United Kingdom

Yesterday we sent 43 emails and posted our CVs and photos on 4 websites to get work teaching English, just to see if we can get EXACTLY what we're after - a short contract, to finish before 16th August so that we can go to Canada for Rochelle and Aeron's wedding, and then get back to the UK with enough time for Erin to get in a whole year of work before her visa expires.

Anyway, last night we received phone calls from Korea and Taiwan (in the middle of the night, poor Rhys and Nina!) and this morning we were woken up with a phone call from Korea... followed by another 2! Each of them wanting to offer us a short contract, so now we just have to look at which looks the best!

But that's not all we saw when we woke up - outside was the heaviest snow that Kent has seen in years and years!! So after spending a couple of hours replying to emails and sorting through offers as more came through, we went out into the snow to play!

See our photos at: http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/England/Snow/?start=all

We are still in Kent with Rhys and Nina, whose kindness and generosity has been outstanding, given that our couple of weeks has now actually, today, been a month.

You can see Kent photos at: http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/England/Kent/?start=all

Finding work is a bit of a nightmare. The pay for jobs we want is so poor without GSCC registration...

And we can get that, but to get it, we are required to complete:
a) an application form, which is actually the size of a slim book, and includes details of ALL employers, along with full contact details, that we have had since age of 16, and we must include explanatory details for any periods not accounted for (eg, travel), and provide documentary evidence (such as stamps in passport).
b) a "personal statement", that we have to write, to demonstrate in explicit detail how we have met each of the practice requirments of each of the core competences of a diploma of social work, through our experiences of employment over the past 10 years, and through our multiple related degrees...!
c) "documentary evidence" to support any claim that we have made in our personal statement. This includes degree certificates (transcripts are not enough), and birth certificates (passports are not enough!!!), as well of copies of job descriptions, references from employers, policy documents we've written, meeting minutes, etc etc etc...basically a bunch of documents that take a hell of a long time to get hold of.

And then, once we have these documents, they need to be verified - and since we are not currently working in social care, they have to be verified by 2 people, one being our previous employer.

So to give you an example, for Erin's Bachelor degree certificate to be verified, process = Print out request for reissue and statutory declaration forms, to state that the testamur has been irreplaceably lost. Find a JP and get them to sign it, then post the request. Sent 8 Jan. In a week or so, they get the request and they process it. But being a testamur, a legal document, it must be put before the senate to be stamped with approval. But senate does not meet until 5 Feb. 6 Feb they'll send the degree, arriving hopefully around 10-11 Feb... Then (in theory it has to be copied and sent back to previous employer, along with all the other documents that need to be verified), to be verified, and then given to another person whom "has been known to the applicant for a period of no less than 5 years" to be verified again, and then sent back to the UK. Then the verified documents can be added to the application and sent off with £155 PER APPLICATION (which is a lot of money, when paying for 2 unemployed people, with Australian dollars!).

As if this wouldn't be bad enough, we've then got to wait for 2-3 months for the application to be PROCESSED, before we know whether or not our pplications have been successful. Damn!

So we are thinking now about other options so as to get out of England while our applications process, so as to stop watching our hard earned dollars disappear in groceries and train tickets costing pounds.

Ideas have been to travel through India for a couple of months, maybe China, maybe Eastern Europe; do some voluntary work in India or Africa or somewhere else; teach English in Japan or Korea or China or somewhere else; do some other kind of work, anywhere else...!

Any ideas..?

After a fun but quiet NYE in London with Kellie and Adam, Katherine and Mike and their Aunt and Uncle, we went back to Sam and Zoe's house in Camden Town for a week of looking for work and seeing London.

It was a strange and funny week, we met with recruitment agencies one day, then the next day during a walk to the Tower of London we met 2 really funny and very resilient homeless guys (who would be homeless in London!!?) that we spent a couple of hours with, and the next day we took another walk to visit the Freud Museum - the house that Sigmund and Anna moved to when they came to England to escape Nazi reach.

Now we have come to Kent, to stay with Justin's cousin Rhys and his partner Nina, and things feel like they're falling into place a little bit. The beautiful guitar that we bought in Bangkok, that got damaged during our flight to England, is being fixed, and our packages from Vietnam with our presents (you'll get them one day, when we can afford to send them!) and our warm, and not-quite-right-looking, clothes that we had made for us have arrived, and we've seen Daniela to collect them, and Erin caught up with Christine and Sam, and we're feeling a little bit more connected to, and excited about, being in the UK.

Work is looking like a bit more of an issue - we have to get professional registration to get jobs that pay alright it seems, and we have to get hold of a few documents like degrees and birth certificates before we can apply, but it looks like a few registration options open to us. Erin can only work for a year with this visa, and to get a different one, has to earn a certain amount over a year. Justin though, with his UK citizenship (even though he's never been here before - so good/unfair) can take any job with any pay, so maybe we'll be on one income for a month or so while registrations process...!?

See our photos at: http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/England/London/?start=all

After spending a night with Zoe in London, it was hard to tell if confusion was due to jetlag or red wine. Regardless, we got it together to get ourselves back to Heathrow airport to meet up with Katherine's Mum Trish, and her partner Brian, to wait for Katherine to arrive from Perth! She was delayed because of fog too, but eventually she came through the gate with her eyes falling out of her head, and we headed "home" to Salisbury.

Now, we thought we were pretty lucky to have friends to be able to spend Xmas with, let alone STAY with over Xmas, but who would have imagined that we would be so fortunate as to spend Xmas with Katherine, staying with her and her family, in her mum's house, WHICH HAPPENS TO BE A 4-STAR B&B!!!

SO lucky!

And there were only 2 paying guests there - Tim and Diane, a lovely couple from Los Angeles, who knew the family from staying at their B&B on multiple occasions - so it was all very intimate and warm. And Katherine's brother Mike arrived from Queensland a couple of days after Katherine, surprising their mother into tears and shock (and shock that her kids were able to surprise her)!

So we spent our Xmas feeling part of a family, which with Brian's kids there, and Katherine's friends and Trishes friends, it was a big family! It was a Xmas with presents and a roast dinner and lots of wine - and games and dancing that followed the wine - and we even woke up to stockings filled with presents on Xmas morning!

Our Xmas in Salisbury carried right on until NYE... Thank you so much Trish and Brian, and Katherine and Mike, for making us so welcome!! xx

OUR XMAS PHOTOS ARE AT http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/England/Xmas/?start=all