TheZilla

I do have to say I pretty much agree, there's not a lot in American supermarkets that is really appealing for take home or ready to eat. I did like that M&S had a lot of tasty ethnic foods and such a larger variety of dishes. I hate being stereotypical, but I think the majority of American tastes do sort of have that resistance to trying new things so it's rotisserie chickens or sandwiches for take home. Still, with the explosion of 'foodies', it's starting to change a bit.

Don't worry Dr_LHA, if you and Tesco's were meant to be [and I think you are], it will come to you!

Awe man, M&S food! I'd much rather see that come over here. Their adverts in the U.K. are evil, but so delicious! I can still here that sultry woman's voice tempting me to go buy M&S profiterolds [she haunts my dreams....in a tasty way]. I have to say I don't think I've ever had such good food that was ready-to-eat, their smoothies were good as well.

Oooh, their deluxe variety of tea biscuits! And their tub of flapjacks! I'm a sad human being for how excited it gets me.

Can I say 'Holy #######" without it being censored? If so, HOLY #######! AWESOME! That MUST be a record! Hope the rest of the process goes just as fast for you Good luck!!!

Catica! I think you were freaking out about the same time I was about that mysterious P.O. Box, weren't you? hehe. I'm so glad to hear the news, I know it's been hard but WOOOOOOOT!!! It's all up from here!

Congratulations-a-go-go for now and for the future

Congratulations!!! I've seen so many approvals! Wonderful!

Best wishes for your reunion and future!

I remember because LisaD and I have the same exact birthdate. I wonder if being born on that birthdate has anything to do with attraction to British people?? *ponders*

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LisaD! Hope you celebrate in style! :)

My fiance is flying from Gatwick on Delta on May 4th. They had originally routed him to Atlanta, then on to Tampa. For some reason, they changed his route so his POE will now be Cincinatti, OH. I don't know if it will make much difference. I'm just hoping the passport patrol in Cinci are nice. I probably will not calm down until I pick him up from the airport and get him home.

I hope everyone has a happy flight and that May will get here soon!!

Congratulations! *does super disco happy dance* Best wishes for the future!!!

Hola Everyone!

My fiance had his interview today and I'm ecstatic to report that we got approved! The woman conducting the interview was apparently rather scary [will enter a review later, after I've calmed down, hehe] but it all came up roses in the end. I think I can safely say I cannot remember ever feeling this amount of happy, I barely know what to do with it!

I just wanted to express a resounding, massive THANK YOU to everyone who has taken time to reply and help with questions. Without this site and the kindness of so many of you [particularly on this board] I don't know how we would have done it. Thank you all for your time and definately your patience when I've posted those famous 'Stress Questions", hehe.

Thank you all so much. As always, to everyone who is still waiting, I hope that soon these happy shoes will be all yours!

Now I'm gonna go have a celebratory chocolate moment and pass out!

I've looked at this whole thread and I don't think anyone has mentioned "Danger Mouse" or "The Young Ones". Am I old? hehe. I'll never outgrow Danger Mouse, my fiance' is my Penfold...

There are so many. I'm Alan Partridge, Father Ted, Red Dwarf, Little Britain [though I confess, only the first series really does it for me], Yes Minister, Goodness Gracious Me, Fawlty Towers, The Office, Inspector Morse, Only Fools & Horses, and loads of others. I love the documentaries from the U.K., like "Planet Earth", "Simon Schama's History Of Britain", and "David Starkey's Monarchy" as well.

I also admit that I will catch "Keeping Up Appearances" as a guilty pleasure and find myself laughing. I can't freakin' help myself.

My fiance' laughs heartily at the American version of 'The Antiques Roadshow" because Americans get excited if they have an object from 1912. He's like "1912!! hahaha! The doorknobs in my house are older than that!". It amuses him.

Just as aside for anyone who has trouble getting series on American DVD. I couldn't afford a multi-region player and couldn't find all the series I wanted on US DVD, so I simply hacked the player I have. Most player models have simple hacks available online, you just search your player model for 'Region Free Hack" or similiar criteria, and most likely you can find easy hacks. It's usually a series of simple inputs with your remote [like cheat codes on video games] but sometimes you just have to download a driver, burn it to a disc and put it in to be read. The main tip I'd have is to definately look at multiple pages so you find some consensus among users as to which region free code will work on your player [Phillips models are the easiest to find hacks for].

