'Official' date of leaving the UK

Hi there, Just spent 40 mins waiting to talk to someone on the phone to answer my questions, but the person I spoke to (as pleasant as they were) was not able to help as it's the 'international case workers' who have the information and they can't be contacted, hence writing here! Anyway, I'll explain my situation: I left the UK on 31st August 2002 to go and work in Spain, having worked for a UK employer (in Bristol) for the previous five years. As I work in languages, it's quite common for the work to dry up in the summer, so during those periods in 2003, 2004, 2005, I went back to work in the UK for varying lengths of time (between 4 and 10 weeks on each occasion). My question is: does each time I finished that period of work in the UK count as leaving the country again? If so, would that mean adding a 'new' period of living abroad or would I just skip to the last time I 'left' the UK in 2005 and start from there? As I can only start topping up from 2006, it almost seems to make more sense to do that, but just wanted to check to be sure. One other thing, my work in Spain until around 7 years ago was very 'bitty' with various short-term contacts, periods of being on unemployment benefit, as well as being self-employed. Do I have to detail every single last one on the online form (I don't think they would all fit on the CF83, so just wondered how necessary they all were)? OK, think that's everything, so look forward to receiving a reply ASAP and then I can hopefully go ahead and complete the form. Thanks in advance, Nick

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