A Place Down Under

17 April

I need to write some words down now as life as Tash and I know it might hugely change over the next few days and I want to remember what goes on.  If the past few days are anything to go by they sure will be action packed!

With Tash being made redundant we decided to look at jobs overseas as well as within the UK.  One option to us was New Zealand, a destination we have long spoken about moving to and hugely appeals due to the lifestyle and work/life balance.

Tash seems to have a few very positive and helpful recruitment consultants on side, and numerous Skype chats have been had followed but CV's being presented ... but as yet getting nowhere.

Until Now.

Basically a Government Department in Wellington has failed to fulfil a position and having seen Tash's CV they are very positive about her.  So positive that they want to see her face to face.  Of course Tash has agreed to this, on the condition that they fly her over.  It then gets complicated because there are clients and recruitment consultants and all other parties involved ... but it has all boiled down to the recruitment consultant offering to book the flight and Tash going halves if she doesn't get the job and paying the full amount back to him (the business I presume) if she does get the job.

This currently leaves us in the position whereby we are rushing to get Esme a passport so she can fly out with Tash.  The next decision is to decide on the length of her stay as we don't yet know how many interviews Tash will have nor how quickly she will get an answer to this interview.  We suspect they will want her to start immediately if she does get offered the job which could even see her not board her return plane and actually stay in NZ.  Alternatively we might decide to give NZ a go anyhow, and Alfie and I will join her a few weeks later (so as to see my sister get married) and then see if Tash's redundancy payout will support us for long enough for her to find a job.

Craziness.  We are currently running around working out what to do in case she does go out and not return.  We need homes for chickens, the dog, the snake, the chinchilla and of course not forgetting destinations for cars and caravans!  Today is 17th March.  Her flight is potentially 27th March.  What a ten days this promises to be!


18 April

A quiet day on the NZ front today.  I guess it comes from recruitment consultants needing to go back to clients to get everything 100% confirmed before everyone commits. Tash has told Matt (the recruitment consultant) that she knows where she stands with regards Visas, and also plans are in place for Esme to join her with babysitting facilities already sorted.  Hopefully this will put people at ease who might have had doubts.

We ran up to see Larry in the afternoon to get him to countersign Esme's passport photo.  We have an appointment with the passport office tomorrow and we'll be getting a fast track 7 day turnaround passport for her.  This means Tash and Esme should be good to fly together anytime from 8 days time!

The next few days promise to be interesting!

19 April

Another crazy day today.

We awoke to the news that the interview has been confirmed, and the recruitment consultant saying "lets get this moving!".  He is due to call when he is in the office which could be anytime from now ... so I am typing fast!

This left us just a passport to sort for Esme, and we had the appointment booked for 4pm.  As Tash and I were checking we had all the documentation together and that the forms were filled correctly her phone rings.  Turns out its ANOTHER recruitment consultant, this time wanting to put her forward for a 12 month role in Hong Kong!  So now there are two potential foreign destinations for us!

We then realise Larrys signature was a few mm outside 'the box' and a quick call to the powers that be confirmed that this would make their machine explode and we would need to complete another form!  This left us running around to grab a form, grab another signature, and then fly up the A1 to Peterborough to go through the formalities.  This 7 day service we signed up for though now appears to potentially take 8 days as we were told Esme's passport would be with us by next Friday ... the very day Tash is potentially flying to NZ!!  It could become squeaky bum time next week!

20 April

Things are moving apace now.  The conversation with Matt (the recruitment consultant) went well, and Tash confirmed everything for him.  There are offers of car seats and various other things to make life easier for Tash whilst she's gonna be out there which is nice.  It was agreed she will fly out on the Sunday 29th April, the interview will be on the Thursday, and then her return flight will be booked for the following Sunday (6 May).  Following the call Tash sent details across to Matt for him to book the flights.  Its now just a case of waiting for confirmation ....

21 April

A quiet day today.  It's Saturday so we weren't expecting much to develop.  That said, Esme's passport arrived today - just 3 days after filling out the application that was supposed to take a week!  That's one concern well and truly taken off our mind!

23 April
With yesterday being Sunday we hadn't really expected any development, but I certainly hoped to awake this morning (Monday) to the news that Tasha's flights had been booked.  This would leave us in a position to arrange her accomodation and also babysitting for Esme.  Sadly this has not been the case.  I hope Matt has just been busy, but he hasn't replied to any of the the messages that Tash has sent him.  His Tuesday will start around 9/10pm UK time tonight so I'm hoping we might get an update before bedtime.


25 April
No news for two days has had me starting to think that this opportunity was going to fall down before it got going.  But after 48 hours of silence Tash had an email from Matt last night saying that the hold up was due to Fronde (the company) trying to negotiate Tasha's rate with the Government Department (the client).  I presume this rate is the rate that they can bill at as opposed to the rate Tash will be paid.  Either way, for the moment all we can do is sit tight and plan accordingly.

This is still a massively crucial week for us in terms of employment though, even if this NZ opportunity does stall.  Tash had an interview with KPMG on Monday, has an interview with Centrica on Friday, applied for another NZ job on Monday and is waiting to hear back about an opening with Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong.


26 April
We're now into Thursday, and over in NZ their working Thursday has finished.  Again, no updates have been received so it looks less and less likely that Tash will fly this Sunday.  If she does, she sure isn't going to get much notice.


The only other development we've had is that her interview on Friday has been cancelled.  The job has already been given to someone and so the position no longer exists.


27 April
Well this week certainly hasn't gone the way we expected!  The latest update Tash has had is that all jobs have been out on hold and they have suspended interviewing people.  Who knows the level of truth behind the tale, but it certainly means Tash won't be boarding any planes this weekend!  What with that, the cancelled interview and no news from the Cathay Pacific/Hong Kong opportunity the week has kinda withered away into something of a damp let down, a bit like the current weather.  Still, on the flip side she had the KPMG interview on Monday which we're still waiting to hear back on and also found another three NZ jobs which we applied for yesterday.


29 April
So today is the day Tash was supposed to be boarding a plane but as we already knew this isn't happening.  I have pondered about what to do with these recent entries - whether to junk them as they aren't particularly interesting or to post them as the do still document our first real flirtation with emigrating.  Seeing as you are reading this you can assume I opted to click the 'publish' button - a decision I took because although this opportunity hasn't flowered it certainly won't be the last time we look to get a move to NZ happening.