The Rainbow families new beginnings????

IELTS

Sat the IELTS last Saturday in Manchester. I got on the train from Sheffield worrying so did a little more revision. I'd downloaded some material from a website recommended on ExPats and the questions we fine but the answers we wrong 50% of the time on the webpage. This made me really confused so i stopped using them. The official IELTS website offered official practice material but it said 30 days for delivery. My exam was 2 weeks from applying so didn't think there was much point in getting it.
Anyway found the test just as challenging as i thought it was going to be. I have a degree and am British born and bred and stil found it stretched me a little. In the listening it was more about accidentally missing one question and then not being able to catch up. I felt really sorry for the people who we non-native speakers it must have been so bloody hard.
The examiner said we'd get our results in the post on the 14th day. So thats next week. Fingers crossed i need 25 points.
Just need to get my son's 1st passport. Getting the picture signed was almost as difficult as the exam.
Applying online. Filled all info up to my sons passport number.

[ 02:53 ] [ Friday 5 September 2008 ] [ 1 Comments ] [ Link ]

The Rainbow families new beginnings????

My dad used to work in Australia for short periods as me and my sister were growing up. We spent out whole lives travelling here and there and always enjoyed going back to Coonabarabran in NSW. We went to school there for short periods and made many friends and feel in love with the place as a child does. It was wild and we felt free. We'd round up and milk the goats on the farm we were looking after and floods and severe storms were just another thing for us to get excited about. On our last visit to Australia my dad finally got a permanent visa. We were going forever. My dad's job had come to an end and Australia was the place of all our dreams. The day before we were due to fly out forever my dad was called with an offer of a once in a life time job....a permanent job in the UK (which is fairly unusual in his profession). We voyaged to Australia with this job offer in mind. It would be kept open but not indefinitely. My dad tried for 6 months to find a job in his specialism and unfortunately had no luck.........We reluctantly came back to the UK forever for my sisters 9th birthday.

The family never stopped talking about Australia and never stopped hoping that one day we'd go back but soon the permanent visa lapsed we got on with our new, lovely lives but still Oz was there. That was 17 years ago. My dad was offered a permanent job in Oz 4 years ago, and much to our heart break my sister and I were therefore not able to join them as we were too old and would not be considered on their Visa application. We encouraged them to go thinking that one day soon I at least would join them.

Last year as i'd started a new job my mum and dad were airing their feelings of loneliness, not having their family there. They were missing us and England. I decided to make informal inquiries about my partner and I moving over there on our own visa with my mum and dad as sponsors. I went to the Emmigrate show in London with lots of papers and lots of questions. Some leads looked hopeful but resulted in dead ends. We paid the Emmigration Group £100 to assess our chances and it came back negative. I was gutted and we gave up. I think looking back i know i was going to fail but i just wanted someone to say 'do this' 'work here' 'do this course and you'll be okay' this was my 1st lesson (and i think the 1st of many many to come).

So in Feb 2007 Australia became an impossibility for me and my partner. We both had good jobs with good money but i'd introduced Dally (my partner to Oz) and he felt the same longing for it too now. A couple of months later i became pregnant and had our first child Oscar on Feb 29th 2008. I was playing a CD that my mum had brought back from Australia for me for xmas called 'Tall Trees' it was a CD of natural Ozzy sounds. A whip bird made Oscar jump and wake up and then and there i promised him that i would allow him to grow up in a place where he could experience the things i'd seen. I want him to go out scouting for koala's all day and bringing home snake skins. I don't want him cooped up in a terrace house in the city we live in surrounded by chav's and kids and adults that have no respect for themselves or others. I want Oscar to hear Whip Birds as he's scouting in his imaginary jungle with his like minded friends.

My boss at my current job is now pregnant and asked me passingly whether i'd be interested in covering her job. I suddenlty realised her job was on the SOL list and this got me thinking again. I called a migration agent who was a little terse and asked me to describe my current job 'Student support and Information Management assistant' he suddenly said 'well why don't you just try with the job you've got now' (when i'd tried last year i'd only been in my job 2 months and in that time i have had a promotion).......and here i am again. This may all end in tears and if it does at least i can say i tried as hard as i could and there was nothing more i could do. If it doesn't work i'll find some little corner of England/the world that will allow us the life i think we deserve. If Australia lets us in it certainly won't be sorry. So thats the intro. Hopefully below will be details of the journey.

So far i have lodged my application with VETASSESS. I sent the form off on Tuesday 17th June 2008. I wanted a quote for a migration agents costs and funnily enuf an agent called the day after i sent my application and told me i should put a 50 point occupation on my VETASSESS (cos i have a degree) but i'd only put a 40 point occupation ' Project & Program administrator' i get the impression applying for this visa is more about how to wangle the system rather than being good enuf.... i'll keep you posted and go into this in more detail some other time as Oscar is whinging whilst sitting next to me. He's a very demanding 4 month old

[ 11:17 ] [ Friday 20 June 2008 ] [ 0 Comments ] [ Link ]

The Rainbow families new beginnings????

Passed IELTS

IELTS

Received VETASSESS

starting posts

The Rainbow families new beginnings????