Pre-Amble

Welcome to the Peters Family Blog.

The plan is to diligently contribute amusing titbits and newsy items that will tickle and inform the reader about our impending move (back) to Pittsburgh USA from our home in Liverpool.

The reality may well be a candid insight into the Peters Family soap opera that we seem so adept at scripting and performing.

Recent highlights for those who have missed the first series:.....

Episode 1 starts with us being refused permission in September 2006 to board a flight to Canada en route to the USA so that I could begin a job at the University of Pittsburgh. The reason for the knockback at the airport was that unlike the rest of us our youngest child Sophia (aged 2 and cute!) did not have a Green Card. Apparently, the official way of dealing with this situation is used as a model question for small snot-encrusted individuals who are studying to become Officious little Jobsworths at the Institute of Toe-Rags. As you can probably tell I took this unexpected delay in my stride and reacted with grace and maturity.

Episode 2:....After mucho expensive legal consultation it was decided to abandon the Green Cards in favor of H visas. Luckily, my new boss was agreeable and has waited patiently while we have riden the merry-go-round of US bureaucracy. The major incident of episode 2 was that we were refused an H visa in January 2007 after waiting 3 months (and 4 hours) for our US Emabssy interview where a smiling American cousin told us that we couldn't have our visas and would have to make another appointment to formally abandon our Green Cards before we could file our application forms. "I know I know", I said, "and here are the forms and the smelly old Green Cards" but alas!......he wouldn't take them. So....we waited, spent more money on lawyers, and now after almost 7 months we have shiny new visas.

So here we are in April 2007. Adam has finished his inpromptu 2 terms at Booker Ave infants (a great experience for him) and the Easter hols have begun. We are frantically doing last minute jobs on the house and jettisoning excess baggage before heading West again to Uncle Sammy's land. I hope it proves to be worth the hassle!

Watch this space for developments!