The passport

Horrid, horrible day.  Passport problems (finally resolved, but via a route of major stresses and near-panic attacks).  Normally I like London, but London with a pushchair is a whole other ball game.

Thank god for friends who are willing to help.  Anne, who countersigned another passport form for me (the one Diana did was wrong and had to be torn up and I couldn’t get hold of Diana again) has never met my daughter in her life.

I had to run over to the Post Office to get another form, run back, which is uphill(!) and then speed to Anne’s to get this done.  Daughter and I set off an hour late.  Luckily, I hate being late and had allowed loads of time, so the hour late meant we could still make it but without any spare time.  In the end we got to the passport office with three minutes to spare after having hauled the pushchair up and down several flights of stairs.  Why on earth hasn’t Victoria Station, a major overground and underground station, got any lifts?  What are wheelchair users supposed to do?

Daughter and I both compared the London Underground unfavourably with Calgary’s C-Train.  Not the coverage, the underground has an amazing network, but with the facilities.  Or non-facilities.

Once in the passport office, we sailed through their scanners and other security checks.  Daughter was allowed to take a bottle of Sprite through, despite there being notices saying “no liquids” just like at airports.  Her interview took three minutes, the form was checked and okayed (phew!) and handing over £103 got us the promise that her passport would be delivered by Thursday next week.

In a pub afterwards, we could finally relax.  Best baby in the world had a guzzle, Daughter had very British fish and chips and I had a chicken and chorizo salad, then spoiled it all with an Eton Mess.  Daughter had a drink of strawberry cider which I tried and it was horrible.  A sort of chemically strawberry sweetness, but she liked it.

We had wanted to go to Covent Garden, but by the time we’d done the things we had to do, it was getting on in the day and rush hour was looming close.  In the end we just gave up and started the obstacle course home.  Baby got cranky and cried all the way home.  My ears popped a couple of times while in the tube, so I wonder if maybe his had too and were causing him some pain.  I was just glad to get home.

Can’t wait for normality.