no longer illegal!

Sorry for the lack of updates. Things have been a little busy.
I now have a visa though! So that is most definitely a moment for celebration. I can no longer be kicked out of the country without just cause! Hurrah! Plus I scored the five year version, so I'm set! I'm a 'valid' resident until 2013!!!
Anyway, with my visa I can now do some really basic things like get a bank account and a car loan. Hurrah! First I have to convert my driver's license to a SA one. But Malekwa in admin knows someone who knows someone... so hopefully it will be an hour trip not a three month wait...
I gave a paper today on my webcomics chapter. So now all I have to do is make sure I have a much stronger conclusion than the one I gave and find those final footnotes, do a last polish and Rich can have it. Hopefully by the weekend at the latest... eish. Sorry Rich.
Funny, that's something I've picked up quickly - the use of 'eish' as an expression. I rather like it!
Now all I have to do is find a flat or a cottage. The idea of a cottage is quite appealing - I'm going to go and look at one in Westdene on Friday and hopefully some flats in Northcliff too... Both safe suburbs, not THAT far from work (closer than Prahran to Clayton, anyway) and close to Melville and Greenside - both places I 'need' to be near in order to feel normal (coffee shops, bars and bookshops - the three necessary elements of life). So things are finally (hopefully) coming together. It's been a long and frustrating period - one which I haven't shared here so much (what's the point whingeing, won't change anything) and because there literally was nothing I could do until Home Affairs decided I was legitimate and the best candidate for my job. And yes, they checked. They rang the poor dudes who didn't get it. Man, that has to be salt in the wound!
Ok, on to drinking the very lovely Savannah Dry Apple Cider I have acquired in order to celebrate my legal status!