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March 01, 2006
Sheila Goes to Venice
Sheila (or mum as I more often call her) was due to fly to Venice on Sunday morning for a short break with friends. Lovely stuff! She hasn't had a holiday for quite some time.
So Friday night, 8pm, I'm at the rugby when the phone goes....
"Errrm.... is the passport office open on Saturday?"
Yeah, you guessed it, her passport had run out.
Eliminating the four-letter words, my reaction was "I don't know, but I'll check on the net when I get back from the rugby."
So back home, it's midnight and I'm desperately trawling the UK passport website for some help and guidance on how to renew a passport at a moment's notice.
There are only about a dozen passport offices in the UK but, luckily for us, one of them is in Liverpool. Our luck seemed to be holding when I discovered it was open on Saturday but only for appointments and only until 11am. It's all going well so far.
I phoned her and gave her the number. "Be on the phone the minute it opens, I doubt you'll get through to anyone now." I told her. Just on the off-chance, she tried the number anyway and, lo and behold, got a reply. Unfortunately the reply was that there were no appointments left for the Liverpool office on Saturday. Damn!
"Not to worry," she tells me "they've given me an appointment for 9 o'clock in the morning"
.... in DURHAM!!!!
That's a 300 mile round trip.
It's now the wee small hours and she phones her sister's partner - because neither of us drive do we? Our hero is willing to take her and consults the AA website for a route planner. He figures they'll need to leave about 5 am, it's already nearly one. Only he hadn't factored in that it was 5 am on a Saturday and the motorways were empty. They arrived just after 7am and had to hang around waiting for the passport office to open.
Job done, documents completed, and she's told the passport would be ready at 1 o'clock... another three hours spent hanging around in Durham. Still, she got her passport and they arrived back in time for tea. At least her trip wouldn't have to be abandoned.
The really awful thing is that the cost of the emergency passport; the travelling; and food and drink while they hung around came to more than the trip.
There's a moral to this tale and it's this....
.... when my mum calls.... don't answer!!
Posted by lilliebet at March 1, 2006 09:47 PM
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Comments
Cor blimey! That was a close call. And I thought I left everything to the last minute. Your mum definitely takes the biscuit :)
Posted by: Z at March 7, 2006 06:31 PM