We’re going to look at hiring a solicitor to represent us in this because if it’s not insanely expensive we think it would help our case quite a lot. We have a bit of paperwork to prepare before that date, but it’s probably not really anything that we haven’t already got together for the original application.

Kind of all seems a bit silly since by the time we go to the hearing we will have been living together for over 3 years, and all we have to prove is 2. The UK Border Agency already accepted our evidence from March 2011, so it’s been well over 2 years at this point. This could all be avoided if common sense ruled.

Well, this time I did it properly. I went to a shop and had a basic gait analysis done. The lady informed me I needed neutral shoes. I spent £110 or so on some nice new running shoes to force myself to take it seriously. I then began running every 2 days for the last month. I have had to switch days a couple of times to fit in around other things, but I’ve basically been running regularly.

When I first started I was terrible at pacing myself. I would run far too fast and have to stop several times on a 5km run. I gradually learned to pace myself and kept increasing the distance I could run. Within two to three weeks I could run the entire 5km distance without stopping, maintaining a consistent pace throughout.

Yesterday Dan and I went for our usual run. It was cold and raining quite a bit, but you can’t let that stop you. We made sure we spoke to each other on the way around, and that helped to keep spirits high. I think music would achieve similar results if you’re running by yourself. Some form of distraction is definitely helpful.

We managed to run 10.74km in one hour and six minutes. We had a fairly consistent pace of around 6:14 per km.

In the last month, since taking up running, I have lost somewhere in the region of 7kg (1 stone 1lb, or 15lb).

It feels good.

The main requirements were that we’d lived together in a serious and committed relationship for 2 years. We have lived together for almost 3 years now. Sadly, the proof required by the UK Border Agency basically only included letters from utilities companies or the government. When we first moved in together I had my own house. I was on all of the bills there, so I didn’t get myself added to Cheryl’s too.

The application letter said that it was advisable to get letters from people we lived with, or people who knew we lived together to cover any months we couldn’t account for ourselves. We got Rik to write us a letter because he introduced us and has known us both longer than we have known each other. We also got Tsomo to write us a letter because we lived with her at Ropewalk Court in Nottingham over 2 years ago.

When we got the reply from the UKBA it said that Cheryl’s visa application was rejected because they didn’t believe we met the definition of partners and we hadn’t been living together for long enough.

It’s infuriating to have some organisation make a decision about your entire future based on whether E-On can say you were living together or not.

We’ve requested an oral appeal, and submitted nearly 50 pages of Facebook relationship data to support that we’ve been together for more than long enough.

If they still say we weren’t together I’m not sure how we can prove it. It seems a lot like we’re being assumed guilty until we can prove we’re innocent here.

Man I feel old.

So, here are some statistics I’ve come up with for the timespan of this blog:

I have moved house somewhere in the region of 12 times, not counting some very brief stays in temporary places, and perhaps forgetting some.

I’ve worked for 5 companies (6 if you count Amazon and LOVEFiLM separately).

I’ve made lots of new friends, and completely stopped speaking to some of the ones I was friends with when this blog began. There’s even a small subset of friends that I’ve both made and stopped speaking to during the last 10 years.

I’ve lived in America, I’ve visited Canada, Germany, Romania, Poland, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Spain (and Tenerife), France, Singapore, Indonesia, and Australia.

I try to write updates on my blog while I’m doing these big life events, but in the end I tend to give up half way through because I’m busy writing updates on Facebook or Google+ instead. I find it kind of a shame that my post rate has dropped on here so dramatically because of social networks. It makes me wonder how much longer I’ll continue writing updates on a blog. It would be a bit of a shame to stop completely after 10 years though.

I’m really enjoying Singapore so far. It’s really hot even when it’s not so sunny, which is strange at first, but nice. I’ve tried all sorts of food for the first time. Most notably pig intestine (wtf?) and durian fruit. Durian is on my list of things to eat, so I’m glad I’ve ticked it off at last. It’s not at all how I imagined it to be. The smell is very off-putting, and the texture is like a slimey avocado. It’s a good job it tastes pretty nice.

I’ve eaten at places called hawker centres a couple of times. They’re sort of like UK market stalls, but more permanent. Sort of like the size of a garage. It’s really cheap to get food there. It cost about £1.50 for some noodles. That sounds expensive at first when you consider you can buy cheap crappy noodes for about 10p in a supermarket, but these are much nicer, and it comes with pork, fish cakes, and fish balls included too.

– Update

I originally intended to update this post with everything I did in Singapore, but I didn’t, and to go back and try to do so now would take me too long. I tried to do the same in Indonesia and made a bit of a better job because I was there for less time, but it’s still not quite complete. I’m just going to post them now for the sake of getting them out before they’re completely pointless.

Well, tomorrow I’m going to go further. Singapore is just over a thousand miles further from home than California was. In 2 weeks I’ll go even further and visit Australia, a clear 10000 miles from home.

I’ve never been further south than California or further east than Latvia. I’m going to be going a significant distance further in each of those directions. I will be in the southern hemisphere for the first time in my life. I wonder what it will be like to look up at the stars and not recognise them.

I think it’s going to be awesome.

“12PM GMT.”

“Oh, 12PM in TIME! I thought you were talking about 12PM in area…” o_O

I can’t really say anything about it, but I like it.

The new offices give everyone more space behind their seats, whiteboards all over the walls, pool tables, table football, bean bags to sit on, arcade machines, showers and bike parking, and it all just generally feels so much better. It’s so nice that I no longer have so many strong objections to staying late.

Because of the new location I’ve begun cycling to work. I’ve got my journey time down to around 20 minutes now, which is pretty cool. It’s roughly a third of the time I used to spend on the tube to the old office, and it doesn’t require a season ticket. So that’s over £100 a month saved if I don’t use the tube. Obviously I do still use the tube, but much less than before, so within three months I should have started to save money over the initial expense of the bike.

So all in all it’s a really positive move.