On London

Today has been ridiculous but I’ll just relate one thread in the tapestry of lunacy.

Caroline had to renew her passport because it’s full up, and Lily’s passport expires in October so we decided to do both at once, Fast Track in one day.

I completed Lily’s form online a few weeks ago, so it had my name as parent / guardian. But because Caroline would be taking it into the office I had to write a letter giving my consent for her to take in the form.

When she got to the passport office they said that because she is named as parent/guardian on Lily’s passport, she needed to write a letter giving her consent for me to complete the passport application.

They also needed a letter giving my consent for Caroline to collect the new passport, and as I was getting that ready I got a call saying Lily’s photos had been rejected for being too light. The photo studio did another set for no charge which was good of them, and I cycled the 5 miles to Victoria to drop them off along with the letter.

That went ok – I gave the lady the photos and letter and she disappeared for 5 minutes. She came back and she had somehow lost one of the photos, but I had 2 spares…She disappeared for another 5 minutes, came back (with a bag of Thornton’s chocolates for one of her colleagues I noticed), and told me everything was ok for Caroline to pick up the passport later.

I had passed the time construcively remembering how to make an origami rowing boat. When I asked her if she wanted it, however, she pretended not to hear me.

Back at home later on I got a call from Caroline waiting to pick up the passport: they couldn’t find the letter of consent. So I typed up, printed and faxed another.

Now I’m just waiting for Thornton’s to call.