Moving to England

Yes, I'm going to be moving to England! It's all so very exciting. Sounds like a dream come true, right? Well, it is actually. Just a few years ago I would have never thought it possible. Now it looks like it's going to be a reality. Not only do I get to live in such a wonderful place as Wigan, England, I get to be with a really amazing Englishman, Philip McCabe. 

Phil, playing his guitar. I love watching/listening to him. He's brilliant.

They don't exactly make it easy to move to England though. There are rules to follow and applications to fill out. It's not cheap either! Then there's the waiting. I've not even got to that part yet! I'm still trying to get the money saved up. 

You can't just decided you want to move to England and go over there and stay. They don't like that. They'll kick you out after 6 months and probably won't let you back in! I've got to marry Phil if I want to stay with him. I can't just go over there and decide to go get married there either. They don't let you do that. You have to apply for a fiance visa BEFORE you go over there to get married. That's where all the aggravation, money and waiting comes in. I'm still in the "aggravation" stage. I've printed the forms I need and have started filling them out. I'll have to actually apply online, but I want to have all the information I need sitting right next to me when I get my money saved up and am ready to do that. Then I'll just have to wait. And wait. And wait. They say it will take 12 to 24 weeks to get my visa (if they actually give me one, which Phil says they should). That's 3 to 6 months! They do say that most people get their back within 12 weeks though...so fingers crossed. Who knows? Maybe it could come back sooner. When I sent off my passport info it didn't take as long as they said it would. Maybe this will be the same. Wouldn't that be amazing?

John, me and Phil sitting outside the John Bull Chophouse, a brilliant put in Wigan, England.

I'm so ready to move. I really miss Phil. I miss living in Wigan. I don't miss the stairs though...LOL. Guess I better get over my stair-phobia if I'm going to live there. I'll just be very careful. What are the chances I'll fall down them again? Yes, I fell down the stairs last time. I hope the chances are slim. Forewarned is forearmed, right? I'll be ready for them! 

Me and Phil, making a funny face while the girls take our picture. We were having dinner at a lovely restaurant in Malia, Crete. It was an amazing holiday!

I know it's going to be a completely different life for me there. That is very appealing to me though. It probably won't always be fun and exciting, but that's ok. There will be lots of new things to learn and lots of new experiences. I think we grow as individuals by facing challenges like that. I'm really looking forward to seeing who I will be a few years from now. I'm bound to be more than I am now. 
 

 

Man Of Mine

Meet Philip McCabe.

Yep, that's me with him. We took a trip to Southport that day. Had a great time. He's an amazing man. I know, I say that a lot. Trust me on this one though...he really is.

Phil unlike anyone I've ever met. Brilliantly smart (I know, you already knew that because he's with me), honest (sometimes stingingly so), giving (often helps me find something online or figure something out before I even ask), funny (he's good at making me smile and laugh) and very easy-going. He's not perfect though. Shhh...don't tell him I said that...LOL.

It still amazes me that I'm with him. How did I get so lucky?

Who knows? I just did and I'm very happy. I'm looking forward to the day when I get to go back...for good.
When will that be? I'm really not sure. I've got to fill out my fiance visa application and send it in. Then I should get something back in 12 to 24 weeks. I hear 95% of people get an answer in 12 weeks. Hope I'm in the 95%! If so, then maybe I'll be back over there before his next birthday...May 25th. Before if possible. When I think of May it seems so long to wait. I want to go now. I need to concentrate on enjoying what time I have left here though. Joseph is cool with me moving. He's 22 now and works and does his own thing. I hardly get to see him anymore. Jared isn't so thrilled about the idea. He's 15 and despite being that age, he's a little immature. He doesn't want to go with me though. Won't even consider visiting. We'll still have skype though. I'll still be able to keep in touch. I hope to come visit at least once a year as well.

It will all work out. I would like to think I'll get some visitors when I move...but it's not looking very likely. Despite having someone to see and a place to stay and food to eat, everyone still seems to think it's too far/too expensive/too much trouble. Oh well. Their loss.

I'm already a little bit familiar with Wigan, but it's so much different there than here...It's hard to "understand". I'll get more familiar in time though. It's a beautiful place and full of treasures for me to discover. I'm so excited.

Damn, my lunch hour is almost up. Guess I'll have to gush about my life more later.

Ciao for now.

Saturday Night!

Yep, it's Saturday night! Doesn't really mean anything to me though. I worked today. I always work Saturdays. I always work Sundays too...so I'll be having an early night. Boring, eh?

I guess I should inform you that I've been drinking.  Yep, I stopped by the liquor store today and picked up a couple of things. I'm not really much of a drinker...or I used to not be...but I've taken to drinking a little something more than I used to..which was rarely. I guess you could blame it on the English...LOL. They have such a drinking culture there. It seems like everyone drinks. I realliy enjoyed having wine with dinner or a beer on occasion. Ok, I really don't care for beer, but I like the way it makes me feel. I don't really buy beer though. I've been trying different sorts of flavored rum and vodka. I'm on the green apple flavored rum this evening. It's pretty good. I drink it straight. That may sound a bit crazy, but the whole point in drinking is to feel good. Drinking something straight makes you feel good faster...without all the extra calories of added fluids...so it works for me. I'm feeling pretty good. My lips are numb though...LOL.

I don't know why I've gone into such a long explanation, I mainly just wanted to explain any typos that you may find...LOL. 

Quite evening here. Mom is out. Jared is at his Dad's. Phil isn't online.I've spent my evening do ing a little work on Phil's Christmas present and watched some shows I downloaded. The first episode of Misfits (a british show) was pretty good. I like sci fi shows where people have powers and them being British is a plus. One of the girls sounds a bit like Alice (Phil's oldest daughter). I've noticed that I don't have as much trouble understanding Brits as I used to. It's pretty cool.

