New Years Eve and happy updates.

 Hi

It’s the last day of the year 2023 and what a year it's been.

What can I say…. It's been a mixed bag in terms of positives and negatives, but for us, I definitely count more highs than lows.

Let me start off with a fantastic update to round off a good year.

A couple of weeks ago, the awesome people at Remote where Chioma works confirmed that they would be “sponsoring” her and would issue her a certificate of Sponsorship as a “skilled worker”. Not only did they confirm this, but they also went ahead with a lateral job upgrade to the compliance department from the Customer service role where she used to be.

See ehn… wetin go be your own no go stress you.

Chioma is a blessing. My goodness!! In terms of marriage, I really hit the Mega jackpot lottery here. Aside from all the hard work that she puts in her job, there’s this uncanny blessing that she carries that affects everyone around her… again, Oseburuwa, I thank you for her in my life.

So, instead of going the “graduate” visa route which we would have used after my school year, we applied for the skilled worker/dependant visa route (which is obviously much better) and yesterday, we just got notified of the success of the application and had our visas issued!!!. (Blows trumpet!!)🙌🙌

Yeah.. that IS awesome news….just in case you don’t get the full import, a skilled worker visa is like the holy grail for most immigrants who intend to remain in the UK and people have been known to pay obscene amounts of money illegally to get one. Anyway, we thank God for everything.

Secondly, as a post update to an earlier trip to Birmingham in October which I wrote about here, my job interview at a company (Travelperk, a travel agency) which I applied for, was successful. Again, Chioma’s hand applied here, as I was referred for the job by one of her friends, Sandra (Half of the Agomo family we just visited). The interview process was a breeze (TBH, I’m actually a tad overqualified for the role) and I was asked to resume in November. However, there was a bit of a hitch, as my visa was still the “student” visa which had restrictions on work hours. These great people at Travelperk, realizing that I was too much of a catch to let go, decided to defer my start date till January, so I could sort out the visa issues. Ladies and gentlemen, with the good news about the visa coming through, I’m pretty sure I’ll be resuming with them in January!!! Yaaaay!!

It's not too much of chest thumps and back pats though…the role pays significantly less than what I should be earning, however, it has great career advancement prospects and is right down my career alley in Customer service. Plus, it’s certainly much better than Mama Calabar or all the other popular care jobs which people seem to be convinced are the only jobs for immigrants. Not to dunk on care and support jobs,(seeing the vital role they play) but they’re just not for me. Also, reflecting on the countless rejection emails I've gotten this year alone...biko, I'm all about counting blessings right now.

Consequently, it looks like the good people of Birmingham will have cause to celebrate as they look forward to our relocation over there. It’s going to be a bit stressful logistics-wise, but yeah overall, we’re sure it would be the better decision for us. Watch out for updates.

So 2023 is ending with some good news for us. Again, I’m so grateful for everything so far and in the spirit of positive affirmations, I’m putting it out in the universe that 2024 will be good to us all and declare that we shall all have plenty reasons to give praise to God as we navigate what the future has in store for us.

 

Happy new year and God bless us all.

 

 

 

Christmas Party '23

 Hi everyone,

So, it’s our second Christmas in the UK and in keeping with tradition, aunty Ngozi throws a very elaborate get together for the family members and friends here.

Now now if you know anything about my auntie she's someone who is exceptionally large hearted and spares no expense when it comes to hosting or taking care of visitors. She set up a WhatsApp group for the family and preparations started in earnest. 

We all usually chip in financially to help out but due to some circumstances and their kindness, auntie Ngozi and Uncle Sam decided to take on the financial burden themselves.

Chioma and I had just returned from our Birmingham trip the previous day and went to help set up on Xmas eve. Turns out that some others (Oluchi and Kenny (Oge’s wife)) had been there all day and most of the stuff was already done. Despite her decision to foot the bills, the rest of us had all decided to ignore and go ahead to buy drinks ourselves in order to ensure we at least contributed a bit…so Chioma and I bought a case of red wine for the party.

Oh boy…did it go well or what?

The food was absolutely delicious…the atmosphere was amazing…lots of pictures and videos (trust Aunty Ngo for that)…. Lots to drink and make merry and everyone generally had a fantastic time.

Once more , thank you to the Ebele family and everyone else for their efforts in making sure this period was not so lonely for everyone and may God bless us all.

Buzz off

 Hey guys, I just thought of something, and you know what I most certainly do not miss??

Mosquitoes.

Dear God, thank you everyday for getting those bastards out of my life. Even if its only for the period of time spent outside the tropics, boy, I’m grateful.

