after a few frustrating moments with me trying to contact the entry clearance officer and her trying to contact me and sounding a tad unenthusiastic the second time she got my answerphone, we finally got to speak to each other.

it was a quick, informal interview which circled around how i got here and why. it guess it was to establish that i came here and is staying here legally. although i didn't have any strong reasons to come back, meaning i don't have own any property, no relatives and although employed is not earning too much that i would consider going back if i do intend to stay in UK, i do have reasons to stay with Martin. So since he is a British citizen, he (just like before) acted as my "good moral character" reference. I guess it made sense that Martin would be responsible for me and once she was satisfied (with a letter from Martin plus a copy of his passport's biopage), i got my UK visitor visa in less than a week.

i have to say, they are quick and pretty straight forward. i feel particularly pleased thinking that she might have gone the extra mile calling me after office hours assuming (rightly) that i'm not able to answer my phone while working. kudos to the UK High Commission in Wellington!

just a suggestion, it would be helpful if the website specifies the time to call if you want to be connected to someone about your visa application, seeing that we have to contact an 0900 number that charges $3.50 per minute. because i didn't know what time to call, i waited for the clearance officer to call me until 4:45pm before calling the visa section only to be told that i should have called between 9:00am to 3:00pm. aside from that, it's all good.

lately, major life changes have happened to my friends and not one of them bothered to say a brief hello and oh, have i told you i - gave birth to a beautiful baby girl or finally got married to my on again off again boyfriend of 8 odd years. i feel left out. i know i am not big on sharing every little news myself but this were not just little news, it's like oh-my-god news.

at least i can always count on good 'ol friendster to update me (when i do happen to check every one of my friend's profile).

i remember when i was in elementary i have lots of friends. friends whom i share secrets with, laugh with, play with and spend weekends with. i remember being really thoughtful too. i often do little things for them. i gave them gifts and cards during their birthdays, made lots of valentine cards, christmas cards and wrote poems for them. and during those times, i had lots of friends.

but then i grew up, got burnt once or twice by friends and i changed. i no longer took time to write poems for them, i not only stopped making cards, i can't even remember buying them one for their bday and rarely took time to do anything with them.

i've always wanted to have that best friend who knows me - inside out. no inhibitions, no secrets. but i find it hard to open up. at the back of my head, i always think sooner or later, they will betray my trust. and that scares me. scares me to open up and let somebody close.

so yeah, ok, maybe i shouldn't whinge about my friends not letting me in on what's happening with their lives either. fair enough.

i just....

miss the old times.

so as i was contemplating whether i should have included my biometric appointment booking confirmation notice with my application (it's not stamped but it shows i did have a booking appointment), somebody from the immigration tried to contact me but i wasn't able to answer my phone so she just left a message. she said she'll try to call me again later in the day. she might have been busy so she wasn't able to call me back. fair enough. i figured it's my day off today anyway so i'll just give them a call. tough luck for me, i couldn't understand her name so when the receptionist took my call, he couldn't help me coz i didn't know the name of the person who called me. i mean, come on, how could i expect him to help me, what with their 200 something number of staff. surely i was asking for too much. in fairness to him, he offered to take my name and contact number to pass it on to staff in case somebody knows something or somebody or whatever.

so the wait continues.

xxx

i decided screw it. i'm not letting one phone call ruin my day off. i'm just gonna carry on with my day, do whatever i want, go wherever i want and just take everything as it comes.

so i went out, posted gifts and things, went to the supermarket and now home again. the good thing is, i was actually really planning to stay home and do some of my craft projects so now that my 'out-of-the-house' obligations are done, i can just sit back and wait for the call while still carrying on with my plans. sweet.

xxx

i'll try calling them later today again. not the reception number but the 0900 number. it's gonna cost me $3.25 per minute but it is indeed the visa information number and maybe i should have called that the first time. either way, they might be able to help me there than the first number i called.