Being a 'Grown Up' - nobody tells you about the paperwork!

Being an Adult

Adulting is boring - I don't care what anyone tells you, it's mostly boredom. That and a mild sense of panic teamed up with moderate levels of exhaustion.

I don't mean that being of an age defined in law or by biology as an adult is boring - you have access to more stuff and things than kids do and you can go to bed when you like (theoretically) and eat as much chocolate as you want (although there are consequences). No I mean the stuff that goes hand in hand with being an adult - this is what I mean by 'adulting'.

And what is that stuff? Paperwork, housework and, well, work work. I object to the idea that at the weekend, the two days I get to not be at work, that 'life' has lined up things that seem suspiciously like the work I've just finished doing!

We have made a rod for our own backs in this regard. We are leaving a country, which, it turns out, is a very complicated process. You have to cancel visas, fill in tax returns (I've never really done this until coming here), get letters of approval, shut down bank accounts, arrange shipping, sort out the selling of cars and deal with sundry other very context specific tasks too. Bloody hell! No wonder people don't move that often - it's a right chew on. You can't just up and leave. 

I mean, yes, we kind of knew this having already moved country once already, but I think that I'd shoved the memory of the annoying chores way down deep into the depths of my subconscious.

Oh! I should also say that not only are we leaving one country, we have, in our infinite wisdom, come up with a plan that is a compromise between coming back to the UK and staying international. 

Well, okay it's not really a compromise as we are staying international, just now in a location that is closer and much more well connected than where we are now, but more on than in later posts.

However this also comes with a pile of admin tasks - attestations, visa applications etc. Not to mention learning all of the ins and outs of another place and trying to get to grips with a new workplace and new systems - what was I thinking?

It is a plain and simple fact that every time you try to do something even vaguely interesting it is accompanied by a similar amount of boring. Maybe this is a balancing of the cosmic scales. Perhaps that if you want to have an interesting cultural interlude you need to fill in a commensurate amount of chronically dull forms?

I don't know, but what I can tell you is moving countries is not as straightforward as all those YouTube vloggers would seem to have you believe!  

Take travel for example. Travelling should be an amazing experience, but we have reduced it to a series of tedious bureaucratic processes. There is booking your transport - which requires a dozen forms of notarised ID and various letters of permission. There is sorting our insurance. There is arriving and checking in or picking up your vehicle or both, depending on the nature of your travel! Think about the idea of flying - something we should all do less of anyway and it does seem as though airports seem specifically designed to put you off entirely. Not only do you have the aforementioned booking faff, you also have to arrive three hours before departure, check in (which in UK airports at the minute looks practically impossible), get through security and then, eventually board the plane. More often than not you spend more time in the airports than on the plane!

Flying should be an amazing experience - we let slip the surly bonds of earth and soar majestically into the unknown, but we have reduced it to what amounts to a role play of being arrested and processed!

However, when all is said and done the rewards are there to be reaped. The inertia that surrounded the move out to Malaysia has been more than made up by the experience and doubtless our time in the UAE will be the same - oh, did I not mention? We're heading to the UAE next.

Everything in life can feel like a chore at times, but I guess the more of a chore, the greater the reward... I hope!