent. Earlier today I noticed that I'm sounding kiwi when saying YES, thats right, I was actually doing that horrendous thing they do with their vowels and pronouncing YES as YIS. YIIIIIIIIS. Give me bogan anyday, bitches, haha.

Well. I went & did it. My visa application has officially been posted. HOW. EXCITING. I know. Oh. Get this right. I went and got my passport photo taken.. and it cos $19.90. What. the. fuck!? I was like :0 rilly? Bastards! Ha. It was a fugly picture too, isn't that always the way? Today has actually been a rather productive day in fact, I spent three hours making chit chat with my hairdresser ... so now I'm all snipped and black tressed. Fabo. I also managed to shoot off emails requesting copies of my group certificates from my aussie employers so hopefully I'll get a nice little refund coming my way in a few weeks. Would be rather nice. AND. I tidyed my room. Proud man, so proud.

I wrote one article for TL just now.. and am half way through another but am being distracted by all the fabulous music I've just popped onto my baby vaio. I kissed a girl and I like ittttt, taste of her cherry chapstickkkkkkkkkkkkk... ayy ayy Ms Perry! Tis all. Am off to concentrate on something productive.. like TL..

Fox Glacier tomorrow, so if I dissapear thats why. Apparently the nearest supermarket to the hostel I'm staying at is like 170 kilometres away. I'm guessing this means they won't have wireless.....

Argghhhh. The coke machine in my building conveniently doesn't tell you if certain items are sold out until you've already put the money in. I just had to have a diet coke instead of a coke. RIPPED OFF!!! Diet coke sucks HARD. Grr.

In other news, I actually have 5 days work this week (this is exciting in the world of a temp).. 5 days of 12.5 hour days... double shift days, starting at 8am... finishing at 11:30pm... breaks in between of course, but not a whole lot of time for sleep. & i'm the kind of girl who needs her sleep. So come Friday I will be gagging for a pint or seven & absolutely hanging for a good sleep in on Saturday.

In two weeks time I'll be having a WHOLE week off though! Mum & my younger sister are over from Oz for the week- I'm meeting them in Queenstown. The plan is actually, providing all things go well, for me & the boy to take Thurs & Fri off work... drive across Arthurs Pass to Fox Glacier... do a hike through the glacier, drive down to Queenstown and meet up with Mum & my sis... then do a trip out to Milford Sound... Fun fun!

At least this week, between scrubbing loo's and answering phones, I'll have something super exciting to look forward too. That and oh.. ENGLAND! Eeepeep. Applying for Visa this week. I really am! I swear! Still gotta get passport photos, copy of bank statement.. and I think thats it. Winner. Damn I hope they don't reject it. I'm so paranoid I'll be that one loser that gets denied. That would so screw up my only plan for beyond tomorrow. Anyways, not gunna happen right? Hope not, as I plan to book flights... like.. this weekend. Maybe. (not sure if I can be that confident ahhhhhhhhhhh!). Aight. I'm just rambling now.

Ok it's almost time for my daily Shortie fix.. so I'm off.. to watch, eat, clean & sleep (then do it all over again).

Ahhhh Saturday, how I love thee. I slept in until nearly 10am which means I got a whole 10 hours sleep last night. Stellar. No work for another 48 hours, also stellar. I have a whole buncha stuff I need to get done though....

1. Finish half written articles for TL & post post post. I hate that I only have time to spend on that site on the weekends, the blogosphere works faster than that, I hate not being able to keep up with my own baby... I don't want it to die in the arse just because I am working 2 jobs and all that shiz.

2. Go to library and buy the 'Lets Go: Europe on a budget' book I hid on shift last night - it's going for like $2!! I had to have it. Bet some super sleuth has found it on me ha.

3. Laundry. I've been putting off doing a load of whites for like a fortnight now and I just CAN NOT sleep on these sheets another night without them being freshly laundered & fabulous.

