Before moving to new country, taking new assignment

So I had a lunch with two of my colleagues today. They both are in process to move to a new country with new assignment. 

A is from Russia staying in UK and moving to Norway, K is from Brazil staying in Norway and moving to UK.

A was more concerned about the stability of the assignment and business opportunities. He's relatively new with the company and was hence more insecure. He has a school going kid and that's a part of his considerations. He's quiet happy to know about the International School at Stavanger. 

Since he's in Business Development side, he was also considering the openness in the business community and how approachable are clients. 

K had concerns about quality of family and social life. Having spent couple of years in Norway now his expectations are high. He's thinking about having kids. It's not really him choice to leave Norway, he's kind of being forced for that. Konrad was rather OK to move to Aberdeen being English speaking country as his wife can work. She's a career oriented person, just like my wife.

All in all it was a good conversation at lunch, some bonding as well.

Another Ticket, another challenge

So I got another parking ticket during our glorious weekend at Edinburgh this weekend. Seems like it's not such a big deal here.

I had hazelnut caramel icecream as I complete my first 30 days challenge. It was sweet and hard earned.
The next one is no beer for next 30 days ie 9th Oct.

May the power with me.

That's one of the street performers at Prince Street.

Parking Ticket

I got the second parking ticket this weekend. This was bad, I have decided not to buy beer for next one month. This would be my next 30days challenge. I am about to complete my previous 30days challenge - no ice-cream on Sept 7th.

 30 Days Challenge

I got this idea from the Ted Talk, guess I am trying to following it for a long time.

Lost in Scotland

Yep, we are pretty much lost in Scotland. We almost have no time. Weekends we are busy driving and exploring. Weekdays we are busy planning the weekends. Just this last weekend we went to Isle of Harris and Isle of Lewis on a road trip. We drove about 700 miles in three days. It was fun.

These are the outer Hebrides.

Beautiful landscapes and friendly people ! We found some white sand - green water beaches.

Butt of Lewis Lighthouse was the highlight, Callanish Standing stones were great.

 We managed to locate some dolphins on the way as well !

Outstanding Task

There is only only outstanding task, bring her here ASAP. She's stopped taking it easy, she's thinking about small stupid things, she's not traveling or doing anything productive, she's missing me.

Among thousand other task that I have to do, this one is my only priority right now.

I'll make it happen within next 7 days.

Aberdeen

I have reached Aberdeen today. Beautiful weather here but something is missing ! 

Visa Visa Visa !!

Got the good news on 5th May. I am going for rafting with younger bro. Plan is to raft in Ganga on Budha Poornima, go to Delhi on the way back, collect the passport from VFS center at Nehru Place, buy Akshit a new Apple macbook and return back home.

Efficiency of this trip was 100%

Cheers ! 

Last Day @Gurgaon

Tomorrow is going to be the last day at Gurgaon, mixed emotions.
We had an easy going life here, lots of fun, few good friends, many weekend trips and unlimited shopping. This is the end of an era.

Hope to have a good life and great friends in the next phase of life.

Aanchal is due to leave Hyderabad tomorrow and I'll leave to Kota along with all grahasthi ka saaman.

Applied !

Finally on 20/04/2012 we have submitted the documents and bio-metric information to the VFS center. Hope it'll all work out ! 

Not A Judgement Day

We completed all rituals and reached the center before time. We called a cab at 0800 and he dropped us at Nehru Place (21kms from our place in Delhi traffic) at 0830 !

We submitted the visa fee (40800+200Rs each) and waited to submit the documents. We, however, din't submit the docs because the letter of authority and the letter of maintenance were not in original. I had the faxed copies as instructed by my visa agent in London. I was informed that the high commission will only make the decision but the VFS staff repeatedly insisted that I must submit the original copies, not the faxed or scanned ones.

I returned back with all our documents. I have not applied for visa. I have informed HR in UK to send me original docs. I'll wait for them and apply at once.

Better to wait for a week than couple of months.

Judgement Day

Tomorrow, 17th April is the visa interview appointment day. I have prepared all documents and visa fee. I have booked a cab to be able to reach interview center (Nehru Place) in a neat and timely manner.

I'll go clean shaved like a good boy that I am and hope for the best !

Twist

I have been told that the UK job has been postponed by a month. This gives me enough time to apply for the UK visa. Norway job will be covered by Jay Ortega.

I have to apply for the visa ASAP. Now the visa agent is not replying to my emails, not sure what's going on. I need a couple of more documents to apply for the visa.

Today I came to know that both me and wife can work and study on this visa once in UK. That was the plan.

Moving to UK

This is high time. I received my long awaited job offer from UK just last month. I have been waiting to apply for the visa now.

Last couple of weeks:
My manager asked me to travel to Egypt to help out on an offshore operation. Although I work for Europe and Sub Saharan Africa region and Egypt falls in MENA region and I can very well say no to this assignment, I displayed my good guy attitude and accepted it.
Now that operation in Egypt got cancelled and I had to spend stupid couple of weeks there doing nothing. Visa application got delayed.

Next couple of weeks:
My manager has asked me to travel to Norway to help out on another offshore operation. I am not sure when will that happen so I am sitting at home on standby mode. I can not apply for the visa as my passport will be retained at the embassy once I have applied. It'll take 3-4 weeks before I'll get my passport back. I am being very nice and very patience these days, which is not usual me.

I just hope it'll all work out fine. If it'll not, it'll be a BIG mess. I'll create it for them.