School's out for crepeys

[lalsy]

Ooops, sorry, I didn't mean to finish the thread.

BTM, I am in awe. Just awe.

I may risk having lunch out. I left the house to have a drink with a friend last night and conducted a Ladyjog this morning - it's very nice out there, isn't it?

DP says the boarding school where they all are is 'short on bathrooms'. Not being there looks even more shiny and new.

Auriga, mine isn't a novel though it is now sprouting Fictional Bits. I need to restructure it to be part non-fic part a set of linked short stories.

I do slightly yearn to return to a novel I worked on for ages all about the peace movement of the 1980s and fear and sex and politics and monks....

QQ and NU, you have my tradesmen sympathies!

Am now wide awake at 1.30am as we all fell asleep at 6.30pm!

BD, that is my view of footy too! However, DS would LOVE to be a pro footballer.

It is indeed lovely out there MI....

Ds's new school kit arrived yesterday and in the time honoured fashion of mums down the ages I have clearly embraced the 'you'll grow into it' school of thinking.

His PE shorts cannot actually be seen under his PE top which is doubling as a mini dress (I suspect I could get into it)
Luckily he thought it was hilarious :)

I am slowly amassing DD2's, which is hampered by the fact that I'm still not used to this uniform malarkey - DD1 had lots of handmedowns and as her dad was on sabbatical he got her the rest. (Rather like when she was born and I inherited all my sister's baby stuff.)

To add to the passport saga, DP's boarding school has v poor phone reception so if this mythical phone call does materialise (occasionally there is a call but no message left) he won't get it anyway.

I am going to go and write about brain surgery. As well as finish the interview piece in which no Crepeys were harmed.

This was just the branded stuff MI - the rest will come from M&S or other shops where charcoal trousers and white shirts can be purchased for a somewhat less exorbitant sum than the local school shop....

A whole house to yourself - enjoy :)

Blimey BTM, that sounds amazing. I definitely couldn't have done that. I love the image of inspirational speeches from the dc, both MLK and Churchill superb choices (WC politics aside, I wish today's politicians could deliver such rhetorically successful, yet syntactically and politically complex, speeches).

Rose, you made the right choice I am sure (and I, though firmly atheist, rate funerals). NU, how sad about your cousin.

Lalsy, it's so difficult as his understanding is all there; I can't imagine what it must be like not to be able to communicate. All I could do was pat his hand and give him a cuddle. I suppose I expected his DSis to be there for him, but she was caught up in her own grief and was being comforted by her DH.

It's the family reunion on Sunday in Yorkshire - we've already decided that next year we will have it in DCousin's nursing home in Derbyshire.

I chuckled at visions of DC wearing vast school clothes: we all do it. My school blazer lasted me from age 11 to 15, so it's something that has happened for eons.

AAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Have now had email forwarded from MP's stalwart sidekick. Passport office now alleges that letter has been sent to the countersignatory and they can't do anything till she responds. She is out of London - been stewarding at commonwealth games, now having weekend Up North. Fortunately I've got hold of her...but dammit, said letter must have been despatched late last week as her husband only went to join her on Thurs.

They're getting the cat-sitter to check the mail. She points out that she only ever gets these letters when it's a forrin name, and always gets letters when it's a forrin name. (The Inferiorettes are afflicted with two surnames, one Swedish one Muslim. And DD2's got a Hindu middle name after my sister.) What with DD2 being so very likely to be a dangerous terrorist and all.

NU, that so sad but what a lovely idea to have the reunion there.

MI, , what a good thing you don't have anything else to do but sort this - who would have thought that people might be away in August and miss urgent mail eh?

MI I feel your pain (and rage....)

Sometimes one does have to wonder at the competency of people in officialdom

Here, as we are taking dniece on holiday with us so the four of us will have four different surnames, I have requested dsil to write me a letter saying I haven't kidnapped her daughter......(particularly as some crepeys know I am always asked if ds is mine.....)

I know. It's not as if I have deadlines, or anything minor like that.

Said letter appears to be a routine formality - ie they got to DD2's passport and thought ooer must just check with the counter-signatory. It was already in the urgent pile. This is a passport renewal. For an 11 year old. Who has lived a blameless life without any criminal convictions whatsoever so far.

God, I hate doctor's receptionists! Rang our local surgery to see if they can do DD1's school medical forms. They can't, as she isn't registered there. Called the surgery in darkest Surrey, where she is registered, and they have the most unhelpful receptionist going, who said they didn't do that sort of thing - I could "send the forms in, and someone will send them back within a month." I said that DD1 needed to be seen, and she just repeated herself. Finally managed to speak to the practice manager, who said that they did indeed do it, but an appointment would have to be at the doctor's discretion, when the moon turned green and when the day of the week didn't end in "day" and there was a Z in the month. I have to wait for them to call back when they deign to give me an appointment. Oh and it will cost £70. So why can't my local surgery, which has all of DD1's details on the NHS computer, do the same thing? All they need to check is height, weight and blood pressure. Grrr.