4. Meet the boy for coffee & baby spotting (it's what we do. little kids are funny, like when they are just learning to walk and they hold both their arms out wide and lift their knees real high when taking steps and its almost as if their legs just can't stop, momentum carries them until they fall down, its great).

5. Plan route for NZ trip. We were going to do Kiwi Explorer but might be hiring a car or campervan and doing our own thing as will prolly be effloads cheaper and being as we are on our way to London, conserving funds is quite important.

In other news, I've been purusing a website called 'Secs in the City' (har har, geddit!?) which is for admin type jobs in London; just to get an idea of what I might expect to get paid and to see what sort of jobs are going. BUT perhaps am getting somewhat ahead of myself as I STILL havent sent in my visa app. I am pretty much done filling out the paperwork, I just need to print off bank statements & get some passport photos taken. I still have 10 weeks before I'm meant to leave, plenty of time.. right? (unless they reject my app, which will be rather devastating and I don't have a back up plan so lets hope this doesn't eventuate). Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh ok. Laundry time.

I tweeted on it yesterday but I'll say it again: from television station to cleaning loo's... the jobs we do while travelling (or on the way to travelling). Every night when I'm peering down a loo, I remind myself it's all gunna be worth it in the end- having the extra beer money for the UK & all. So now, toilet bowls and England are inextricably linked in my mind. Although I'm sure once I touch down in the UK I can replace loo's with say, pints, sticky tube rides & strolls through the park laughing at squirrels & such.

You know, just randomly, when I started this cleaning job a few weeks back, the supervisor cleaning lady pulled out a mop & bucket, looked at me slightly concerned and says "have you used one of these before?". I must have looked like a bit of a princess that night, or something.

I don't mind the job too much though, it's just the hours that are killing me. I work my day shift as an office temp, then come home for a few hours, then head back out to clean... by the time I get in it's close to midnight so I only get about 7 or 8 hours sleep and I'm such baby about my sleep. I need a lot of it! (or a lot of caffiene to substitute). & on that note, I shall retire to my quarters, aharrr. &.. think I shall appoint tomorrow to be katies-lazy-therefore-pizza-for-din-dins-day! Mmmmmmmmmm pizza.

The sun is shining. It's actually warm out. I have sushi & a chocolate muffin. Dr Phil is on. I don't have to be at work for another 7 or so hours.

I've had my GP appointment already. I cryed all the way over there. & I know I would've just walked on by the surgery if the boy wasn't there holding my hand. I know I've ragged on him as off late but he was there for me today. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. & now I think I might be okay. It was just hard because I am quite critical of people who can't help themselves, those who know they are messed up but continue to mess up & to realise you are exactly that type of person - that you possess all those characteristics you are so disgusted to see in others... it's hard. I felt half like I was admitting defeat today and half like I was making a huge step towards a better future. The way I feel isn't rational but if knowing that was enough I would've felt fantastic ages ago. Acknowledging your problem might be the first step but no amount of awareness on its own will help. Today was a big day.

That's all. No more emotional bullshit blogging. On & up. Afterall, I'm leaving for the UK in just over 2 months. 2 MONTHS! Best get started on that visa paperwork....

Deleted post as, in the words of my hero Ms Bridget Jones, I was so stupid, I didn't mean what I meant ... The entry went a little something like this:


Blah blah blah whinge blah whinge whinge. Thank god for for vodka.

I've been a bit mia on here lately, a bit of a case of if you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. And with a whole heap of silly boyfriend drama of late I figured the don't say anything at all policy fit best. As of Sunday, however, we are more than okay and I can start feeling half excited about going to the UK with him.

Super exciting news: We've set a date to leave Christchurch, 8 August. We'll spend a couple of weeks tripping around NZ before flying out of Auckland to London. So soon! I haven't even applied for my working holiday visa yet... though I'm not too stressed about that because I spoke with the Visa First people yesterday and they said I'd should be fine, should get my application processed in 4 - 5 weeks. I guess the problem comes if they decline my application - I don't want to think about that unless it happens. Nothin' like last minute.

