So far so good, last week has been quite of a roller-coaster but interesting and exciting plans are lying ahead. I would have liked to stay a bit longer in Southeast Asia to travel but hopefully I can come back soon for holidays. To be honest, although London was the original plan after Sydney, I don’t regret chaning my plans and coming to this country.

I know many people didn’t think I would make it to the UK, considering the recession and the job market. I’m very glad they didn’t, because that made me try harder again and again, despite the obstacles. As Mr. Confucious said: “it does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop”.

But above all, I’m seeing how lucky I’ve been for having a so nice and supportive family, and also incredible friends around the world. Really, in 30 years, I’ve been truly lucky for being surrounded with so many smart and extraordinary people.

So the question are, what’s for the next 10 years? Settling down maybe? Doing more incredible trips? Conquering the world? Well I can tell you that there’s a moving plan for the following 18 months and that’s where the things are getting really interesting… and I accept suggestions.

I think I have been officially ripped off by a foreign country. Yeah you guessed correctly, the British didn’t reply to my visa working visa request at the end of September as promised. I sent another fax and they haven’t replied yet. They state that there’s no refunds once an application is placed. They can give no information over the phone. And there no signs of my 600 pounds of course.

On the good news, I started to apply for jobs in Australia and it happens there are some companies interested in sponsorships. Also, I got another skills assessment from ACS, which place my skills as 2231-79  Computer Professional – specialising in Data Warehousing  (fancy, isn’t it?), which in part of the Critical Skills List. Still the application make take 12 months or so. Anyway, I’m trying to be a bit more careful about the jobs and companies I’m applying for. Better not rushing and landing an interesting position.

About Denmark, well they haven’t replied yet although I haven’t chased either. That’s a different case. The government  says that they’re very short of supply of specialised IT workers, however I have found very few jobs on internet. Not sure if Danes prefer to advertise in newspapers, or simply they exclusively do it in Danish. Anyway, I think it’d be a competitive advantage if I know some Danish, useless outside of Denmark but at least I won’t get lost in København

The Mexican embassy is a funny place. There are no security guards at all, they made me wait for around an hour. Besides, now it happens that the passports no longer take 1 working day like in Mexico, but 6 to 8 weeks. Oh well, at least I spent a good day in the capital.

Anyway, the promised visa post. Long-story short: commenting about the difficulty to find a sponsor in Australia (and that was the reason to get abroad), a friend commented out about using job agencies. And he was so correct, I wrote to a few agencies and Robert Walters called back, they were interested in my skills and they said that if I find a contract they’ll work out the visa.

Now the question is: should I try to work in Europe anyway? I don’t necessarily need to leave Australia now.

So what’s up with me? Well after quitting from Websalad I started a Postgraduate Certificate in Policing, Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism at Macquarie Uni. I’ve never been in a Faculty of Arts before, I guess that makes me a cross-over of Science and Arts now, how cool is that? The main reason for taking this certificate is to expand my skills in national/organisational security and because of the class of cyberterrorism. The cool thing about this class is the fact that you can take it online if you need, then no problems with moving overseas. And no, we can’t still spy on anyone and I don’t have a licence to kill like James Bond, but I have my hopes.

The hot topic that everybody wants to know: how are the visas going? Well, last word from the British was a few weeks ago saying that they couldn’t reply in 28 days and probably in September. Yeah, so slow. The funny stuff is that they advise you not to apply 3 months before of your intended date to be in the UK. Guess what? The application is in 5 months now. Anyway, I’m not in rush at the moment. Danish visa was the backup visa, however Denmark start sounding interesting although I can’t possibly understand the language, well I can read a bit now.

Am I working now? Nope, I couldn’t because of my previous visa. However, a friend of a friend, very kindly advised me how recruitment agencies can sponsor me, solving the problem of the sponsorships. Sort of. I’ll explain more in detail later. I wanted to go to Europe mostly for work experience, although apparently I have the option to stay in Australia now… uhmm hard to decide. Also, it seems there are also opportunities in Shanghai, a quick google showed me that it can be easier than I thought before, still not sure about that.