LAND DOWNUNDER

[CarolineM 0]

i miss all the good white chocolate and proper lollies....

musk sticks....mmmmmmm

lollies....mmmmmm

oh the cricket is in the west indies. I wish we were going back to Oz, bu sadly no

[hampster 0]

Offers to wear a TrenchCoat through CUSTOMS

LINED WITH TUBES OF VEGEMITE / CADBURY CHOCOLATES( ALL VARIETIES),

TIM TAM'S AND MINT SLICE BIKKIES

MUSK STICKS (ANYONE REMEMBER COBBLERS? )

AND A THERMAL VEST TO BRING SOME AUTHENTIC FISH AND CHIPS,

WITH A SIDE ODER OF CHARCOAL CHICKEN .

I REMEMBER HOADLEYS CHOCOLATE / NOW CADBURY'S,

THEY USE TO HAVE A MANUFACTURING PLANT HERE IN ADELAIDE

THEY USE TO DO PRODUCTION RUNS OF "CRUNHCIE BARS ( THE 500GRAM SIZE)

AND THEY SOME TIMES RAN OUT OF THE CHOCOLATE WHILST DOING PRODUCTION.

THEY USE TO BAG UP 20 KILO BAGS = 44 POUNDS OF THE UNCOVERED HONEYCOMB,

AND SELL IT AT THERE BACK DOOR IN THE WAREHOUSE FOR

$ 10.00 A BAG OMFG .

I USE TO WORK AT A REFRIDGERATED WAREHOUSE. A FEW YEARS AGO,

WE STOCKED ALL PERISHABLE GOODS..

CRAYFISH, LEG HAMS ICECREAM'S OF MANY DIFFERENT BRANDS

AND WE WHERE THE REFRIDGERATED DISTRIBUTION WAREHOUSE,

THAT KEPT ALL THE FERRERO ROCHER HAZELNUT CHOCCIES.

A REP FROM THE COMPANY CAME IN THAT XMAS AND SAID,

AFTER CHECKING ALL THE USE BY DATES ON THE 45 PALLETS,

WELL THESE ARE NO GOOD TO SEND OUT TO SHOPS,

THERE IS ONLY A MONTH'S DATE LEFT ON THEM,

SO THEY HAVE TO BE EITHER THROWN OUT,

OR YOU CAN GIVE THEM TO YOUR WORKERS.

SO THAT XMAS I HAD 25 CARTONS OF CHOCOLATES THAT I GAVE AWAY FOR XMAS

OK ENOUGH WAFFLING ON FOM ME.. LYNDEL DID YOU SEE THE NEW GYM EQUIPMENT..

LOL OK I'M GONE CATCH YA ALL LATER

CHEERS

PAUL

Edited March 13, 2007 by hampster

[Rings 10]

mmmmm I should ask David to send me some cherry chocolate covered things that I couldn't stop eating when I was in Aussie... *sigh* I miss it there

[serendipitous 0]

mmmmm I should ask David to send me some cherry chocolate covered things that I couldn't stop eating when I was in Aussie... *sigh* I miss it there

Cherry Ripes?

I should get Corey to send me fish and chips haha!

[Kath 0]

hell bells you lot ya makin me home sick of all this talk about chocie and food...lol

there is nothing like our cadbury chocolate...even the cadbury that is made by hershey here aint the same..

ohh i would love some fish and chips with chicken salt all over them and the dimmies damm ..aint nothing here like the flake we get there robert has searched high an low for me hehehe

hammy...i use to work for Big W in the dock area..the reps would do the same thing with the chocy's....years ago when it was easter we were allowed to buy bags of it too..but then the health people said we couldnt so the policy changed it use to break my heart having to dump it all but the smell got me through the day lol

congrats on the NOA1 rings at least you now know they have your petition in their hands mate...and those chocy's ya love are called cherry ripes...i agree they are yummmmmmm!!!!!