Doing my last week of my assignment at the Coroner's office, after this week I have a 2 week job making morning and afternoon tea for the corporate office of a concrete firm. Or something. Shall be absolutely thrilling :P The ever challenging environment of office temp work. I found what looks like a great website for a recruitment agency for admin work in London. Keeping my eye on London allows me perspective... all these dodgy jobs ARE for a reason. Anyways. Speaking of dodgy jobs, I have 2 hours til I start shift on my night job so I am going to collapse for a bit.

The flatmate (who, by the way, has been demoted to 'girl next door' status, she's not interested in more then a 'hi' every now & then, aww) did it again. Off meat in the bin. What. the. fuck. Really, is this normal? Am I being anal? I mean, I understand that, being off, it needs to be thrown out... but who puts it in the kitchen trash bin and leaves it there for days? Why not walk 30 metres down the hall and pop it into the bin that gets emptied DAILY. Must admit, this meat debacle was less messy than the steak incident, it hadn't been there long enough to get stinky and she did manage to leave the plastic on this time so maybe I should just shut the eff up and be happy. Ha. Right.

& in other news... work! I'm temping at a charity welfare type office place. Really friendly bunch of people.. but i'm just there doing data entry and type-setting so it's kinda menial & boring. Things that have given me a wee chuckle include the following:

- the discovery of the word 'suicidality' in a brochure. Really? Suicidality?
- when entering a staff survey one comment was "Sometimes I wish I used my brain a bit more". I'm serious. Haha.

..but this one took the cake...

- "Apologies for the brown stain on the front page. A robin shat on it!" Lordy. Could've written that ON the front page so I didn't touch the robin shit. yeah THANKS ha.

But i'm not complaining. They've put me in my own office and I have a radio so all is well. I'm saving for England, god knows I need as many $$$ as poss... cuz the pounds conversion thing is gunna KICK my arse.

Today was one of those incredibly long emotionally insane days. I am fairly certain i set a world record for the amount of liquid to come out of ones eyeballs. Really. Who knew you could cry for like 5 hours straight and still have tears? But I'm fabulous again now & tis all that matters. Though, I didn't get time to do the groceries, so all thats left in my cupboard is some peppermint tea, loads of mini jams & cocoas stolen from recent hotel visits and a can of pumpkin soup. Not making for the most interesting dinner, and in fact, I actually opted for the last of the nachos I had tucked away in my room and a 600ml coke from the vending machine down on level 1. Cuz I'm a healthy bitch like that.

I think I'm going to join the lovely ladies over at iCiNG for the 'Transformation Challenge'. I need a detox. Or healthy start over, if you like. I wont be going to nuts though, like I could not possibly go raw or vego.. I love my steak. But I'll try and cut some of the crap. & I've joined a gym here, but my membership doesn't start til next Monday (as I expected to be spending most of the week in Dunedin, not sure if thats going ahead though). Though, I'm starting out hard - got me a personal trainer named Nadia, who will hopefully kick my arse back to the size it was about 6 months ago.

I got half a days work tomorrow, helping a government department move office. I've been told I'll be making boxes (oh yeahhhh), watering plants (but i'm not qualified!), filing (i love i love), tidying the stationary (will try not to steal post its) & cleaning the fridge (i live for this, maybe i'll find off steak?). NOT that I'm complaining, no really I'm not. It's a start and I love doing random crap. Lord knows i'm not in New Zealand to get ahead in the career stakes, I'll take whatever I can get here so long as it pays me at least $18 an hour, let's go!

Random... I love how some Brits pronounce their G's... like sinGING. & then they forget their T's... like BRISH.... rather then say briTish. But when it comes to France, they are always sure to say frooonnncceee in that snooty posh accent they rock, and laugh to no end (and try to imitate the 'strayan accent) when I say frAAAnce. That's all.

