63. London - UK - Catching up with Em and Passport/Visa run

Our train trip home was fraught with strikes. It seems the transport unions in England ALWAYS strike at the busiest times of the year. This particular weekend was the busiest as it's the end of the summer holidays and a bank holiday on the Monday for all workers, making it a long weekend. It didn't help that there was a major 'glitch' in air traffic control software causing hundreds of flights to be cancelled across all UK airports that same weekend.

Travelling the UK means that even though you may have train tickets booked, that's no guarantee those trains will be running. It's always good to book tickets online with an email account so at least you're notified when things go awry.

Housekeeping aside it was, as always, great to see Daniel and Ellen again and we are forever grateful to them for providing accommodation in between sits. We try and book sits as close together as possible and we've often been successful in going straight from one to another however it's not always seamless. 

Our friend Em is over this side of the world visiting family in Cyprus and London. We managed to catch up with her in London. It was as if no time had passed since we left, which is now over 12 months.

Food... These two can't go two minutes without talking about food!

Here we are in St James' Park after walking off a delicious breakfast at Dishoom, a favourite.

Lots of furballs looking for morsels of food.

So now, it's time to do a 'visa run'. 

Without a UK passport, one is limited to a six-month stay before having to leave. Since it's been six months since I last entered the UK, I have to leave and come back in (hopefully I'm allowed) to start this visa period again. You can't do this too often.

Having English heritage, and according to their legislation, I'm actually entitled to a UK passport and have suffered an ongoing battle with the passport office since March who have refused to issue me with one, even after two appeals. It's frustrating having to educate them on their own government's legislation, however, the good news is that one senior supervisor from the passport's office wrote to me agreeing with my argument and saying that I am entitled to the passport once I supply my grandfather's military records. I've contacted the Ministry of Defense who have found the records, which are now on order and can take up to six months to acquire.

As to the visa run, we decided we'd go to Ireland as it's in the EU and just over an hour's flight from London.  The bonus? We found a dog sit in the southern city of Waterford, an old Viking village and home of Waterford crystal.

Here we come, Ireland, to be sure. to be sure!