lyndel we had 74f =23.3c toaday ..i tell ya it was lovely driving around with the sunroof open and the sun warming the arms...saw heaps of kids walkin around in shorts and singlets and summer dresses lol...it wasnt hot to me but damm those kids are gunna swealter if we get a hot summer here lol and the snow is almost melted just got the dirty piles to go around town and some of the small creeks and rivers are still partially frozen...

serendip if you think that the fish and chips from oz are fantastic you should taste the ones from england...i remember as a kid friday nights going up to the local fish and chippy having them wrapped up in newspaper and mmmmmmmmmm damm my parents always said the aussie's dont cook fish an chips like home lol...

tamzo i have emailed that bloke i was talking about for you just waiting for a reply...also i saw that there is another aussie from perth called michelle...if you go to the embassey info and click on all aussie members you will find her...maybe she will help you out too...also WA aint the only state that doesnt do anything at the police stations melbourne doesnt either...i had to go into the police headquarters in melbourne to get mine done and i also had a hell of a do getting it done by them..

ok now for what i did today with my hubby

with me getting my greencard and EAD i went into Social Security to get the notation of not eligible to work taken off my records with SSA....went in close to closing was in an out within 15mins...

i downloaded and filled out the form i needed which saved time she look at my cards and updated it for me..so now i just gotta wait for the new card to arrive and im all done with SSA...

my hubbs has the whole week off because of down time at jeep..

so he took me to a pie factory called Crikey pies authentic australian pies..

they had finished cooking for the day and were cleaning up ..we went in my hubby sez wanted to show your place to an aussie lol....

we were welcomed in had the tour of the place talked to the owners husband who is the american who went to oz years ago an met his wife..had a family then came back here 5 years ago and found there were no aussie meat pies here so they experimented with them marketed them and now they sell to the supermarkets here

had a lovely half an hour talking to the husband of the australian (am bad with names lol) i then asked if they thought of making sausage rolls .his eyes glowed lol he went to the freeze and got 2 pork and 2 chicken sausage rolls for us to take home...they are in experimental stage with them at the moment finding the closest ingredients to the aussie sausage rolls..well i tell ya when we got home i quickly popped them in the oven and we sat down to eat them...they were delish...never had a chicken one before though so it was a new taste for me but i reckon they have it very close to the original...so tomorrow im going to ring the wife up there and tell her what i thought of them..she was in new york for a meeting so i wasnt able to meet her...

so there ya go ..i have known about this place for 4 years robert got told off for not bringing me there sooner lol..so im rapt that i got to see the bakery...and hopefully i will get to meet an aussie in toledo whooo hoooo lol at the moment they are trying to get them into roberts work so when he goes back he is going to push for them too ..to get them sold at his work...

if you would like to look at their website the link is below...

AUSTRALIAN AUTHENTIC MEAT PIES BAKED IN TOLEDO OHIO

sorry for the long an outstretched post today but i thought you might like to hear about my day lol

ohh by the way on that site you can see where they are sold around the states...

talk to ya all soon

kath

[David A. 0]

The Journey is finally over...

I cannot begin to tell you how much of a relief this is.

My wife and I were caught between that Adam Walsh Act of Jan 2007 (added the date because that's when it affected us, but was actually passed last year) and had a fairly rough set back.

Due to the lack of knowledge and information Sydney had about this new legislation, my wife and I were in a state of limbo.

Yet, we kept our faith.

Sydney tells us that it may take months until they find out what they would do to the pending petitions. A few emails and all they can say is "please check back with the website or email us."

Luckily my wife kept her interview date in Sydney... and was allowed to submit her packets.

Upon her return home to a town called Adelaide... we decided that it be best to be together through this dilema. Since Sydney stated that it can take many months until this is resolved maybe even up to a year... I can't believe they said that!

It put a strain on both of us because we had our hopes up from the very beginning. So I bought her a plane ticket to stay with me in America for up to 90days. And yes, my wife did tell the POE Officer that she was visiting her husband and was still allowed entry. Why? Because she told the truth.