I have always hated them… there were times back home when these pests would bother you to death and make the nights a living hell. Mahn, since relocating over here, that horrible aspect of discomfort has been eliminated. Those nasal whines of them flying around, the itchiness of their bites, the phantom itch of real or imagined bites, the anger at killing them and seeing blood splats on your walls, money spent on regular insecticides, the horrible ill health that malaria brings and the mere annoyance of just seeing them in your space at all.

Okay okay..i may be exaggerating it a bit but boy, am I glad that there are no mosquitoes over here.

Holiday trips

 As part of our Christmas plans, Chioma and I decided to take a trip to visit our friends, the Agomos..Chidi Sandra and their lovely son Adim at their place in Birmingham.

This is looking like it has the makings of becoming one of our Christmas traditions…seeing as we embarked on this same trip last year. Another friend, Chinyere was there as well so it promised to be a fun trip. It was also going to be the first time we travelled out of state via train, so checkmark for new experiences.

The journey was great. Got to Euston station and after some enquiry about directions, we found our platform and waited to board…only for me to casually ask a nearby station staff about our online tickets which Chioma booked and he stressed that we had to actually print out physical tickets from the station there…oh boy!! Thankfully our train was just boarding at that point so I quickly went to one of the nearby machines and got our tickets. Good one too cos the ticket inspector actually came to inspect tickets from everyone later on and confirmed that we needed physical tickets for the trip.

Birmingham is a beautiful place and we couldn’t get over how affordable the living costs here as when compared to London. Their house was a two-storey, three-bedroom apartment with spacious rooms, a kitchen, balcony etc and was still about 400 pounds cheaper than what we pay for our one bed apartment in London!!! Hmmmm…

The visit was really enjoyable. Chidi and Sandra are such a lovely couple and their son is just the most precious little guy ever.. Chinyere’s presence always makes things better and overall, we had a really wonderful time.

If things pan out as planned for us in 2024, we are definitely going to be seeing a lot more of them.

Holiday Blues 2

 Hey peeps,

So. we’ve successfully spent our second Christmas here in the UK and to be honest, there’s a lot to highlight about how there's nothing much to write home about…does that even make any sense?

Basically, what I’m trying to say is that contrary to popular belief, Christmas can also be a very lonely period depending on your circumstance or point of view. Speaking as immigrants still trying to find their feet, it can be a really trying period. Apart from all the stress of trying to get your papers sorted (with the huge fees required to do so), there's also the loneliness that hits you every time. Now we are a bit more fortunate than most seeing as we have family members here who you can relate with from time to time.. However, these interactions are very limited; for most of the holiday, you are left to your own devices. London is a lonely place and its so easy to fall into some sort of holiday depression just off the fact that you’re on your own so much of the time and no one seems to care too much about it…. Despite the myriad of things to do, there are so many factors that make this impossible: the weather, money, dampened wills, strangers everywhere and just a general sense of torpor.

To counteract this, Chioma and I made plans not to get too caught up in the holiday blues…we planned a trip to Birmingham to see our family friends and that was a huge success (apart from the fact that I seemed to have caught serious flu from this trip) and we had our annual Christmas get together at Aunty Ngozi’s place which also went down very successfully. Nevertheless, after all this, we’ve been alone at home for a few days now and I believe I’m going stir crazy. The unfortunate part of this is that unlike in Nigeria where you can just decide to jump out of the house and go somewhere, it's not the same here…the weather has been brutally cold and financial restrictions really limit you from doing anything you’d want to. Even though ive accepted it as part of the sacrifices in this phase of my life, it’s still very “somehow”.

It gets laughable after a while because you know many people who’d trade circumstances with you in a heartbeat. Sigh..

 Maybe it’s just the ability to come on here and rant away, or just the fact that I really hate being bored but at some point, I know it's definitely going to get better… and this is what really keeps me going.

After all, it's supposed to be the season to be jolly no?

 

 

Merry Christmas folks!!

 It’s been a blessed year for us and honestly, I’m just grateful for what we’ve achieved and where we are right now in life. Again, so many things to be thankful for. I’ve successfully bagged my Masters degree with a fantastic grade, Chioma’s work is progressing in leaps, Remote (Chioma’s workplace) being the awesome people they are have offered us the elusive CoS (more on this later), I’ve gotten a job offer which is looking very positive, we’ve been in good health thus far…so as I said… much to be thankful for.

No rubbish matching pyjama pictures for us this year even though I strongly suspect that Chioma is going to make me do it one of these coming years.

Anyway, Merry Christmas from me and mine to you and yours!!