Dan woke up a little hungover this morning, unsurprising after his antics last night. We had cups of tea and toast for breakfast before mum and dad set off to do some chores. Dan sat and taught Justina how to polish silver while I played on the Internet, which is when I got a Skype message from mum asking us to bring the basket of laundry to Pierre's house that they had forgotten, so mum could put a load or two on. On the way to the house we stopped off for yet another visit to Mica to replace the stupid soldering iron. Even though we think the peeling back of the plastic at the handle could have been our fault, we figured it was worth a shot to show them and see what they did.
We were in luck. The woman on the main desk was quite shocked when we showed her the soldering iron and offered to replace it straight away. When we explained that it was the second 100W iron we had been given in as many days and asked to upgrade to the 60W iron and pay the difference, she was very happy to comply. We walked out with a slightly more expensive soldering iron, but pretty pleased with ourselves all the same. I hope it works! When we arrived at Pierre's house and dropped off the laundry, we were given a list of things to do nearby. We drove to a nearby supermarket called Melissa's and we exchanged the empty 25l bottles of water for full ones, bought a couple of bits of food and some Mosi beer for Dan and dad in refundable bottles and a returnable crate.
When we got back to the house Dan set to work on the smoker and got it up and running. It was finally working!! We had bought a big block of mozzarella cheese at Melissa's and we put that into the smoker along with the garlic. It worked really well but we kept having to turn the iron on and off because otherwise it got too hot. That afternoon we managed to get hold of JD and Charlotte who were at her house in London for Christmas, and had a long chat with them about what we had been up too. Dan's folks also rang and we chatted to them for a long while, during which mum and dad went next door to meet the neighbour and didn't return!
We got hungry enough to start the dinner of pesto pasta with smoked mozzarella cheese, and didn't wait for mum and dad to come home. We actually found the pasta to be quite plasticky because of the cheese, but when mum and Dan finally got back (quite tipsy I might add!) they loved it, so it wasn't a waste. I put the movie Spud on, a South African film about a young boy who goes to boarding school and what he gets up too. The movie is based on the first of a set of four famous books by John van de Ruit about his time at the Michael house boarding school, and a lot of what he gets up too reminds me of my time at DSG, so I loved the film. It finished just after 10pm and that signalled bedtime for the Beale-Whiteley household :)
Monday, 7 January 2013
Tuesday, 1 January 2013
Epic Adventure -- Day 114 -- 21/12/2012 -- Lusaka
After showing and having breakfast we set ourselves up with a long list of things we wanted to accomplish by the end of the day. On it was a visit to the British embassy to get Dan a spouse visa, go to the shops, change the soldering iron for one that worked and fetch some of our things from Pierre's house. First on the list was the most pressing, the visit to the British embassy. When we got there we were unceremoniously bounced back and forth between the entrance gate and the visa gate, because essentially, no one wanted to deal with us. After eventually convincing the main gate that the visa section had no idea what it was doing, we were scanned and signed in and went to see someone in the embassy.
Unfortunately, that was when everything fell apart. I know that with every prophecy about the end of the world that does not come to fruition, someone will make a link to an occurrence in life that "must" have been what "they" meant. With the Mayan Callander end of the world debacle supposedly happening today, we joked that although the world would most likely not end, something bad may happen that would be linked to what the Mayans prophesied. Turns out we were right, but we didn't really know how close to home that occurrence would be. With the previous immigration rules that I had researched about getting Dan back into the country after we got married, there wouldn't have been an issue about doing that at the airport upon our return.
We found out today that the immigration rules have been changed by Theresa May at the beginning of adult, that essentially prohibited Dan from entering. Now, I will not bore you to death with the details, but essentially I don't have enough money or a well paying job for long enough to be able to "support" Dan for his return to Britain. It's a bit hard to hold down a £18,600 a year job as a recent graduate, even more so when you are on a long and well deserved honeymoon. That we paid for. According to Theresa May all illegal immigrants and benefit wankers are more than welcome in the UK, but Dan and I as two recent university graduates, having done more for ourselves than almost every other 23 year old I know, are not.
If you want to read a summery of the story, have a look here -- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2253557/Newlywed-23-faces-told-quit-UK-falling-foul-visa-rules.html
We had no idea that the story was being run in the Daily Mail, we only spoke to the Courier newspaper in Fife. Although it is probably going through everyone's minds why didn't we research the law more and understand what was going on, we have found out that it was no published in any way that would have been available to us, and as soon as the law passed, even if we had gotten married the next day, Dan would have had to leave because I hadnt held down a ridiculously high paying job for a graduate for six months. Bit hard to do that when you are still at university, but "there are no exceptions". We have subsequently found many stories similar to our of people just as smart being caught out by these laws, and being treated terribly.
Needless to say, I was in tears on the way home, and demanded that dad come home straight away from work some could ring immigration in the UK with his phone. I should have realised that it woud be a useless endeavour, and we didn't get anything resolved. They refused to help us because we were not in the UK, we should speak to the UK embassy. Already done that! As I'm writing this a few days later, I can let you know that the story developed and is even worse that we thought. I can't get a green card quickly, and as you know Dan cannot live in the UK, so basically I cannot live with my husband for at least 9 months. Nothing short of a Mayan apocalypse.