February 12th, my wife arrives in Florida!

February 22nd... Rose from the consulate apparently called my wife's cellphone and leaves a message stating that her visa had been approved. Mind you, my wife is here in the US. So we get no email, no other calls... they had my wife's home number where they could have left a message with her mother, and they also had mine in the US. That message would eventually be erased since my wife's prepaid plan expired.

I send an email on the 25th of February and get an email back on the 28th stating that they tried contacting us and that the visa is ready to be issued. Yes, they will try and contact you once... and that's about it. They will toss you aside... so always follow up in any situation!

If I didn't email them, I would have never known that my wife's visa had been approved. If this went into April, Sydney says that my wife would have had to resubmit all her forms to get revaluated. Which means even more delays.

My wife calls the consulate asking if she would have to return to Australia and they said yes, she physically has to to be in Australia to send off her passport.

So my wife flies back on March 5th, returns to Adelaide and immediately sends off her passport.

Wednesday the 7th... wife calls the Consulate. Oops! They are in conference for the next 3 days.

My wife leaves two messages with Rose asking her to call back.

Monday the 12th... my wife calls the Australia Post asking her if her passport made it to Sydney. She gives them the parcel number and guess what, there is no record of it. Apparently someone was too lazy to scan it into the system for tracking. Holy shiet... my wife and I go crazy! At this point we don't know what to do.

Finally, Rose calls my wife's home number on the 13th and tells her mom to tell Stephanie to call her as soon as possible. Stephanie was at Uni doing homework. Well my wife didn't have enough credit on her mobile to call Sydney since she's on prepaid and didn't have a place nearby to buy any credit.

So I call her myself that afternoon. Rose asks me if my wife is in Australia. And I said yes, she arrived last week and sent off her passport last week. I asked her if she recieved her passport because an overnight parcel would have been there by now... and guess what she tells me... "no, I have not recieved it yet... please have Stephanie call me as soon as possible..." If it was that important, why couldn't she just call her cellphone!

So my wife and I are freaking out... we had no idea where her passport is and the post says they'll return our inquiry within 10 days! Well, my wife doesn't have 10 days... we thought this would have been a flight home, and a quick return... so it doesn't totally disrupt her studies.

My wife calls this morning on the 14th and Rose is too busy to talk because she's conducting interviews...

1pm Adelaide time on the 14th guess what shows up on the door... yup... the parcel, my wife recieved her visa and passport.

Apparently Rose, had no idea somebody else over there was working on it, and apparently the people inside the consulate don't really communicate with each other.

So all I can say is, I'm done dealing with Sydney! We have the visa in hand!!! Wife is arriving here on Sunday... just as we expected.

Thank you to all who were there for me in the beginning... Aussiewench, Lunamel, CarolineM, Kath... and the list can go on and on...

If it weren't for visajourney, I would have been lost...

To everyone else who has started their journey recently... this definitely has been a place of support, friendship, and guidance. Use these people wisely, that's why we are all here.

Goodluck to everyone!

[hampster 0]

The Journey is finally over...

I cannot begin to tell you how much of a relief this is.

My wife and I were caught between that Adam Walsh Act of Jan 2007 (added the date because that's when it affected us, but was actually passed last year) and had a fairly rough set back.

Due to the lack of knowledge and information Sydney had about this new legislation, my wife and I were in a state of limbo.

Yet, we kept our faith.

Sydney tells us that it may take months until they find out what they would do to the pending petitions. A few emails and all they can say is "please check back with the website or email us."

Luckily my wife kept her interview date in Sydney... and was allowed to submit her packets.

Upon her return home to a town called Adelaide... we decided that it be best to be together through this dilema. Since Sydney stated that it can take many months until this is resolved maybe even up to a year... I can't believe they said that!

