Tania, visas, coming home and going away

Captain's log: Stardate 11071.6

Performing Life follows school holidays here, so we've been off for the last week, and we have one more week of holiday. So we're heading off to Santa Cruz tonight, to do some hiking in the national park, and then maybe heading on to Samaipata or Vallegrande after that. Back next weekend. I'll be off comms, and so don't be surprised if I don't respond to you.

Other than that, I baked a tonne of apple meringue pie yesterday. I'm really getting the hang of that now. I used a buttery biscuit base mostly so I could watch that video again.

The other day we went out for pizza with the mum (Tania) of the family who we live with. We decided to take a taxi because we were a bit pressed for time. As we approached the taxi rank, the conversation went as such (translated to English):

Tania: TAXI (yes all in capitals).

Driver: Good evening.

Tania: You're not going to charge me much right?

Driver: Depends on where you are going.

Tania: For pizza! <proceeds to stare at the driver as if to say "well are you going to be expensive?"

Amy and I: <much laughter> "The corner of blah and blah"

That is typical Tania,

On another Tania note, she recently graduated as a lawyer and has been working for the last few monhs. However only the other day she properly got signed in. So of course there was a giant party with all the family and friends and karaoke until about 0300. This of course was a Thursday night, because all the best parties are on Thursdays.

Our current visa runs out in mid August, and there were potential issues with extending it. So we've decided to apply for a 1 or 2 year residency visa. This actually seems really simple. We need a police record but because we've been here more than 6 months, we can do the local police rather than interpol, which makes it a lot simpler. Then we need to have a medical check, get a contract from work and get a sworn declaration of financial solvency. All of which is really easy.

I'm planning to book a flight home in late November or early December. Depending on flight prices and what not. With the residency visa you can't be out of the country more than 90 days per year, and so I'll be working in London over Christmas for about 10 or 11 weeks. Which should give me a chance to see all of you.