So, what’s in the news today then?

Well first off, young George, heir to the British Throne was baptised today. The parents, and who can blame them, wanted it to be an ‘intimate’ family affair. Grandparents and a couple of great grandparents were in attendance. I think it’s a nice tribute to Diana that they chose to hold the event in the very same chapel where she lay in state after her tragic and untimely death.

This next one falls  into the ‘what the…..’ category

A nursery worker has had a compensation pay-out of £7000. Not very newsworthy I agree. And why did she get a payout? It was because the pre-school she worked at banned her from speaking her native tongue which is, Polish. He employer banned her form speaking anywhere in the workplace, even the lunch room. This was despite the fact that several of the littlies had it as a first language. I’d have thought that it would be an advantage, so that there would be not communication problems with them or their families.

Do you remember the issues The Man had with his visa? Well this comes under the same category.

Second, a gangster who terrorised residents and business in South London could be back on the streets after ministers failed to deport him despite four years of trying.  The judge has given immigration officials another three months to get his travel documents and deport him or he will be released back into the community.

Thirdly. And finally, the headline ‘Londoners are easy prey for phone thieves’  is hardly newsworthy either, but it is a sad comment about life in the big city. Estimate claim that more than 300, yes 300 phones a day are stole in London. A prime pickpocket technique is to stand near the Beware of Pickpocket signs and watch s passers-by check the pockets, giving away where their valuable are. Don’t know about you, but I’d be tempted to booby trap a pocket or two. Knowing my luck the pickpocket would sue me for damages. I say that because last year we read about an injured trespasser who successfully sued the railway because he was able to get through a small hole in a fence and it was on railway land where he hurt himself.

Go figure that….

A bit of a ramble...

Will you look at that, it’s already October.

I have no idea what to write about today, but I will push on and keep tapping the keys to see what turns up.

So the visa issue is all sorted…finally.

Getting on to eleven months.

Now compare that to the length of time it took one of our sons to apply for and receive an ancestry visa in New Zealand.

How long was that?

Less than a month.

And boy is he excited about coming back.

Now both my Kiwi passport and The Man’s will expire in Novembers 2014. We will have to renew then before May 2014, that’s because you cannot travel on a  passport within six months of its expiry date.

So according to the NZ passport office website it should only take about ten days from the time the application is received until the process is complete.

And in reality how long will that take?

Well if the kiwi site says ten days they really do mean ten days.

Shame on you UK border agency, saying that 95% of all applications should be processed within 6 months is an out and out lie…

Good news....

One thing you do not want to bring back from holiday is a cold

That’s something I don’t want to give any house room to at all, so be off with you darn bug and go lurk somewhere else.

The Man and I have had a nice quiet day just pottering.

In the small pile of mail that was waiting for use was a card from the post office saying that a letter that had to be signed for was waiting at the local depot to be collected.

Hmmm…

And was it something we were waiting for?

Well if you’ve read any of the previous posts you might be aware that The Man has had issues with his visa,

Short version if you haven’t a clue what I’m writing about is that his application for indefinite leave to remain was applied for late, which meant that instead of being able to just hand it in over a counter the thing had to be posted away.

Not only that my passport and other personally valuable documents had to go with it.

And posted away it was.

The Man had an acknowledgement letter dated November saying that the border agency aimed to have 95% of all applications processed within six months.

Well even by my dodgy maths we are now considerably passed that.

And was it what he was waiting for.

Oh yes.

So for all those months we were kept hanging, not knowing if he would be given his matching orders or not.

The envelope contained all out precious paperwork, but hang on a mo…

The important visa stamp isn’t in his passport…

His electronic visa will come separately, within ten working days we are told.

Another Friday

Yes indeed it is yet another Friday.

And it’s been another very warm day but Buckys is still very very chilly, The Man and I went there this evening for our usual ‘on the way home toffee stop’  A few steps inside the store and we turned on our heels and left. Much too chilly in there even for a hot day.

There is a large plaza area in Number One Canada  Square and there have been some interesting sculptures on display there this week. What do you think of them?

As some of you might know The man and I are great beleivers in always having plan b and even plan C.

I say this well in reality I write this because we were hoping to book ourselves a holiday with a company that we have used before. I rang yesterday and asked one of the sales team if The Man and I would need our passports which are still with the border office….and have been for more than 6 months now… Sales assistant said that she was pretty sure that we didn’t.

Not that I misbelieved her, but I emailed the FCO  and they said that we do. So there we go, or at least don’t go.

On to plan B which is a trip to… oh nearly gave the game away there didn’t I?

Nah, I’m not going to tell you where we are planning to go, you will just have to be patient

Short and sweet...

I’m not going to write much tonight because I have  spent the last hour or so crafting a letter to a lawyer about The Man’s visa issues which have been going on for way too long. 

We were talking to a friend on the train a week ago about it and he said we should contact a friend of his who is an immigration lawyer.

So there you have it.

Fingers crossed.

I’ll keep you posted