Jo Herrings Adventures

  Its been a long time in putting this down on paper (or indeed into a computer) to communicate my dates and my plans with my nearest and dearest so lets just get it done.  I'll make tweaks to this post as flights and plans are finalised but this should be the main landing page if you want to find me. July/August 2011- Farewell London and Hello Europe 10th July British 10km London  14th July cousin Julie and Family visiting from Berlin 15th July last day at work (Work Farewell) 16th July - Harry Potter morning followed by  London Farewell/30th  19th July ex Heathrow for Berlin (10.25am departure) Krakow, Budapest and Vienna en-route to Tuscany 30 July - 6 August  Tuscany for Charlottes 30th.  7 August - ferry from Ancona to Split Bari to Durres Albania 8 August - Tirana, Albania 9 August - Tirana to Lake Ohrid, Macedonia 10 August - Lake Ohrid, Macedonia 11 August- Lake Ohrid, Macedonia 12 August - Lake Ohrid, Macedonia 13 August - Lake Ohrid, Macedonia 14 Aug

Its been a hectic few weeks as I plan for the Big Adventure. The highlight thus far has been the over enthusiastic beating of my heart.  I can tick off flight to Berlin, letter of resignation, new camera lense, vacuum pack bags for storage, Desmonds 1st Birthday (so fun - include lapping up Desmo cuddle time before I go. Desmo time is on uncompleted list!), LED Festival in Victoria, dinner with my Sapphire girls, dinner with Pete and Ali Stack visiting from home and my Gore girls (including too much wine!), Flights booked from Queenstown to Auckland after Xmas, working 9-5, farewelling a colleague, trying on 4 bridesmaids dresses, seeing 3 more 5+ earthquakes hit Christchurch. All in the same time as two 'episodes', a trip to A&E, 3 mins with a GP and getting referred to the Cardiologist. Who said changing your world would be easy and hassle free! I have over the last 10 years had regular irregular heart beats. Mostly occurring whilst I am sitting watching telly or

Today I went down to East Croydon to the Home Office. I have been before but its always an "experience". I was surprised last week after sitting my Life in the UK test that I could take my pick of appointments from 9-4pm. I chose to have a 10am appointment to miss the rush hour traffic. I was attempting to gain the Indefinite Leave to Remain status after living in the UK for over 5 years on my Ancestry Visa. This application enables me to come and go with little issue for - well - EVER. Although I still will be guzumped at the airport in the Foreigners queue. If I could prove my Britishness more I asked someone to please get in the queue behind me when I went to pay the crippling £1350! 42 pages later - of which Section 9 was not relevant and made up 30 pages - detailing all my personal details and an accurate view on my comings and goings from the Great British Isles for these 5 years and 9 months. This last exercise should have been an enjoyable one filled with ha