Everyone might know that already, but I just thought I'd mention since sometimes you can't get good series on American DVDs and not everyone has access to torrents and things. And as far as I know, there's nothing illegal about it at all. It's just a matter of making sure you get the right code for your model. Hope that was helpful!

Congratulations! Good luck for the future

and is disgusted that I love(d) the Jesus & Mary Chain (amongst other ancient throwbacky stuff - god, I feel old!) because he thinks they are (one of his many nominations for) The Worst Band Ever.

OMG!!! The Jesus & Mary Chain!! Awe man, I still freakin' love "Come On" and I often play "Sometimes Always" on road trips. They're not the best band in the world but I still play 'em and I ain't shamed!! hehe.

God, nostalgia. I have 90s collections up the wahzoo [Even though I really don't think the 1990s should be considered 'nostagic' at all!]. One of my favorite things is to play 'Mmh mmh mmh mmh" by The Crash Test Dummies and lip synch it dramatically to horrified individuals around me. It's so terrible...it's GOOD.

EMF, James, Rancid, Dinosaur Jr., Alice In Chains, Pavement, Pulp, Soundgarden, Primus, The Petshop Boys, Spacehog, Kula Shaker, and soooo many more are in my repetoire. I refuse to feel old! Though, sometimes I do when I've heard teenagers referring to Green Day as 'Classic Punk". Yeeeesh.

I love this thread!

My fiance and I pretty much see eye-to-eye on music, with some exceptions. Like, he once owned a "HIM" album and I've never let him live it down [though, to be fair, he bought it during a hard break-up so maybe he was not thinking clearly, hehe]. I own a lot of George Michael CDs and it just makes him terribly ill.

Even though he's only 4 years younger than me, sometimes there's like this huge gap with music taste. He LOVES the type of music called 'Mash Ups" and I feel like an old crumudgeon going 'It's not MUSIC! It's just a bunch of NOISE! It's not ORIGINAL! What is this new fangled craziness you're playing me???". He, on the other hand, doesn't really know much about 'The Clash" or 'The Jam" and I'm like "Where the HECK have you been????".

My music taste is all over the map, I'll go from vintage Red Hot Chili Peppers to Billie Holiday in one sitting. My favorites are U2, RHCP, Fun Lovin' Criminals, G-Love & Special Sauce, Scissor Sisters, Robert Randolph & The Family Band, Beck, The Beastie Boys, Blur, The Clash, Jamiroquai, and craploads more. My fiance is a big fan of NIN, Johnny Cash, Dresden Dolls, Phillip Glass, Yann Tiersen, and The Eels.

On the topic of music, what's "YOUR SONG" with your S.O.? Ours is 'Somewhere Beyond The Sea" by Bobby Darrin. We've got like 5 [i think everyone does! hehe] but that's the ONE.

#######, that is such a hard call. I hate when companies hold that 'possible redundancy' up in the air that way. I don't know if I could deal, especially if I had that VISA in hand.

Still, if you two would greatly benefit from redundancy pay, I'd say perhaps stick it out. I'm just notoriously irresponsible though. If I had enough to get by during the period of not being able to work in America, I'd just be concerned about getting out of my job with good references intact and take off A.S.A.P. I'm just being honest, I just tend to lead with the "I want to start my new life!" heart than I do with my "Sound financial choices" head. If the redundancy pay would make a big difference though, I think I'd stick it out.

I just hope that if you stick it out, they DO make you redundant. Corporate just sucks that way.

Whichever you choose to do, CONGRATS on getting that VISA and good luck for the future!

WOW! Next monday!!! That must have been awesome news to end all awesome news! Congratulations, good luck, and keep us up to date.

W0000000t!!!! Congratulations! Let's hope the embassy continues on it's path of efficiency!!! Best of luck to you guys

Thanks to all you guys I'm hoping to get one of those days where I pop on and see TONS of people have gotten their interviews and good news. I can't say enough how much I hope the waiting game ends for everybody else too Here's hoping for a big string of interviews coming up!!

