Places I Won't Be Going.....

So, I was going to write this blog post about how excited I was to be going to Shanghai and to see my Dad. Except, I won't be going. So instead I'm going to have a bit of a whinge about it.

About four weeks ago, my Dad calls me up and says he's finalizing plans to go to China at the end of February, and would I perhaps be interested in coming? Well...obviously the answer to that one was a big Yes, but there was a slight catch. See, to go to China, you need a specific visa, which takes roughly 3-4 working days to get. Additionally, I still had to send off for my Tier One UK Visa (aka the Post Study Visa) which I'd had the forms filled out and ready for several weeks, but hadn't sent it off yet, as I was waiting until the last possible moment to do so.

Cue the drama. Obviously I sprinted to the post office and sent my visa application (passport included) off, but would there be enough time? In order to make it to China, I had to not only get my passport back in time to board the plane, but in time to go and get a visa from the Chinese. It was all very close.

Or not. Technically, I should have been packing for China today, but I am not. Sadly, my passport didn't show up, and the UK Home Office are still twiddling their thumbs and working on applications submitted a week before I sent mine in. In a last ditch attempt to make it happen, I spent last Friday at the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square getting an emergency/temporary passport, in the hopes that I could then go to the Chinese Embassy on Monday and get the visa. It all went off rather swimmingly, despite it being Half-term, and "Bring your Baby to the Embassy" day... babies and small children EVERYWHERE

The folks at the Embassy were great however, minus the part where the (also very nice) security guys took all my electronics...aka, 90% of my planned entertainment while I waited. But, two hours, a panicky trip out to a local pharmacy when their photo machine broke, several chapters of "Underground London" by Stephen Smith, and a couple of Sudoku's later, I had a temporary passport. Awesome. Step One of "Go To China" completed.

Sadly, Step Two was not remotely successful. On Monday morning, after a very soggy slog down High Holborn to the Chinese Visa building, I was informed (again by very fast, polite and efficient staff) that I had to have my original passport, with my UK visa in it, because the embassy would need proof that I was allowed back in to the UK. Even if I were to re-reroute my flight through the States they still couldn't do it.

Side note - Did I mention that when I first tried to book the flight, all the US airlines had me routed through the US? I.e. Fly to Shanghai via ATLANTA?? Turning a 10-11 hour trip into a 46 hour trip. Oy vey.... but I digress.

So, at the end of the day, there will be no trip to China. I briefly held hopes that my passport might show up in time for me to sprint to Manchester and do the one- day visa processing there, but no dice. Sigh.

But, I'll be switching my China ticket to a US ticket for some time in May/June for a visit home, and Dad is making plans to come and visit in March. So, it's not all that bad, because that was the important part, seeing family, going to China was just a bonus.