Getting to grips with self-employment and Barry’s visa application …

Every year it seems that time moves by more quickly – we're already almost half way though 2012 and it doesn’t seem that long since the New Year!  In just over a week it’ll be the shortest day and longest night here in the Southern Hemisphere – which is good news for us as it means our days will then become longer - possibly not so good for those of you reading from the Northern hemisphere, where you seem to have sadly lost your summer weather once again.

Last time I wrote I'd recently taken on my new role as project coordinator for the maternity quality and safety programme in Gisborne, and it's been full-on for the past 6 weeks..  I know that if I continue in this role until we return to England, it's definitely going to be one that that takes up a considerable proportion of my time.

My concern here, as I know is an issue for many people, is around maintaining a good work/life balance and not allowing one aspect to ‘take over’ in my passion to fulfil my obligations to the maternity services here by taking on the role.  The plan had been to concentrate more on my Life Coaching this year, whilst getting our house ready to sell and de-cluttering our enormous array of ‘stuff’ that we have both managed to acquire.  The Life Coaching is still incredibly important to me, as it's how I intend to earn a modest income when we return to UK, and I shall make time to complete my diploma and see lots of lovely clients for my case study hours as well as those who continue on a maintenance basis - and fit in some fun things too, like going to Samoa for a week in August and two of my sisters coming for a three week holiday in November!  So it's not all work and no play ...

On another positive side, the project post is on a contractual basis, so I’m paid an hourly rate, which was the only way I could work it in with my other commitments (as is my locum midwifery post at Te Puia Springs), so I’m having to get to grips with the concept of self-employment for the first time in my life – it’s certainly different to someone just paying you a salary, having deducted whatever needs to be taken out and then you can spend your money however you wish!  Now I’m learning how to invoice, whether or not I need to be GST registered (similar to VAT in UK), what receipts I have to keep and what spending I have to keep account of, a log book for my car journeys and a monthly ‘cash book’ that I must keep to give to the accountant at the end of the year, if not before.  It feels like keeping accounts is a part time job in itself!

Last week I finally managed to overcome my (irrational?) fear of visiting an accountant – taking the easy option and going to Barry’s longstanding firm, and bless him he came with me to give in his end of year books so I had his hand to hold!  Now I just have to do the paperwork for last year’s income I earned that wasn’t taxed, from being a midwifery mentor, hiring TENS machines, renting our house out as a holiday home, and Life Coaching.

The great thing is that when we come back onto the British canal system in 2013, I'll be so au fait with self employment that I won’t be in the least fazed by then working out how to do my accounting in another country – or at least that’s the plan!

Barry's downloaded the visa application for his UK residency, and he’ll be working on completing that and probably visiting the Embassy in Wellington in the next few months. He was stumped on the first question “What date do you arrive in the UK?”!!!  So it looks like we’ll need to bite the bullet and book our tickets well in advance, before we even put the house on the market, and then we'll have a date to work our ‘project plan’ on – seeing the vision and working backwards to break it all down into manageable steps and prevent it all feeling so overwhelming.

In the meantime, here's a few photos Barry took while we were there in March:

Swanning about on The River severn, Worcester

Sandra (with a bit of M & S shopping!) and her mum and dad

An unusual lock paddle pulley system at Maunsel Lock, on the Bridgewater  and Taunton Canal

We're hoping to book tickets to arrive towards the end of March 2013, before my mum’s 80^th birthday on 24th, so we have a nine-month gestation period to grow our dream baby!

Watch this space …

What is this life, if, full of care ...

Apologies everyone, since we've returned from our break in UK our lives have been crazily busy and I haven't managed to make time to post a blog.  Barry's still working hard at 'ezimade' six days a week, and although he's dabbled in editing his photos from England he's not yet quite managed to post any - I'm sure he will one day ...

In the meantime, I was offered the opportunity of leading a local maternity project to coordinate locally the national 'Maternity Quality and Safety Programme'.  Having voluntarily relinquished my previous senior post and decided I didn't want to take on such a responsibility again I was a little taken aback as our plans for returning to UK in March 2013 certainly didn't include such a big challenge - but when opportunities come our way I've learnt that it's best not to turn them down.  Anyway, long story short, I started as Project Coordinator on 1 May - so now I have that job (on a contractual basis as it's the only way I can 'fit it in', I just have to get my head around being 'self employed'!), a twelve month locum contract at a small birthing unit over an hour 'up the coast', a casual pool contract as a midwife in the unit, my TENS unit hire business, occasional cover for local self employed midwives and continue with my 'Diploma in Holistic Life Coaching' with LCA Auckland.  It is certainly testing my ability to maintain a work/life balance!

I spent the last two weeks of April at Ngati Porou Hauora - Te Puia Springs Hospital, giving the midwife who usually works up there a break.  Although it's not busy, there needs to be a midwife available 24/7 for births and providing antenatal and postnatal care to women.  It's a very sparsely populated area so  it can take over an hour just to drive to see a woman - but it's the most incredible place to live, with lovely people and truly magical without all the pressures of 'normal' life, where you really do have time to smell the roses and 'stand and stare'.  I took the time to chill walking along the beach at Tokomaru Bay and enjoy the occasional coffee ...

... and driving was never a hardship - it's not like the stress of driving somewhere busy, at every turn there is a scene to take your breath away, and Mount Hikurangi was definitely one of the highlights - the first land to see the sun shine each day ...

"Hikurangi is the sacred mountain of Ngāti Porou, and was said to be the first piece of land to emerge when Māui fished up the North Island. According to tradition, Māui’s canoe, Nukutaimemeha, remains stranded on the mountain peak."  

(The encyclopaedia of New Zealand)

Returning to Gisborne on 30 April, I had to 'hit the ground running' in my new role for the past three weeks, and I'm very aware that it's going to be a challenge to get everything sorted with the house to get it ready to sell in just four months time - we're half way through upgrading the bathroom, but with Barry only having one day off a week it's taking a lot longer than we anticipated!  And of course he needs to start applying for his visa in the near future - it's going to be an interesting few months, but we have a dream and we WILL be returning to UK to live it ...

There and back in a flash - now the countdown really begins!

Twenty days in England spending precious time with my family just weren't enough, but we certainly made the most of every moment and Barry even managed to fit in a couple more river and canal fixes in our last week there ...

Barry photographing the cathedral on a much brighter day in Worcester than our trip along here aboard Northern Pride in 2009

Barry captures Maunsel Lock on The Bridgewater and Taunton Canal

Our last weekend in the country was spent with 33 members of the extended Walsh family at Northmoor House near Dulverton in Devon, and on the way we spotted a sign for a canal centre - actually I suspect Barry had already been aware it was around and had just been waiting to find directions!  It was such an idyllic spot; Maunsel Lock is on the 14.5 mile long Bridgewater and Taunton canal, completed in 1827 to link the River Tone at Taunton to the River Parrett south of Bridgewater.

After a wonderful weekend with hot and sunny weather (the great grandchildren were even in a paddling pool!), we arrived back in Gisborne last Friday after a long flight and then a drive from Auckland over a couple of days as the Waioeka Gorge had opened on the Thursday, but only during daytime hours.  Since returning to 'sunny' Gisborne, it hasn't stopped raining!  And to think that there's a drought in England, there's definitely something not right about this ...

So now the countdown to our return to the waterways is really on, so much to do to get the house ready to sell and de-clutter our possessions, as well as the application process for Barry's residency visa - exciting times!!

Unsurprisingly, Barry took many photos while we were away, but I'm not sure when he'll find the time to post any - watch this space, he may surprise me!