A Surreal Future Awaits..

[HopeUK]

Hi everyone!

My name's Gav. Pleased to meet ya!

Why 'HopeUK' for a username then? Well, I suppose I consider myself a reasonably well travelled person (Sicily, Canada, Tunisia, various spots around Europe) but have only ever done so with family - never alone. After a mutual breakup with my girlfriend of eight years last September I decided I could either shrink inwards, or push on. I chose the latter, but not having any immediate interest in a new relationship I shunned dating sites as I might, say, shun a rabid dog, and chose a more interesting line of thought - pushing the opportunities of Facebook a little further than normal to meet people from farther afield - the idea being to make friends around the world with whom I could meet up with one day, to give myself a little motivation for self exploration and travel! I have a particular affinity with the East which has been with me for as long as I can remember - my first destination was for various reasons going to be Tokyo. I was so sure of this.. but.. one of my random "hello's" was returned by a lovely graduate nurse from Manila. After a couple of months of email conversation we found a lovely friendship which evolved (okay.. possibly fuelled by her accepting my request to court her, I admit - hang on, I wasn't looking for a relationship.. :rolleyes:), and in what I still consider to be an outrageous move I have chosen to follow the call of my heart, take a chance and meet up with my newest friend on my first solo holiday to the Philippines this April.

Until I read some of the tales on this site I thought I was doing something quite insane. I take it as a reassuring sign to read about so many of you who have seemingly broken with rationale and taken leave of your senses as well! :cwm38:

I decided to join this forum for a couple of reasons.. To connect with other people who have been in (or are in the middle of) similar situations, and for some moral support in these surreal times, to help me limp towards my adventure and survive this unexpected (and dare I call it?) long distance relationship..

..the wait it seems is killing me!! :BouncyHappy:

[Arthur Little]

Hi Gav ... and :welcomex:

Y'know looking at your avatar, I can almost visualise a [considerably younger model, I hasten to add!] of one, *William Connelly, Esquire. :Kilt: And, of course, *HE'S a well-travelled man, himself!

So ... go for it, mate; many of US did! Good Luck & Enjoy. :xxgrinning--00xx3:

[South-east boy]

Hi Gav, that was a really interesting introduction! :xxgrinning--00xx3: Never really go on Facebook that much and I've heard of other people meeting on there, but don't quite know how they do it! :Erm: :icon_lol:

[RickyR]

Welcome, what a great introduction. I hope this website will help you as much as it helps me.

[Doc Alan]

Hi everyone!



lovely graduate nurse from Manila

Welcome to the Forum, and good luck.:) If your romance progresses, and she wants to come to UK, in order to work as a nurse she needs to register with the NMC (Nursing and Midwifery Council) . They will recognise a degree from Philippines, but only register her if she has done a full year subsequently in Philippine hospital(s). The alternative is to become a Health Care Assistant here. It's likely in the UK that from next year nursing will be a degree-only profession. But Health Care Assistants will still be needed if the graduates are "too posh to wash" or even in the words of one consultant "a liability on the wards".:doh The best bedside nurses are not necessarily "academic" ... they might be a lovely filipina :).
www.nmc-uk.org (http://www.nmc-uk.org)

[alanmf1]

Welcome and good luck in your adventure!!
Alan

[joebloggs]

[QUOTE=HopeUK;201829]Hi everyone!



lovely graduate nurse from Manila[/I]

Welcome to the Forum, and good luck.:) If your romance progresses, and she wants to come to UK, in order to work as a nurse she needs to register with the NMC (Nursing and Midwifery Council) . They will recognise a degree from Philippines, but only register her if she has done a full year subsequently in Philippine hospital(s).

also she needs to pass IELTS with a pass mark of at least 7 in each part

after nearly 5yrs in the UK, my wife has finally applied for registration with the GMC :D, it's one long journey for IMG's :cwm24:

[LEAHnew]

Hi everyone!

My name's Gav. Pleased to meet ya!

............

..the wait it seems is killing me!! :BouncyHappy:

Welcome to the forum:Hellooo:


Hi Gav, that was a really interesting introduction! :xxgrinning--00xx3: Never really go on Facebook that much and I've heard of other people meeting on there, but don't quite know how they do it! :Erm: :icon_lol:

Facebook:rolleyes:that's what make us busy now if you can't find us here in the forum:yikes::D:Cuckoo:

[HopeUK]

Hi peeps!

A list of "thank you's" for the welcome!


JacksonAlan46 and JoeBloggs - cheers for the advice on that.. we'll see what happens - watch this space (well, maybe in a new posting in the "relationships" section.. let's use the forum correctly!)

Arthur - Billy Connolly eh? I take that as a great compliment - my mom moved up to Scotland a few years ago too.. coincidence?! hehehe..

South-east Boy - In my case I met my friend by searching an appropriate asian interest group which I found.. it was then just a simple matter of sending a few friend requests.. iincidentally she is the only one to have maintained contact.. coincidence?! hmm..

RickyR, Alanmf1 and LEAHnew - thanks for the support and welcome! Coincidence..?! oh, sorry that doesn't apply here does it.. er.. yeah.. thanks for the support!


