About
Welcome, and stuff.
15 April 2016
I left Belgium in February 2008. Eight years ago. Since then I lived in Queensland, Victoria, New Caledonia and Western Australia. Since then, much has changed back home too. And I have a new life, we have a new life.
At last then, visit from the family ! The last one was in Melbourne, in 2009, when my sister flew in for three weeks, then in 2012 when she joined me in Asia. Now, it’s Mum’s turn. And she’s taking her first grandson along. He’s been dreaming of this trip ever since I left, saving money and talking about the things he’d do, etc.
21 JAnuary 2016
Well it’s also time, energy, patience, …
We got our 457 Visa back in 2013, through an immigration agent my employer recommended, so we thought it would be a great idea to use the same agent for this one, the 186 Visa which automatically grants the long awaited P.R. (for permanent residency.) Without it, we are living in a limbo-state of residency where we pay our taxes in Australia but do not benefit from any social security for instance. Also, permanent residency is one of the condition required to apply for a loan, in the hope of buying a house, among many other advantages. An agent, in our minds anyways, was a promise of a speedy process.
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10 October 2015
We only had five days for our honeymoon, for multiple reasons. One, Belgium only allows those who’ve successfully provided their paperwork maximum 14 days prior to the wedding day (see previous entry). We had to therefore be in Brussels two weeks before the day. Second, the company I work for closes for the festive period, and takes two weeks out of our annual leave. Conclusion, I had to get leave-without-pay to go away.
So anyways, five days, where should we go ? Well, we’ve been traveling for a few years now, we’ve been to a lot of countries, and in reality, not many were in Europe. Okay, that’s the continent sorted. Now, which country ? We want to relax, visit something interesting, enjoy the food, be in the sun, and don’t want to fly for too long, preferably therefore a city. We both hate resorts, expensive hotels. Vienna ? Barcelona ? Paris ? Florence ? Madrid ? Copenhagen ? Amsterdam ? Porto ? Oslo ? … okay, Venice ! Done ! And sod the cliches.
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