Sunday, March 23, 2014

Farewell and good luck

Today Lady QM and I said farewell to her daughter, husband and their two children. They are off on the adventure of a lifetime having got work in New Zealand and permission for residency granted assuming he keeps working for two years.
New Zealand, a country where they won't let you in unless you can speak English. A country where they won't let you in without a skill they want. A country more or less the size of the UK but with only 4 million people whose lifestyle is far more relaxed and more akin to England in the fifties and sixties than England today with all the trouble the government has allowed to waltz in and tell us how to live our lives whilst having to tolerate some of their foibles because it's cultural. A country where its labour party is all about looking after its citizens rather than trying to replace them. A country where the UK politicians love of the EU is regarded as something to deride as utter folly.
A country that I'm doing my level best to get a job in, or retire too.

5 annotations:

Dioclese said...

Good luck.

I tried to retire there a few years back but couldn't get in. I gather one trick is to go to Oz on a retirement visa, live there until you can get citizenship and then move to Nuzzie. Take's a while of course.

Oldrightie said...

Bon voyage and every best wish. A wise decision to escape the sh*t hole we now call England. A Nation who died for freedom, only to be in vain.

johnd2008 said...

My wife and I have just started the procedure to join our youngest son there. We had a holiday there three years ago and fell in love with it. It reminded me of the Britain of my childhood but with a vibrancy that was missing here in the 50s. We are now about halfway through the process and will be so upset if we fail to go.

Kath Lissenden said...

I wish them all the best.
It is very hard to say goodbye to one's children especially when they are going so far away.
Please pass on my best wishes to Lady QM.
I have friends who moved to NZ last year he was in the Navy here for many years and they wanted to invalid him out due to diabetes, instead as a warrant officer 1 he moved to NZ with a one stop drop in rank the promise of being made up within 2 years, his full RN pension intact and guaranteed employment until at least 60.
A great deal for a man scrap heaped in the UK at the age of 38.
They love it there and are very happy.
We need to do the same here.
If I could emigrate NZ is where I would choose to go.
All the best to them and all the best to your lady I hope she does not feel too bereft and that the knowledge of what a decent life awaits them is enough to make the separation worthy.

Mac said...

May I offer my very best wishes to them and trust they’ll find every success and happiness. I believe I mentioned before that, a lifetime ago, I made tentative inquiries regarding entry to NZ. All those years ago, they informed me they required carpenters and, strangely, cobblers. Unfortunately, as I’d never carped, other than on and on and on, nor cobbled, I’m still here....