comments 22

It’s 2 months to go…

There, I just emailed my resignation letter so two months from now my husband and I will be on the road, and we will be alone, no work colleagues, no daily schedule to abide by, we don’t even have to go to the office anymore.

I have to say goodbye to my company friends where we have been working for the last 10 years, well, almost 10 years for me…(if I carry on working with this company till August, then I’ll be exactly 10 years).

One of my high profile project that we were involved with in Qatar, in has been in operation for the last 4 years

My husband and I work in the same office, and he sent his notice last week, and he said that directly after he clicked “send” the email he felt relief, relief from the burden of the job, knowing that he will leave soon. However for me, to send a resignation email is hard, I have to admit that my job is finishing, and if I prolong my stay, I will be transferred to another project and another new routine, and another income. This resignation letter for me is not a normal one. I have resigned from a company several times previously in order to move to another company, with new optimism, new hope and most importantly a continuation of income. But this time, it’s totally different. This is not a normal resignation letter, this is retirement letter as well. Am I that old to retire now? should I now live off my savings?

The end of a career in construction???

All my life I have lived in a corporate world, I may have never worked in a bank or in a law firm company, however, I always enjoyed a routine 9 to 5 job. In 2 months time I have to say goodbye to all those things and become a retiree and a nomad as well…

In January I wrote about my confusion of my plan in the coming months. Now suddenly I am there…resigned from my corporate job, getting ready to leave Doha, Qatar and the Middle East, and my expat life. Yet, we are still a bit confused and not quite sure where exactly we will go due to several reasons. I had a few fancy Ideas, but I guess we need to make our priorities and that decides what we should do next after leaving Doha.

As we all know, Doha (Qatar) was only a temporary place for us, just to work and earn enough money to retire. Yes we lived here for 10 years (… is 10 years temporary?). But once we have no job to sponsor us to live in that country, there’s no reason why we should stay and why the government (of Qatar) should allow us to stay. Now is the question of finding our next home base, whether its permanently or “temporarily…”

OK, in that post, I wrote about my dream list of options on doing so many thing en-route to our next home-base, that is in the UK. But I guess I have to make my priority right, wake up and realize that there are no such options for us. At the end of the previous post I mentioned about the requirement of spouse visa to enter UK so the I can live permanently (not like a tourist) in the UK with my beloved. This is the key issue and the priority so that we are not to split up due to immigration paperwork. And from there on we can travel easier.

Anyway, visa application submitted last month, this is where I am now…. the lady in waiting… 😉 crossed fingers I will get that settlement visa, so that I can plan our life easier… uhmmmm not yet, what happen if they decline my application? should I have a plan B?

New home?

New home?

 

 

22 Comments

  1. Suatu hari aku bakal ngalamin lagi nih ngajuin spouse visa (utk tinggal Australia, yg pertama spouse visa utk tinggal di Kolombia).. Jadi ikutan deg-degan..😯 Ditunggu kisah selanjutnya..

    Liked by 1 person

    • Masalahnya kan karena syaratnya yang aneh-aneh jadi bikin deg-degan, apalagi masuk ke Inggris sebagai imigran… 😳

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      • Masuk Inggris sebagai turis aja syaratnya bikin bete, apalagi sebagai imigran..:-(
        Semoga semuanya lancar jaya ya..:-)

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      • syarat visa untuk negara-negara barat, termasuk eropa, australia dan As, semuanya bikin bete. Untuk saya, yang terutama bikin bete kok malah Oz ya…. lamanya itu loh….

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      • Hahaha itu mah betul banget..😄 Visa Oz ini maksudnya spouse visa kah? Kalo itu emang lama dan ribet, tapi kalo visa turisnya menurutku lebih simpel dibandingkan visa turis US dan negara Eropa..

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      • Mungkin karena situasi saya dimana ga ada konsuler Australia, jadi semua berkas harus di kirim ke Abu Dhabi dan memakan waktu minimal 3 minggu; ga bisa pergi mendadak jadinya…. Visa ke Inggris untuk saya biasanya sangat cepet, 2 hari jadi, tapi sekarang jadi makin lama, karena semua harus di kirim ke Abu Dhabi….

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      • Oh ya bener.., karena situasi gak ada konsuler/kedutaan negara tsb di negara tempat kita tinggal sebagai orang asing pula.. Ini kejadian di aku juga waktu ngurus general visitor visa Australia di Kolombia, sementara kedutaan Australi terdekat ada di Santiago, Chile.. Duh! Rumit ampun deh..
        Yah…sebagai sesama perantau pemegang paspor hijau aku harus bilang: wish you a very best luck in this paperwork frenzy..! Hahaha..😄

        Liked by 1 person

  2. It’s hard Nin. I can feel it. When Peggy and I retired, we became nomads. But we had a small, 22 foot RV to travel and live in. It was a home away from home and we weren’t ex-pats. It was more like freedom to roam than anything else. After four years, we found our place in Oregon. But we did leave our jobs and income. I know its tough. It takes courage. Curt

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    • Thanks Cornelia, even though at the moment I don’t really know my feeling to toward this new life, and I hope this would be a great adventure as you said… 🙂

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  3. hani

    Nina, it is definitely a BIG decision and I feel with you but at least you have a choice and I am sure you and Keith made the right choice – you were not confronted with having to resign. . We only know whether it was a good choice or not once we are “in it” but at least you were realistic enough to have saved up for your “olden days” and that is a great help. Look it from the “bright” side, yes it was a good decision and yes you will enjoy your leisure time.

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  4. It looks like I found your blog at a confusing time for you. I hope that your future holds lots of great surprises and stories (all good ones) for you and that you find some thing that works well for both of you. Take care and continued happy travels, Cheryl

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  5. Gara

    Semangat, Mbak. Semoga mendapat yang terbaik di tempat yang baru nanti, dan saya yakin Mbak dan pasangan pasti mendapatkan yang terbaik :)). Terlibat dalam pembangunan struktur hebat (yang pastinya rumit) itu bisa Mbak lalui dengan sukses, saya yakin dalam tahapan ini pun Mbak pasti bisa :)).

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  6. Pingback: Looking back to 2015 | Nins' Travelog

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