April Showers?

So it's not quite April but the amount of rain coming out of the sky would make one think otherwise. March passed by in a whirlwind, and next week's April Fools kicks off the Easter 4 day weekend. Sweet! The Irishman and I were meant to go to Istanbul for 6 days, a trip that I was getting super excited about, but we've recently had to cancel the whole thing. I've been planning to transition my visa from a Work Permit to Tier 1 for a while now, but the Home Office recently revised the rules and requirements for Tier 1 going into effect on April 6th - the day we were supposed to fly home - and under the new rules I won't be eligible. So with a heavy heart we sucked it up and canceled the hotel and are taking the hit on the flights to the tune of £150 a piece, just so I can submit a 75 page application and my passport with £820 in fees. I'm really freaking out about the whole process - the fee is gigantic and I only have 1 chance to get it right. The Irishman has been an absolute star with this whole process, helping me fill in the form, searching the web for immigration message boards to answer the questions, reading my form and generally being really supportive. It's actually making me feel pretty guilty as my immigration issues are ruining not only the trip we had planned next weekend, but also grounding any travel for the foreseeable future: my passport goes with the application so I'm bound to the UK until I get it back. We'll be doing lots of staycations and local travel by train, so if anyone has any good suggestions of places to go on the mainland - let me know!