It's been a while since I've been around here, there is no specific reason for that other than, life happens. Towards the end of last year I was quite busy with a trip to Scotland for a weekend where I watched my sister take part with her Majorette team in the Kirkcudbright Tattoo, and then a trip to Poland for a week which was my brother's 16th birthday present where he reunited with his best friend after several years. It was amazing. I will definitely make posts about each of these trips once I've gone through and retrieved my photos (I had to take them off my phone because... storage lol), I like to take lots of photos!

I guess this post is for me to just ramble a bit, maybe receive some feedback, I don't really know at this point, I'd just like to write, to express...

I'm now back in South Africa where I've been for the last couple of months. I'm currently in the process of extending my tourism visa which seems to be taking some time. I'm legally allowed to stay in the country for six months and so I applied for a further 3 months on my initial 3 months stay. However they got the dates wrong and only granted me a further 21 days and so I've applied for it to be rectified. This is just so inconvenient for many reasons, one of which is I'm now down to my last couple of weeks before the visa expires and I still haven't received an answer for my visa rectification application. I'm tracking it all the time with hopes of it updating.

I met with a lady at home affairs immigration and explained the situation and she informed me that I could actually stay here even after my extension visa expires because I'm still in the process of having my visa rectified. I really hope that my application is ready to be collected very soon because the thought of staying here beyond my expired visa (even though they've got it wrong) gives me extreme anxiety, and it worries me the I could potentially be putting any future visits here in jeopardy. Or maybe it will all be fine like the lady from immigration said, and I should stop worrying... Next joke please! Lol.

I also heard from my employment asking when I would be returning to work, what my availability is, and to remind me that when on the Bank staff books, a certain amount of shifts have to be completed in order to remain on the books. I was also asked if I wanted to remain on the Bank books, all of which I responded to (still haven't received a response which is playing on my mind). However, before I left, I asked whether it would be a promblem if I was gone for potentially six months, and I was reassured that it wouldn't be. That "new rule" about completing a certain number of shifts was put in place for other Bank members of staff who show up for the bare minimum. I am normally away for three months, however for this visit (first time ever) I wanted to apply to extend my stay. When I am at work, I put in a lot of hours and I work bloody hard (as lots of other carers/nurses do). It's my means of living and funds my visits to South Africa, which is also where my partner lives. This is another reason why I am so anxious about staying here beyond my expired visa date as I obviously don't want to risk not being allowed back.

Anyway, back to the email. I'm just a bit down, I guess. I'm not really sure if that's the word to describe how I feel upon receiving it, perhaps 'concerned' is more like it. I've been travelling back and forth like this for the past 8/9 years now and so they know my routine, it's nothing new, other than this time was/is potentially going to be slightly longer. After this experience though, I doubt it's something I'll do again which is a real shame. I believe we should be FREE to go wherever we desire, for however long we desire/need. As long as your intentions aren't considered criminal, then what the hell does it matter? This was not 'a thing' way back in the day, you either had money to board a ship and go somewhere, or you didn't! Modern day crap is absolute bulls#*t! Anyway, I'm derailling. I guess this is all I have to say at this moment because it's very real to me right now, my lifestyle depends on this job. Maybe I should be considering other options like remote based work where I can take my work with me regardless of where I go (hopefully I can actually find one).

Perhaps I'm overthinking it all and everything's going to be fine but I just can't help but to think, think, think. Perhaps I just should go and eat something! That always puts me in a brighter mood, haha!