An addition to the family!
I don’t know if many or any people are still following this blog? However I do just want to proudly announce that my future wife to be Femke is now about 8 weeks pregnant with our first child!
The child is due around the 22nd of March 2012. I will try to post updates on this blog as time goes on so people who do follow can keep track.
First a wedding in four weeks from now, then the final visa approval for Femke and then preparation for our first child! What exciting times!
MacBook Pro
Most of you already know that on my personal PC side, I have switched from PC to Mac. After using an iPhone for over a year by that time I was curious about exploring the “other side” and see what the development environment is like.
It started in Feburary 2010 when I dipped my toes in the water and bought a Macbook 13″. It quickly became my main computer and I grew very interested and keen on the mac way.
Now over a year later I have upgraded from the Macbook to a new Macbook Pro 15″. I am totally loving the the speed and power of this system and am looking forward to using it for a very long time.
I know a lot of PC people still point out the initial cost of a Mac as a major negative. Sure it’s expensive, but the quality of the hardware with the interface and “get out of your way” nature of OS X makes it well worth it.
Also since I still work with PCs at work, I switch between the two every day. Windows 7 is a very capable OS but the quality of the laptops is noticeably inferior!
But as with all flamewars people have biases and prefer to have sides. Some prefer Windows and it works for them. fair enough. I just prefer the Mac 
Xcode here I come!
Wow time does fly
Wow. it’s been over a year since I have touched this site.
Does this mean I am not active any more? This is not the case.
I guess I am more active on Facebook and Twitter than this blog. (for now anyway)
Femke and I are now engaged! This wedding is in September 2011.
Her parents are over visiting from Holland. We are all gearing up for the holidays!
Summer is not as hot as last year which is wonderful!
Chat soon!
House hunting
Femke now has her residency visa, so now we move on to setting up our own lives together.
First was getting joint bank accounts all sorted out. We reviewed all the major banks and decided to end up with Bankwest for our needs. So far we are impressed with the services and the internet banking side of things. Hopefully it will stay that away and we’ll be with them for a while!
Fem then got her Medicare, drivers license and health insurance sorted out reasonably quickly.
Fem is also looking for work. Given the GFC (Global Financial Crisis), jobs are hard to find. But she is working hard and I am sure she will get something soon.
Next was house hunting. We have decided to rent for a few years while we get a deposit ready for buying a house. Turns out a lot of people are also renting as well. The favourite houses from our first list of options were already taken. So we knew we had to be quicker! We are now currently mulling over two houses at the moment with a decision to be made tomorrow.
We also bought a king sized bed yesterday from Bedshed as well. Wahoo! A lot of bedding shops are having big sales on in September so we though it would be ideal to take advantage of them. The store will to hang on to the bed until we are ready to move into our new place.
Fingers crossed we get the housing sorted out soon… stay tuned…
Visa Dramas: Chapter 2: Part 5: The conclusion for now
After getting the official go ahead from Berlin a few weeks earlier than expected we were very happy she was able to go there and pick it up!
Femke was a little cautious and concerned that something else might go wrong. I did my best to re-assure her but I was a little concerned too. It all had suddenly become so easy…
It ended up being rather anti-climatic to be honest! (in a good way!)
Back to New Zealand
Femke flew out to Auckland on Sunday morning. She received an email from Berlin on Monday and was told to go to the Australian Embassy on Thursday.
She then just has to kill time until Thursday.
When Thursday came (yesterday), she was at the Embassy bright and early. They asked for proof that she had left Australia, and showed it. 2 minutes later she had the sticker/stamp in her passport which was the official 2 year temporary residency visa!
That was it. The hard part is now officially over!!
I will be picking her up from the airport tomorrow night and she will now be an Aussie temporary resident!
So what happens now?
Femke can now legally stay and work in Australia for 2 years. The only limitation is she can’t get access to government benefits (like we need them 
).
The next and final stage is in 2 years time when we have to show the government additional proof that we have been together for the previous time. This will involve showing joint bank accounts and joint names on leases or big purchases etc. But that should all be significantly easier than what we have been through since February of this year. When that is all approved and sighted and stamped, then her temporary residency visa will become permanent.
Starting next week we can now finally get on with our lives together in Australia!! We have been waiting for this for so long! This means getting joint bank accounts, Fem looking for work and both of us searching for a place to live closer to the city! All the things other people can sometimes take for granted. It’s gonna be a lot of fun!
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