FFS. What a load of cockery, MI. Good job you're there, and not doing hippy tai chi (place your own apostrophes) in the middle of nowhere, innit.

I mentioned my desire for a waterproof jacket to DP, who rolled his eyes. Admittedly, I do have a large collection of jackets/coats, but none are Quite Right. And he has approx 50 dark blue or black lightweight jackets himself.

DS in childcare, and I'm supposed to be working, but appear to be playing Hayday. Why on earth I ever started this, I don't know. It was to cure my Candy Crush addiction, but has of course just fuelled a new and worse problem.

My dc have different surnames from me and I have never been asked about it at airports. Nor have I, despite living in a notorious postcode, ever been offered illegal drugs on the street. I often get asked directions. I fear my S and B may be that of a not very undercover officer.....

MI - I don't understand why they are bothering with the c/s if this is a passport renewal. It is only usually used for first time applicants. I used to issue passports and we used to use this thing called a phone, quick call to the c/s, ask how long and in what capacity they knew the person, and in the case of a lost passport, sometimes asked them to describe the person. Your rage is more than understandable. I would be spitting. Allege racism and see how quickly it gets issued then.

I have pointed this out, in my email. Also - to add further spanners to the works - K has rung the passport office but they won't accept just a phone call, she has to post a letter. It won't get there till tomorrow.

May I add to this (I have detailed all of this in my furious email to the MP and the passport office) that the letter she got was sent to her last Friday. Given the demand for a Real Letter, there is virtually no way we'd have got the damn thing by this Weds in any case. Because I highly doubt there'd have been a 24 turnaround even when they got it.

And nobody told us about this before.

Sent this email:

I have now contacted the counter-signatory. She has been able to get someone to locate the letter which is dated 1 August, with a handwritten note of our departure date at the bottom. The letter itself is a complete formality (and she points out that she is not asked to do this in all cases - there is a separate issue here, to do with surnames of non-UK origin, which is worth noting as well).

In other words, at the point where this application was fast-tracked - and not before - it was held up by a complete formality. At a time of year when it is utterly reasonable to expect people to be away from their homes. She has rung the passport office, but the full confirmation will only be accepted with the receipt of a letter (email will not do. She has asked). She will put a letter in the post now, but realistically this means we have to wait till Monday at the earliest - and I'm not putting money on it - to get a passport which is now being delayed because the office has put in place a routine 'check' (may I reiterate this is a renewal of a passport, for an 11 year old who has lived in the UK all her life). I fail completely to understand why (a) this final spanner has been put in the works (b) nobody informed us about it earlier, during the repeated calls to the passport office (c) how it was expected that even if she had been at home and able to respond immediately, it could have been issued for 6 August in any case.

It has also only been possible to speed this process up because I have remained in London, and the counter-signatory has remained in the UK.

It takes 45 minutes to issue a passport, from receipt of the application, to handing it to the customer. It used to take about 15 minutes, when the red passports came in, and about 5 minutes before then, when we had to handwrite them. So if they pull all the stops out, from receipt of the letter from the c/s, it can certainly be in the post the same day. How many weeks had they sat on the application before deciding to contact the c/s? The renewal of a child's passport is really the most straightforward, as long as they still look vaguely like the photo in their last passport.

Call them, tell them you're a journalist and are doing an article about the extra formalities suffered by those with non-British surnames...

Lalsy I can't recall a single time I wasn't asked (despite the fact ds is the spit of me), but dp is never asked (they start with the same initial).

At least now they ask ds directly and he gives chapter and verse....

Hope it's sorted MI - but agree with MrsS play the racism card!

I may do that. I do have to meet a couple of other deadlines too.

MI, I am watching from the sidelines just aghast at the hoops you are being put through. It is just not on at all. I think these jobsworths get it into their heads about certain people/things and they are then like a dog with a bone.

Are you sure you have to do something else; surely you were put on this earth to pander to this rubbish? Don't know what to suggest but rooting for you to slay the dragons.

Oh, MI, that's unbelievable. Your blood pressure must be off the scale.

And MrsS too - what nonsense bureaucracy. Isn't she boarding? When I was at school (admittedly long, long ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth) all things medical, including weighing and measuring (termly!) were managed "in house". They even had a dentist come in, although fillings etc. were done off site.

In fitness news, I conducted the first post-holiday ladyjog this morning. I couldn't help notice various parts of me wobbling but the run itself was fine.

I'm knackered and self-medicating with the last of the lemon drizzle cake.

In S&B news I tried a pair of Footner socks I blagged received as a sample, and will report back as and when dead skin falls from me, to reveal the beauteous trotters within.

Anyone prepared to bet we've heard the last of the passport saga? My money's on at least one more phone call.

Absolutely unbelievable, MI.

MrsS, how frustrating. As this is a non-NHS service anyway (I assume), is it worth pricing what a private GP in central London would charge (just looked it up and BUPA say £70 for 15 min appt) - might be easier to get a convenient appointment and get it sorted?

Yes, lalsy, we're looking into that option, as it will cost £30 to do the trip to Cobham anyway.