The Preparation...

When applying for the WHM visa, you can request that your visa starts 3 mths after the approval date. Of course, I can still delay another month or two before I actually enter UK. But to me, it'll be wasting my visa time. So I decided to depart for UK in 3 months time. That means I only have 3 months to do all my preparation and planning. Yes, everything will be in a hurry. What's the hurry you might ask? Well, the truth is I'm not sure myself...

I hand in my resignation letter to my boss as soon as I got the visa approval because unlike many, I need to serve 2 mths notice instead of 1. Of course, prior to my resignation, I already notify my boss of my plan so it won't take him by surprise. He was kind of shocked when i told him what I was planning to do :p I then started searching for the cheapest flight ticket. In the end, I went with the offer from British Airway where I shall fly from KL to Hong Kong by Cathay Pacific, and then transfer to London Heathrow Airport by British Airway. Accommodation wise, I am lucky to have my cousin sister who invited me to put up at her house before I find a job and settle down. One less thing to worry about.

The next thing on the list is to move all my belongings back to Malaysia. I have planned 3 trips back to KL and I was pretty confident that I could move everything back because it seems to me that I don't have a lot of stuff. Its amazing how you can pile and store so many things without noticing it over the years and I learned that you won't know how much stuff you have until you physically take everything out from all the cupboards and drawers. Nothing becomes a lot of things. In the end, I still have some stuff left behind and my housemates were kind enough to let me keep them in one of the cupboards. Arigato.

From the internet forums, I learned that opening a bank account in UK is pretty difficult as you need to show proof of residency i.e utility bills with your name on it. To do this, you need to first have a rented place which requires you to have a bank account. This is a vicious loop. Luckily, HSBC bank in Singapore has this service whereby they can help you set up a UK HSBC account if you have a local (SG) savings account. Of course nothing comes free in this world. For this 'help' from the SG HSBC, I need to pay an adminstration fee of SGD150. It's a bit steep I would say but after hearing so many complaints from those WHM who's already there in UK about the difficulties in opening an account there. I decided to pay the fee to save my the potential hassle and trouble later on.

Of the 3 months time, I'm only free from work on the last month before my new venture and boy, I have loaded the month with lots of events and travelling. In the last month, I went on a trip with my sister to Perhentian Island (we have bought the Air Asia flight ticket 6 months before that during a promotional period); flew to Cambodia with my 3 buddies to celebrate our 10th year friendship anniversary; went back to my home town to spend some time at home with family and attended a family farewell get together dinner organized by my uncle and aunts in KL.

Thinking back, I am kind of amazed by myself to have done so many things in such short time and yet I have this confident / assurance (don't know where from) that everything will turn out just fine. As the chinese saying goes, 船到桥头自然直. But truth is, I have help from my friends and family members in a way or another to smooth things out for me. So many thanks to all of you for making my dream come true.

On 28th June 2007, I boarded the flight from KLIA and bid farewell to Malaysia. My journey as a WHM in UK begins...