It put a strain on both of us because we had our hopes up from the very beginning. So I bought her a plane ticket to stay with me in America for up to 90days. And yes, my wife did tell the POE Officer that she was visiting her husband and was still allowed entry. Why? Because she told the truth.

February 12th, my wife arrives in Florida!

February 22nd... Rose from the consulate apparently called my wife's cellphone and leaves a message stating that her visa had been approved. Mind you, my wife is here in the US. So we get no email, no other calls... they had my wife's home number where they could have left a message with her mother, and they also had mine in the US. That message would eventually be erased since my wife's prepaid plan expired.

I send an email on the 25th of February and get an email back on the 28th stating that they tried contacting us and that the visa is ready to be issued. Yes, they will try and contact you once... and that's about it. They will toss you aside... so always follow up in any situation!

If I didn't email them, I would have never known that my wife's visa had been approved. If this went into April, Sydney says that my wife would have had to resubmit all her forms to get revaluated. Which means even more delays.

My wife calls the consulate asking if she would have to return to Australia and they said yes, she physically has to to be in Australia to send off her passport.

So my wife flies back on March 5th, returns to Adelaide and immediately sends off her passport.

Wednesday the 7th... wife calls the Consulate. Oops! They are in conference for the next 3 days.

My wife leaves two messages with Rose asking her to call back.

Monday the 12th... my wife calls the Australia Post asking her if her passport made it to Sydney. She gives them the parcel number and guess what, there is no record of it. Apparently someone was too lazy to scan it into the system for tracking. Holy shiet... my wife and I go crazy! At this point we don't know what to do.

Finally, Rose calls my wife's home number on the 13th and tells her mom to tell Stephanie to call her as soon as possible. Stephanie was at Uni doing homework. Well my wife didn't have enough credit on her mobile to call Sydney since she's on prepaid and didn't have a place nearby to buy any credit.

So I call her myself that afternoon. Rose asks me if my wife is in Australia. And I said yes, she arrived last week and sent off her passport last week. I asked her if she recieved her passport because an overnight parcel would have been there by now... and guess what she tells me... "no, I have not recieved it yet... please have Stephanie call me as soon as possible..." If it was that important, why couldn't she just call her cellphone!

So my wife and I are freaking out... we had no idea where her passport is and the post says they'll return our inquiry within 10 days! Well, my wife doesn't have 10 days... we thought this would have been a flight home, and a quick return... so it doesn't totally disrupt her studies.

My wife calls this morning on the 14th and Rose is too busy to talk because she's conducting interviews...

1pm Adelaide time on the 14th guess what shows up on the door... yup... the parcel, my wife recieved her visa and passport.

Apparently Rose, had no idea somebody else over there was working on it, and apparently the people inside the consulate don't really communicate with each other.

So all I can say is, I'm done dealing with Sydney! We have the visa in hand!!! Wife is arriving here on Sunday... just as we expected.

Thank you to all who were there for me in the beginning... Aussiewench, Lunamel, CarolineM, Kath... and the list can go on and on...

If it weren't for visajourney, I would have been lost...

To everyone else who has started their journey recently... this definitely has been a place of support, friendship, and guidance. Use these people wisely, that's why we are all here.

Goodluck to everyone!

First off to David and Stephanie finally Congratulations,

from myself and Cheryl( wifee - northerngirl ) for finally getting Steph's Visa

I am so happy for you both finally being able to get on with your lives,

without waiting for paperwork international calls to Sydney Consulate and the like

[Emerald 0]

THanks for that poi, it dosn't make sense but it might when i'm not reading it so late lol.

We still havn't found out where to send my application. Hubby is goin gto call the Texas place 2mrw, in the mean time i'm trying to do what i can to make it easier on us when it's time to submitt the paperwork.

I'm going to go get my criminal check 2mrw, does anyone know where the results get sent? Is it back to me?

[CarolineM 0]

OMG DAvid...what a story! I am so glad you all made it through...and technically it did still take shorter than a K1 route...WAY more stressful...but it's all over.