After that bombshell we wanted to feel at least slightly productive today, so we headed off to Pierre's house. Along the way we stopped off at Midas to complain about the broken soldering iron from yesterday. We are not really sure whose fault it was that the iron doesn't work, it worked with the round pin plug and the converter, but when Dan switched it over to a square pin it stopped working. We tried all kinds of fuses and it still didn't work. I was expecting denial and aggression from the shop that the malfunction was our fault. We were very pleasantly surprised when one of the assistants swiftly replaced the soldering iron, and even offered to replace the plug for us, which we declined and just bought a converter instead.
We then drove to Pierre's house to fetch some of the things we had left behind, and when we got home with the easily acquired soldering iron, Dan set out to fix the cheese and garlic smoker. I did a little research about the UK visa application process, which is when we realised that I needed to have the well paying job or the large savings for at least six month before we could even apply for his UK visa. At this point Dan managed to melt the plastic grip back off the soldering iron, as he had placed it upright in the box and the smoke from the wood chips was really hot. It's ok though, we will just try get another new one tomorrow :) I think they will have had enough of us by then! Dan and I both had large gin and appletisers while braaiing the boerwors outside because we had a really long power cut. After more drinks and commiserations about our visa issues it was off to bed :)
Unfortunately, that was when everything fell apart. I know that with every prophecy about the end of the world that does not come to fruition, someone will make a link to an occurrence in life that "must" have been what "they" meant. With the Mayan Callander end of the world debacle supposedly happening today, we joked that although the world would most likely not end, something bad may happen that would be linked to what the Mayans prophesied. Turns out we were right, but we didn't really know how close to home that occurrence would be. With the previous immigration rules that I had researched about getting Dan back into the country after we got married, there wouldn't have been an issue about doing that at the airport upon our return.
We found out today that the immigration rules have been changed by Theresa May at the beginning of adult, that essentially prohibited Dan from entering. Now, I will not bore you to death with the details, but essentially I don't have enough money or a well paying job for long enough to be able to "support" Dan for his return to Britain. It's a bit hard to hold down a £18,600 a year job as a recent graduate, even more so when you are on a long and well deserved honeymoon. That we paid for. According to Theresa May all illegal immigrants and benefit wankers are more than welcome in the UK, but Dan and I as two recent university graduates, having done more for ourselves than almost every other 23 year old I know, are not.
If you want to read a summery of the story, have a look here -- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2253557/Newlywed-23-faces-told-quit-UK-falling-foul-visa-rules.html
We had no idea that the story was being run in the Daily Mail, we only spoke to the Courier newspaper in Fife. Although it is probably going through everyone's minds why didn't we research the law more and understand what was going on, we have found out that it was no published in any way that would have been available to us, and as soon as the law passed, even if we had gotten married the next day, Dan would have had to leave because I hadnt held down a ridiculously high paying job for a graduate for six months. Bit hard to do that when you are still at university, but "there are no exceptions". We have subsequently found many stories similar to our of people just as smart being caught out by these laws, and being treated terribly.
Needless to say, I was in tears on the way home, and demanded that dad come home straight away from work some could ring immigration in the UK with his phone. I should have realised that it woud be a useless endeavour, and we didn't get anything resolved. They refused to help us because we were not in the UK, we should speak to the UK embassy. Already done that! As I'm writing this a few days later, I can let you know that the story developed and is even worse that we thought. I can't get a green card quickly, and as you know Dan cannot live in the UK, so basically I cannot live with my husband for at least 9 months. Nothing short of a Mayan apocalypse.
After that bombshell we wanted to feel at least slightly productive today, so we headed off to Pierre's house. Along the way we stopped off at Midas to complain about the broken soldering iron from yesterday. We are not really sure whose fault it was that the iron doesn't work, it worked with the round pin plug and the converter, but when Dan switched it over to a square pin it stopped working. We tried all kinds of fuses and it still didn't work. I was expecting denial and aggression from the shop that the malfunction was our fault. We were very pleasantly surprised when one of the assistants swiftly replaced the soldering iron, and even offered to replace the plug for us, which we declined and just bought a converter instead.
We then drove to Pierre's house to fetch some of the things we had left behind, and when we got home with the easily acquired soldering iron, Dan set out to fix the cheese and garlic smoker. I did a little research about the UK visa application process, which is when we realised that I needed to have the well paying job or the large savings for at least six month before we could even apply for his UK visa. At this point Dan managed to melt the plastic grip back off the soldering iron, as he had placed it upright in the box and the smoke from the wood chips was really hot. It's ok though, we will just try get another new one tomorrow :) I think they will have had enough of us by then! Dan and I both had large gin and appletisers while braaiing the boerwors outside because we had a really long power cut. After more drinks and commiserations about our visa issues it was off to bed :)
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