So by some turn of events I find myself at home & watching Dr Phil and Oprah, rather then filing and entering data at the office. Actually, it's hardly suprisingly that I've finally gotten myself to the point of having to chuck a sickie. The rest of my office has been sick this past couple of weeks, which is why I felt no hesitations in soldiering on through the sneezes, tickly throat and coughing attacks of the past couple of days. By yesterday the sneezing had haulted, coughing was at bay, my chest was still a bit tight but I thought I was on the up and up. Well, that was until I wokeup at 4am with earaches. BITCH! I had about 3 weeks of earaches when I was in the UK, they were so bad I ended up in bed with a hot water bottle on NYE instead of out partying in London! Devo!! Anyways, they're back. I'm doped up on Neurofen Express & they are doing a fabulous job of temporarily masking the pain. I only have 2 left and I bought them while I was in the UK, not sure if you can get them here in Oz. Have sent my mother on a mission to the chemist to see if she can pick up something of similar pain eradicating strength. I so can not have this earache in a week.. earache + ears popping on flight = massive pain! On the plus side I am taking advantage of this time off to burn my music onto my vaio and go through my wardrobe to cull the unneccessaries. I've listed the shoes I won't be taking with me on ebay and am getting a big bag of stuff ready to drop off at the Salvo's. Then I only need to organise pay slips & important papers, pack my bag and go to the doctors. Right on.

I have 6 more days left at my current temp job. And 10 days until I flight out to New Zealand. Then about 5 months until I leave NZ for the UK. It's good having stuff to look forward too. In fact, I can't imagine life stuck in some ordinary job in some ordinary city with nothing exciting or unpredictable on the horizon.

I leave Australia next Saturday on an 8:30am flight from Sydney Airport. First stop is Queenstown for a week, then up to Christchurch (for god knows how long, but certainly no longer then September... thats my get-to-the-UK deadline). I'm flying Qantas, I've never flown with them before.. I usually opt for the cheap arse flights on Jetstar or Virgin Blue. Anyways, I have quite a few things to do before leaving Australia, so I've decided to finish my current temp assignment on Wednesday giving me Thursday and Friday to get all those loose ends tied up. So far on the to do list is;

• Gather group certificates & payslips for 07/08 (as proof of funds for UK VISA application & also for completing etax return come July.. or whenver the hell we are supposed to do that)
  
• Sort out what clothes I'm taking and then take the rest to Vinnies.
  
• Go to the GP & have a check up (& hope they dont expect me to stick around for bloods results & the like, because it's not happening!)
  
• Burn the rest of my music CD's onto my laptop
  
• PACK. Actually put it all into the rucksack (!! yay)
  

It's a strange feeling, leaving Australia. I mean, I did it a few times last year but each time I knew I'd be back sooner rather then later (well except the time I left in Sept, but that happened so fast I had no time to think, really). This time I know that I won't be back for years. I think it was a good thing, going to the UK over Christmas. I was originally massivley pissed off about spending so much money on a 1 month trip to the other side of the world, and at Christmas, the most expensive time of the year (my return flights set me back 3 grand. Yup. 3 grand.). I mean, especially when I was trying to save to go do the 2 year working holiday thing. But, it kind of gave me an idea of what I was getting myself into. Baptism of fire ice. Luftansa managed to lose my rucksack somewhere between NZ & London so all I had was what I was wearing and the jack shit I packed in my carry on (I packed the hair straightener, but no sensible shoes.. what? AND only 1 change of knickers. It's ok, I've learnt). I was wearing thongs, after all, it was like 30 degrees when I left NZ... It was below 0 degrees when my flight touched down in Heathrow. My toes were lovely shaded of frozen blue.

The thing that struck me the most though, was the sky, it really was grey. I got a few days of blue sky, but on a whole it was quite dreary. I know I know, everyone knows England is like that, but now I REALLY get it. And it getting dark at like 4pm in winter. Not sure how I'm going to go with that- you know, going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark. Strange. Anyways. No use stressin' the small stuff (better to stress about all that moola I spent over Christmas and New Year that i'm now having to resave)- good times ahead, roll on England !