Holiday Planning

A couple of posts back I mentioned that I was going to the UK for Christmas- yeah!! Anyway this has not been a straight forward transaction in the planning side. I know we are still 5 months away, but I have had a fair share of obstacles in this process.

I booked my ticket almost 2 months ago- my boss very kindly approved my leave in a blink and that was appreciated. Anyway I booked online and did not even bother to get my passport out- BIG mistake!! My old passport was due to expire mid July!

Anyway my brother is the one I need to thank for checking as he had given me a discount voucher to use when I was there and I thought the safest place for this was my passport. So when I placed this voucher in the passport I saw my passport was not going to be valid. I went cold, having heard of all these stories of Home Affairs and the problems and delays, etc. I was in Edenvale one day and thought I would pick up a form and prepare it at home, not knowing that you cannot take forms out of the premises. Anyway when I arrived at Home Affairs in Edenvale (close to work), the queues were 2 people deep- wow. I had fortunately had a set of passport photo's in my wallet and I filled the form in and paid my dues. I gingerly asked the cashier how many weeks for this to be proceed and was told 8!!!!

This would have taken me to mid August without the chance of further delays. Anyway I had no option, but to get the process rolling. 2 weeks later I logged onto Home Affairs Website and checked the progress and was pleasantly surprised to see- PASSPORT BEEN PRINTED. About 3 days later I did another check and was even more surprised- PASSPORT DISPATCHED TO OFFICE OF APPLICATION. 2 days later- PASSPORT READY FOR COLLECTION. So it took a total of 3 weeks to have a new passport. This was so quick that my old passport had not expired and I had my new one in hand. A Big thumbs up and Well Done to the Department of Home Affairs.

Anyway after that obstacle, I thought VISA application and then pack my bags to leave. Why would it be so simple?? I received an e-mail from British Airways, would you have a problem with your return flight arriving 10 minutes later? Please confirm, so I picked up the phone and said that was fine, but why worry about 10 minutes, the agent reminded me some people would have connecting flights. Anyway that all done, I thought we are going ahead, just a VISA application to do- NOT. I received another e-mail from British Airways apologising that my outbound flight was rescheduled.

No asking what preference I wanted to change- I was just booked on the flight they saw fit. Anyway I did not like the choice as instead of leaving at 7h45 in the morning, I was to leave at 20h15 in the evening, meaning I would only arrive in London on Christmas eve. So I phoned again and asked why I was not given a choice and was told they put me on the flight that was next on the schedule. I then had to put on my sweet and business voice on and politely ask for a flight the day before then. My only 2 reasons for this is that I have the 23rd as a days leave approved already and the second reason is probably more important- I have arranged to go shopping in London Central on the evening of the 23rd December.

So this was granted and I cannot see a problem with that going forward. My next challenge is a VISA Application, this is quite a document. Because I am staying with family, I need to provide a letter from them and there life history. My company has to give me a letter to say that I am not leaving them and that I am employed on a full time basis. So currently I am gathering all that information to get my VISA application in, once this is done, I think I will relax.

This holiday is going to be good for me and I am really looking forward to the break. I am not sure what News Years will bring, but either with my brother and/or my mates, I am hoping to have a blast.

The other exciting part is that there is a lot of football on during the period I am there, so I may have an opportunity to go to at least 2 games. Including at least 1 with my new team Spurs. I changed my support from Man United to Spurs. You may ask why, it is just I have been to a game at Spurs and I appreciate where they are based and there stadium!

But there is a lot of work to be done before I go, so I just need to buckle down and focus on the next few months with work.