Swings And Roundabouts, or maybe Slings And Arrows

I started this blog in february with every intention of making regular contributions and it superceding my irregular email newsletter to a few specially chosen chums. I was rather overtaken by events and so the blog has fallen by the wayside recently.

To cut a long story short, I have resigned my job, obtained another, travelled to the Philippines every month this year, got married and brought my new wife to the gulf only to have to take her home again. I am now packing up to start my new life based in the Philippines but working in the Gulf still.

I have been living in "Interesting Times" as the Chinese would have it.

Things started to get "interesting" when I decided to get married. The new Mrs Gnomad is a 20-something, bright, lively and wonderfully sweet Filipina, I am a fairly run of the mill, middle aged , post-graduate Briton. The bureaucracy involved in a non-Filipino marrying a Filipina is quite extra-ordinary. There are about a dozen or so official bodies involved, all of whom have their own vast list of required documents... which change on a seemingly daily basis... and all end with "and any other such documents as may be required"

The upshot of this is that however well you prepare and however many bits of paper you get the official can always ask for another. He could, in theory, ask for your father's tailor's bill for his last suit. You can go into an office on one day and all your papers are in order, and the very next day there is something else you need. At one point I had a situation where the soon to be Mrs Gnomad took a pile of papers into the Local Registry Office to be told they couldn't be accepted unless Mr Gnomad was there too. I was in the Gulf at the time. I had to fly to the Philippines just to stand next to my intended while the paperwork was handed over. My entire interaction in that office was to answer in the affirmative to the question "Are you Mr Gnomad and is this your signature".Well that was worth the airfare, the two days off work (because the weekends are different) and the 34 hours of travelling involved.

I can't really complain though, I am used to the bureaucracy here in the Arabian Gulf, so Filipino bureaucracy was a doddle by comparison.

Once all the paperwork was in place the wedding went swimmingly, just a small family affair with about 150 relatives at the reception! We will have a proper church wedding sometime in 2007 and that will be heaving with people.

We had obtained a visit visa for Mrs Gnomad beforehand and so she was able to come back here with me. After an initial bout of homesickness she setteld in well and started making friends. All was going well until she fell ill. We both spent 4 days in hospital, work was very good about compassionate leave so I could stay with her, but in the end the nature of her illness meant I had to take her home again.

We are both looking forward to July when I will be back in the Philippines for my vacation. i will start my new contract in August and will then be navigating the shoals and shallows of Gulf bureacracy yet again to have my wife join me in my new country of residence.


As soon as I work out how its done, I will be posting the wedding photos, so look out for the link. I may even inculde a few here if i can work round using a non standard browser which complicates the interweb no-end

Aah that wasnt so difficult

G