Thoughts in Time

That’s essentially the message I got from MaxJet this morning.  I was excited about my flight on MaxJet - an all business class cross atlantic service.  Flights for my next required trip to the UK had been so expensive that I’d decided to pay in the difference personally to fly MaxJet rather than coach on a typical carrier.  Oh well, after a little searching, I found that new seats had opened up on Virgin and that I could fly cheaper Premium Economy the dates that I wanted to fly than flying economy (someone tell me how that happens), and overall will save quite a bit versus my original ticket.  Airline ticket availability and price fluctuations still baffle me.

Anyways - Merry Christmas to all. Best wishes for this holiday season and for the coming new year.

Our official first day of renting our place in London was today (Christmas Eve).  When we officially move will depend on my work visa. Until then, I’ll be back and forth a couple times for work.  Can’t wait to get fully settled in. You would think as an entrepreneur, I wouldn’t mind being unsettled.  I think having my personal life in order makes it a lot easier to deal with the fast pace of a startup.  Oh well, we’ll deal. Good thing I have Kellee who has been such a great enthusiastic partner in this move - Kel - I love you! - we’re going to rock London

Part of the process of moving to London involves my getting a work permit to be able to reside and work in the U.K.  I was able to get some initial advice through the UK Trade and Investment Board. After considering working with a law firm, I decided that I could save the company money by putting together my Visa application myself.  Luckily, I am able to apply under the Highly Skilled Migrant Program (HSMP).  It’s a fairly straight forward way to apply, where you qualify by demonstrating that you meet a certain number of qualifications such as education level, prior earnings, competency in English, etc.

The only difficulty is that you are required to provide original documentation supporting everything.  And in some cases that isn’t even enough.  For instance, my degree from Yale is issued in Latin… so I had to get an official translated version of the degree.  Luckily, this seems to be a fairly common request that Yale gets and they helped me take care of it.  Other items I had to provide included wage slips from Higher One, an original birth certificate, and a letter from my dean at Yale stating that my degree was taught in English (I don’t know if any engineering degree is really in “English”), but at least that’s the language they claimed the textbooks were in .  Everything’s been sent, so now I just wait and see. I did file a petition to make urgent so hopefully it will be processed quickly. Then I have to go to a consulate to get the entry approval…

I got back from the UK wed evening. Today - Thursday - both the movers are here, as is the snow.  They got here at 7:30AM. Luckily that felt more like 12:30.  Since we’re moving to a smaller place, not all of us our stuff is going, however there is still a large volume of stuff that is being packed and moved.

I’ve got to say, there’s a lot to be said for hiring experts. There is no way I could pack like these guys.  Fast high quality packing is no joke. 147 boxes later, I feel confident that our stuff will arrive undamaged at our place in London… All this and they finished before the snow really started to come down.