Was a good day today. Work wasn't too bad...despite it being Saturday. A couple of new stores have opened up in the area so that's probably the reason things have been a bit easier. I don't mind. I actually got to take a lunch break today...something that's rather hard to do on Saturdays. One more day to go and then 4 days off! That's because Tracey doesn't really pay attention to the previous schedule when she writes the new one. Works for me. I also noticed that I have Thanksgiving off. I wasn't expecting that. I'm used to having to work Thanksgiving...at least part of the day. Now I don't have an excuse not to get together with my family for dinner. I would be perfectly fine with not having dinner with them, but I guess it's probably going to be the last time I get to be a part of something like that before I leave for England. I'll probably go. It's going to be at Andrea's. Andrea lives in the house I used to live in before it got repossessed. It would be nice to see it once more. I'd like to see what she's done with it. It has to look better than when I left it...LOL.

I now have $800 saved up for my fiance visa. That means I have about $500 more to go. Expensive motherfucker! Sorry, just chalk the profanity up to the liquor...LOL. I'm hoping to have all the money saved up by the first of the year. That's when I want to send in the fiance visa application. It's a bit of a hassle. There are some questions on it that are a bit hard to answer. One of them...when did your sponsor arrive in the UK...was confusing. He was born there. I guess I just put his birthdate...LOL. At first I was really worried about doing something wrong or not answering something correctly. I'm not really worried anymore. There's a section where I'll be able to expand on my answers and I'll be putting plenty there. I feel pretty confidant that I'll get my visa. I just hope it comes in time for me to be able to go with Phil and girls on the next holiday he's got planned. Fingers crossed. We'll see.

I've not been writing much lately. To be honest, I've spent so much time working on Phil's Christmas present, I haven't had time to do much else here at home. I should actually be working on it now! I've had enough of it this evening though. I needed a break. Maybe I'll do a bit more before heading to bed. Maybe I've drank too much to care about it...LOL.

Well, I'm afraid I need to take a trip to the bathroom (loo)...and I really don't have anything else to say...so I'll wrap this up and head to bed I guess. I should sleep really good...LOL.

Ciao for now!

It's me again!

It would seem I am back. I've not bothered with this blog for about 4 years...pretty much forgot about it...but I think I need it again. A blog can be a good friend sometimes.

I just finished reading through all those old posts. It was kinda fun to see what was going on in my head back then. A bit cringey as well...LOL. I'm not really that "me" anymore. It's not just that circumstances have changed...and boy have they changed (don't worry, I'll get to that)...I'm just not that person inside anymore. It's not a bad thing. I'm just...more. 

For anyone who's read the old posts...Timothy is long gone. He's not even Timothy anymore. He's Ananda Kaleign Paulus. He's officially changed his name. Last I heard/saw, he was Buddhist and had shaved his head. That's been a while ago. I wish him well and hope he's happy. 

So, wondering what I've been up to since I last posted? So much that it's impossible to tell you everything at the moment. I'll just give you an update of where my life is at present: I'm engaged to a wonderful British man and planning to move over there and get married! 

Crazy, huh? Who would have thought? How did I get from "there" to "here"? Well, stick around and I'll tell you all about the last 4 years. For now, I'll just give you the condensed version. I met Philip McCabe on a penpal site in June of 2010. We stopped talking for a bit and then got back in contact in December of that year and our friendship just got stronger. He's an amazing man. I planned a trip over there...he was going to take me York...but he changed his plans and decided to take his girls on a trip to Egypt(2011). A cruise down the Nile. He said I should come along! I did. That was my first trip abroad. My first time meeting Phil. It wasn't the last though. We continued talking. The next year (2012) I went to visit him again...for 7 weeks! He planned some other trips for us. We finally went to York...and Rome...and Nice! It was an amazing visit. We continued talking. As far as I knew we were still just "friends", despite things not being quite platonic during my last visit. Another trip was planned for the next year. I was only going to be able to do 5 weeks this time (2013).  A couple of months before I left to go over there we were talking and I was mentioning again how much I would love to live over there and I was asking him questions about how much apartments cost and what all it would take to live there. He was explaining a few things to me then he said...or you could just stay with me. I was blown away! I thanked him, not really knowing what sort of arrangement he was talking about...but happy to get anything. I think it was the next day when I asked him if he meant I could stay with him until I found a place...or indefinitely. He laughed and said "indefinitely". We talked more about it and he finally told me that he'd researched the process a bit and said his plan was to move me over there and if we were still agreeable after a bit then we would get married. Yeah...married! 

So, that was me...engaged. And with me thinking that I would never get married again too! I know...it's not happened yet...LOL. It's in the works though. I'm happy. Scared and nervous and excited...but happy. Sometimes I get so worried that things won't work out...that I'll mess it up...but my rational mind tells me that's not going to happen. Not because of anything I do or don't do...but because he's so steady and patient and easy. He doesn't expect me to be perfect. It's pretty cool. 

Anyway, I had my 5 week trip this summer. It went by so fast. He'd sold the old house and bought another...closer to town. I love it. Wigan is a wonderful place. This time there was a trip to Wales and one to Greece. It was amazing. When I came back I finally told my family that I was going to move to England and marry Phil. Mixed reactions. I'm going though. I can't pass up the chance to be the most amazing man I've ever known. No matter what happens...I have to at least try.

Oh, and I'm still working on the book...LOL. A lot of other projects in the works as well...even a couple of short storied that have been published in an ebook anthology. How cool is that? 

More later. I think that's enough for now. I'm pooped. Tomorrow is Saturday and it's the busiest day of the week. I'll try to do this more often. I know, I've got a lot of catching up to do. 

Ciao for now!