Journey To The West (2/4)

Counting down to our relocation in 3 more weeks for my journey to the west. Things are getting more frantic this week. Read about our first week of preparations here.

Temporary Housing

The temporary housing came back for me to sign the agreement and I am waiting for the actual apartment unit before I can finalize the temporary housing address. Our temporary accomodation is done through Nomad Housing. Each of the apartment have their own Eircode and I need the full address for then next steps.

Once I get the address, I will go back to the employer to get a letter called “confirmation of employment” that will include my address. I need this address to apply for the PPSN. In the normal time, they will send the PPSN card to the address in days. Was told due to COVID, they are taking about 10 weeks to process the PPSN number. I need this PPSN number to get government services.

Paperwork for Malaysian Schools

At the same time, I also got surprised that I got added to a whatsapp group for Emily’s primary school. Luckily they did that as I am able to talk to the class teacher to get the form to fill up to tell them we are moving country. We did the same thing for Gabriel last week and the school issued his school leaving cert.

Plan for packing

We are starting to identify items that needs to be packed by sea or by air. I thought it would be a simple thing to gather my things and pack it up. Apparently the movers will come over and pack for me, I am not supposed to pack myself. On top of that, I need to list down the items that I will be packing and their cost to replace for insurance. This goes to even how many pieces of clothes I will be packing in the air freight. I find this the toughest since this means I have to plan out what will be packed along for the flight and what will be shipped by sea and air. Another factor in packing is that the airlines only provided 23KG per person for check in luggage. Our air freight will not be there for 5 weeks and sea freight expected to arrive in 10 weeks. That means we need to bring along whatever we need for the first month of stay at least, including documents. It’s daunting.

Driving License

One trouble I think I will have is getting the driving license in Ireland. Our Malaysian driving license is only valid for one year (even if I convert into international driving license). On top of that, I can only take driving tests one year after I reside in Ireland. Managed to get more information from a former colleague who is now in Ireland on how she handles it. Basically to these are the steps