Medicals and wedding eve

Life has been very busy recently, so I haven't updated. Here's a summary.

We had our medicals on Thursday. This wasn't traumatic in itself, but both K and I are scared/phobic of needles. We were both dreading the blood tests. However, we purchased a self-hypnosis MP3 for dealing with phobias, and both of us had a listen before going to the surgery. We obviously should have been more prepared and listened to it more than once, but I still think it helped. I wasn't at all as nervous as I would normally be around a needle (the only other time I had a blood test, it took two nurses, one to comfort me while the other one did the deed), and K seemed to take it in his stride as well. I know neither of us enjoyed the experience, but we did get through it with relatively little trauma.

The general medical was an all-clear, and the blood tests are due back in ten days or so. We're hoping that we can submit our ITAs after that.

And, in other news, this is the eve of our wedding - we are getting married at 3pm tomorrow! Very exciting. I am so happy to be marrying such a wonderful man, and it makes our NZ plans even more fun than they would have been anyway. I can't wait!

X-Rays and Police Certificates

Things are still moving forward, albeit very slowly. We have both had our police checks done, from the Gardai and also from the PSNI. And on Monday we had our X-rays taken. The radiologist will have the results from that on Friday, and we can pick up the plates then to take them to the medical. We don't have the medical actually booked yet, but hopefully we will get an appointment quite soon. Skry's fear of needles is making him drag his feet on that one...

However, there has been another reason for the length of time that the visa application process is taking us. We are getting married at Hallowe'en! It has been a real whirlwind, because we only got engaged in mid-August, so obviously that has been the focus of most of our energy. It is the only thing that could have been so exciting that it made New Zealand take a back seat, I think!

However, we can't let NZ slip too far. Our ITAs have to be in London by November 17th at the absolute latest. I would much rather have them submitted before the wedding, so that we can relax. But we'll see what happens.