I have trouble making them because of the humidity down here in Florida, when I use a standard recipe they either won't rise at all or they fall immediately after taking them out of the oven. [i've often gotten little dense brown disks instead of puddings, hehe]

I got around that by trying a Yorkshire pudding recipe by Jamie Oliver. It's a recipe for HUGE Yorkshire Puddings using 1 CUP Flour, 1 CUP Milk, pinch of salt, and 3 Eggs. I whip it up in a steel bowl with just an old fashioned whisk, it takes some elbow grease but it comes out fine. I just use vegetable oil in the bottom of a muffin tin but I let it stay in the oven longer than suggested [suggested 10 minutes but I leave it in for about 15-20 in a 450 degree oven]

I let the batter rest for about 15-20 minutes as well. I use a metal spoon to spoon the batter into the cups and shove them in to bake for 20 minutes, but I don't open the oven door for the first 15 as it makes them fall.

I've had the most success with this recipe. They are HUGE ones, but they come out crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside, which I can't get with the standard recipe. Sometimes oil sticks to the bottom but I drain them on paper towel first. If you're in a humid climate and have trouble, it works out pretty good.

Well that's good news.

*psst* We told you those were standard replies you were getting.....

I know, hehehe. I'm just a nervous nelly Thank you all for your replies and help during my many nervous moments

This morning my fiance got an email from the Embassy stating his interview date will be on April 19th!! I can't believe it, I don't think I will until he gets the official letter in the mail. I don't want to count chickens yet....but I'm excited.

Relieved is more like it. Now that we know the date, it feels like structure has finally come back. I just can't believe it.

Maybe this means the Embassy is NOT as backlogged or messed up as some have thought [including my nervous self], so perhaps this means all who are still waiting will soon hear good news too! I hope so Good luck to everybody and I hope your notification comes soon too!

I don't think it's so bad to be a stickler for wanting to know what's going on. In a way, I suppose it is kind of like overkill at times to check on things so often, but I come from that 'Damned if you do, damned if you don't" school of thought. I've had so many experiences when I didn't check on things and then only later realized I should have. Wanting to make sure they haven't lost stuff, and if they have I want to know as soon as I can so it's not a month or two later before I do, you know?

I just don't trust bureaucrats, especially overworked ones

Teddy, I see your medical is Monday. GOOD LUCK!

I'm just giggling a little bit about how different people all approach this process. I LOVE the people who are cool cats, who can sit back after mailing in all their Packet 3 stuff and just chill without checking on it all the time. I wanna be like that!! hehe. I just imagine them lounging with a pipe and a glass of port going 'Tis out of our hands now, life must go on", hehehehe.

I admit, I'm totally getting all obsessive, so is my fiance'. We were completely different during the initial I-129F part. I didn't even check for touches or anything like that, neither did he. We were fine before the whole "Mysterious P.O. Box" thing. Now we're calling all these numbers like little nutmonkeys begging for ANY info.

I don't mind if the cool cats laugh at us, hehe. My Mom puts me in my place. I'll go to her having a dramatic moment of despair over the lack of communication and she's just like 'Honey, it's the GOVERNMENT, what did you EXPECT? A basket of fruit and a candy gram?". Ah, Moms are wise.

"I wonder how long it'll be before the phone operators at the State Department start to get very sick of us London visa petitioners. "

They can get sick all they want, we will never give up. We are a force to be reckoned with, mwa ha ha ha!

I agree LisaD. I think SOOOO many people from my generation have that whole 'If I can't get it now, it's NOT FAIR!" thing. I could write a book titled "1,000 Things I Hate About The K-1 VISA Process", but I feel like it's just one of those hard roads you've got to go down in a committed relationship, if you really want it enough. I make the joke that the actual interviews go so fast because what they're REALLY thinking is "Hey, if you people got THIS far after all the ####### we put you through, you MUST love each other".

There are so many different motivations for trying to go the VWP route, every situation is different and the K-1 DOES test your limits quite a bit. When I think about the day it's all done though, when this era fades into that story we'll tell our kids about "Wanna hear the ####### Mommy and Daddy had to go through to be together?", I know overwhelmingly that I'm alright doing it this way. It's just worth it.

You wouldnt happen to know the State Department's hours of business ROUGHLY would you?

I'm at work untill 10pm GMT, so I can call tomorrow or about 7pm EST tonight, I have my medical on monday though, so I might wait till Tuesday to call (i have to day off, go me!)

I believe they probably operate during regular business hours, though I'm not sure.

Over here we set our clocks forward already, so now there's only a four-hour time difference between the U.S. East Coast and U.K. It's a Washington D.C. number so I'd try and give them a ring earlier in the day, before the lunch hour rush time. I told my fiance to call around 9AM-10AM here, which would be 1PM-2PM U.K. time.

Hope you can get a chance