I'm not kidding about a meet up I hope we can work it out!

[Rings 10]

Awe David I am so happy for you and Steph. i hope that things go well and that you are so happy together *huges*

mmm Yes Cherry Ripes YES!!!!

[vylex 0]

CONGRATS DAVID AND STEPHANIE!!!

I can't believe the mixup with the Passport. That's crazy. I am glad it worked out in the end though!

As for this...

"Upon her return home to a town called Adelaide... we decided that it be best to be together through this dilema. Since Sydney stated that it can take many months until this is resolved maybe even up to a year... I can't believe they said that!"

I'm not sure which answer I'd rather hear from Sydney. It seems they had no idea so they took the extreme approach and gave you that answer. Better to under-commit and over-deliver I guess. If they said a few weeks and it kept getting stretched out I think I'd pull my hair out.

In any case, I'm glad you were able to get things done relatively quickly even with all the setbacks and inconveniences. Now that I started this process I get to wait and wait and wait for that touch and hopeful NOA2 before it gets to the NVC for another few months wait. Part of me would rather go through what you and Stephanie has gone through for 2 months and get the Visa rather than sit and wait for a potential 9-12 months.

May you and Stephanie have a long wonderful life together!!!

[meauxna 15]

The Journey is finally over...

I cannot begin to tell you how much of a relief this is.

I think I heaved a sigh of relief with you, David.. felt so bad for all you all stuck in the middle with that. You handled everything so well, I'm not surprised at your outcome, just happy for you!

[David A. 0]

The Journey is finally over...

I cannot begin to tell you how much of a relief this is.

I think I heaved a sigh of relief with you, David.. felt so bad for all you all stuck in the middle with that. You handled everything so well, I'm not surprised at your outcome, just happy for you!

Thank you guys... I can't begin to say how much appreciation I have for people who keep their head up and give people realistic advice...

Vylex, hang in there. You know what... with this whole thing that happened, if I had just done it the way it's done now back in September... this would have been finished probably around the same time and we probably could have saved thousands of dollars. But that's just the way life is sometimes. You just deal with the situation and move on. But hang in there... you'll get through it. Believe me.

OMG DAvid...what a story! I am so glad you all made it through...and technically it did still take shorter than a K1 route...WAY more stressful...but it's all over.

I'm not kidding about a meet up I hope we can work it out!

Yes, I told my wife about you... and how you followed my journey since I joined this thing. If we ever come by Jacksonville, which I'm sure we will, if not this year, at least by next, we'll ring you up.

[Kath 0]

congrats to David and Steph

so happy everything got sorted out for you in the end...was a long and frustrating journey for you both..but your will power and determination was there from the start and now you can start your lives together as man and wife..

may you have a long and happy life together filled with joy and less trials and tribulations...this journey will slowly fade from your minds but will have made you stronger as a couple

take care and good luck for the future

kath

[Poi_n_J 0]

THanks for that poi, it dosn't make sense but it might when i'm not reading it so late lol.

We still havn't found out where to send my application. Hubby is goin gto call the Texas place 2mrw, in the mean time i'm trying to do what i can to make it easier on us when it's time to submitt the paperwork.

I'm going to go get my criminal check 2mrw, does anyone know where the results get sent? Is it back to me?

Your hubby's the USC yeah? If so, he'll understand it. You get your police check sent back to you as you're the one going to the interview...I think the only reason they ask that is cos most people get it for their job and it gets sent back to the employer.

Well I got my police check back and it's only been a couple weeks; way shorter than I expected but they have mixed up my new name and my old so I have to ask for it to be fixed up..! The dopes.... I just hope they don't expect another $120 for another piece of paper

Congrates David & Stephanie..!!! Must be a huge relief...may you have a wonderful life together..

That's wonderful news Kath about the aussie living in your town, I sense a good relationship forming here as well as a good supply of good aussie food lol..

And still we wait.....