I could say it's been stress-free chit-chat all the way, but I'd be lying. Although the communication has been great it has also been a little on and off in the last month or so as a family health problem caused her to suddenly relocate from Manila to her home in Legaspi City at the beginning of December (complete with attached, grumbling volcano..). To be honest though the anxiety is probably just me in a disbelieving delayed shock at my good fortune, and hanging on her words (that mysterious "relationship" thing again..). Since then we've soldiered on in Facebook as and when she's been able to get, but we have exchanged phone numbers and talked a little. At first she had trouble with the british accent and admitted she had trouble thinking of what to talk about on the spot as a result (bless her), but I called her on New Year's Eve and that went better - we laughed about it and agreed to just consider it as "another string to the bow". I signed up to Chikka.com for pc to mobile comms so that it would be cheaper for her to text me but it seems a little intermittent at best, and chopping, maybe even losing messages altogether at worst! Can anyone suggest an alternative means? She uses internet cafe's as she doesn't have a pc/cable at either "home", so the oft touted "Skype" is out.. boo :((

Anyway, the latest to the comms nightmare catalogue was a text through the "Chikka carrier pidgeon" this morning asking "if I miss her and that she misses me", but that she is still at home in Legaspi and she "needs to speak with me about something", saying it was important. I sent a reply (which as I say may or may not have got through..). Since that very moment I've lost access to Chikka, my near-creditless mobile has nearly gone flat, the works phone refuses to connect me through the cheap internet phone service I use and Facebook (which I shouldn't try to access at work really) is empty of any potential emails or anything on her account to give a clue as to why she's still in Legaspi..

All things considered, today could be better..

[aromulus]

and she "needs to speak with me about something", saying it was important..


I wonder what it may be....:Erm:

I hope that the family carabao doesn't need a course of imodium...:rolleyes:

[Sim11UK]

Hi HopeUK I would advise you to try talking using cams if you can, I'm judging from your posts, that you're not currently doing this?
Plenty of advice will be given to you & there is plenty of advice to read here, so keep tuning in.

If all goes well, a trip out there can change your life forever. For the better I might add.
Plenty will confirm this. :)

[Steve.r]

H Gav and welcome.

I'm with Sim11, webcams are a great way to keep in touch. Thats what I do most nights. Yahoo Messenger seems to be the provider of choice as far as I can tell, we use this as it is reasonably stable over that distance.

I just hope that the important need to talk to you is not one that is going to cost you a lot of money, keep your witts about you. Not only are there many great love stories to be told here, but also the stories of woe and heartache.

I hope it works out for the best. :)

Steve

[HopeUK]

Cheers to Sim11 and Steve for the webcam tip - we have done this with partial success through yahoo messenger - for some reason we couldn't get mine to work (?!) but as we had inexplicable difficulties which I tussled with for about an hour and a half we gave up and resorted to more text type chat.. I'm still awaiting the vote on what's up - I stayed up to talk last night with two attempts to get through (first call connected but we couldn't make ourselves heard properly, second go couldn't connect me at all) - more emails through Chikka hit a dead end - I've advised her to just get to Facebook as soon as she can (assuming Chikka didn't pull a fast one again!).

I'm making assumptions that it's likely to be family issues again and imagining quite a lot, but there hasn't been anything to suggest the onset of 'scam disease' (she's been as straight as is possible to tell thus far). Good or bad I'd just like to know. I'm quite tired today.

[Sim11UK]

I just hope that the important need to talk to you is not one that is going to cost you a lot of money, keep your witts about you.

Yes, I did wonder about this?

[HopeUK]

Hi Peeps!

Okay, for everyone following my trials and tribulations, I think it would be kinder on the moderator if I ask interested readers to follow the breadcrumb trail to "Courting & Relationships" (I'll keep the same heading to make it easy) as this seems to have become more than a simple introduction! I will finish this part of the thread here though.. and no Aromulus, the family buffalo doesn't need a course of imodium (thank god..).

I finally managed to get in touch with my young lady and I think things are okay. She's returning to Manila in a couple of days. The "important" thing wasn't actually important - nor was it something she wanted to talk about over the phone either (company there present I think - she's saving it for our Facebook chat on Saturday).

"Okay", I hear you say, "when is something important and NOT important"? - I'm surmising that she didn't mean that "type" of important - referring instead to a previous email.. Looking back I didn't actually use the word "important", but I mentioned matters of respect and gentlemanly conduct when I raised concerns where possible sleeping arrangements "on a budget" for beach stopovers might be concerned (for all those obvious reasons). I'd said that if she felt comfortable doing so, we might discuss matters more personal in nature in advance, so that we could meet for the first time with confidence, knowing where we stand with those subjects which cause lots of 'umming' and 'ahhing' in new, exploratory friendships. In the case, shorthand texting might just come to prove that sometimes one word ISN'T worth a dozen.. So, again we wait with baited breath, but now less tense.. I think.

[South-east boy]

Hi Gav. I found the best way to text was to get another mobile (unlocked) which I bought 2nd hand and then to get a Smart or Globe (main mobile phone networks in Phils) roaming sim card to the same as your ladies network. The roaming sim card costs only £10 and has some credit. Once you have done this it will only cost your lady 1 pesos to send you a text message. There's a bit more about it here and a link to where you can buy the simcard:
http://filipinaroses.com/showthread.php?t=21674

The girl who I was in contact with had trouble understanding my accent at first, but soon got used to it.

[HopeUK]

Hey South-East boy,

Many thanks for the info my friend - I'll check the link out. Yes, the ear is getting better with the accent, as seems to be the confidence in conversation - I still think it'll come to proper fruition once we've actually met though. After a couple of weeks in front of each other I reckon it'll give us both a frame of reference with respect to body language, which can be brought to mind when talking on the phone - and helpful when trying to judge context and inflection in text chat as well. As anyone can appreciate though, any phone call or text chat is no substitiute for "in the flesh" whether it's conversation to neighbouring streets or 7000 miles away. The eyes say it all..

Cheers for now!

[HopeUK]

Hi peeps.. Please follow the breadcrumb trail to "Courting & Relationships" - I have an issue.. :(