Everything is well here in Dublin. Ireland & the UK are going through an unusual cold spell (with snow) these days but nothing too crazy. Work is going well. There are lots of work Christmas parties going on now - too many for one person to go to actually. We had a really cool one at the top floor of the Guinness factory where we got to pour our own Guinness.
I am sick today. I have a fever and low energy. I haven't been sick in at least a year. I took the day off work and slept in. Hopefully I'll get over it soon.
Since Julie has the potential to get into Oxford, Cambridge, or University College London, there is a good possibility that we will end up in the UK by September next year. Also, since my grandfather was born in Scotland I may have the possibility of getting a UK ancestry work visa (which transfers to my spouse as well). So I have been working hard to try to collect all the documents I need to make this happen which includes my (deceased) grandfathers birth certificate from Scotland and his marriage certificate from Manitoba. I have received Grandpa's birth certificate and I am still waiting on the marriage certificate. I have been getting a lot of help from my Aunts and Uncles to fill out some of these forms. I needed a lot of info like Grandpa's birthday, middle name, wedding date, etc. So thanks Aunt Lisa, Aunt Shirley, Uncle Donald, and Mom! From what I've read, there should be no problem for me to get this visa which would be fantastic. It would allow me to easily live and work in the UK. My current green card for Ireland is actually quite restrictive in that it is tied directly to Microsoft. If I leave Microsoft, my ireland green card is not much good. Also, for the UK visa, if we stay in the UK for 5 years, we have the potential to apply for UK citizenship! Personally, I would want that, not so much for the UK, but because it would allow us to live & work anywhere in the EU without all the paperwork & visas; that would be HUGE! I would love to, at some point in my life, live & work in a non-english country. Berlin, Germany right now would be top of my list but that may change as life goes on.
Our family has decided to spend next Christmas somewhere tropical. I can't wait for this. Hopefully we will get one large house or condo and put most of us in there. Then just get individual hotel rooms for any extras that cant fit in. Unfortunately this idea seems to be quite popular and prices for beach houses skyrocket over the Dec 25th week. It seems would could save at least 20-30% by going a week earlier or later. Regardless, I am super pumped to spend a full week with the whole family in an amazing tropical beach setting!
Tom & I are making progress on our Thailand/Taiwan adventure. So far it looks like Phuket Thailand, then Bangkok, then Taipei. I have been spending most of my time researching the Phuket part of the trip. I bouht a sweet waterproof housing for my digital camera. It was only 15 euros too! I am expecting some fantastic pics to come out of this trip. You can take it up to 3 meters under water.
We don't have any big plans for this Christmas. I think we will be doing a webcam Christmas with the family in Ottawa. Tom will also be joining from Taiwan. Hopefully that should be fun. I am not taking any extra days off from work this year because I am saving up all my vacation days for our Asia trip.
I am enjoying all of the stories these days about "wikileaks". It's interesting to watch governments around the world react to this.
