Visiting the US Embassy and other fun stuff.

So, on top of STILL not having our own flat, due to beurocratics and barriers placed upon us by the estate agency, we were told by some people that if our passports were within six months of expiring, our visa application would be rejected. Of course, Jim's passport is within six months of expiring. So we took a little trip to the American Embassy in London in hope that they would help us. They didn't, but I'll still give a description.

Outside of the embassy, there were three lines, with nothing identifying what each line was for, of course. Never too shy to ask, I approached an official looking person who informed us that the line to our left, "the very long one," was the line for passports. So we got into it. We were checked by security, checked by security again, had to turn our camera in, got into a third line inside, and, when Jim finally made it to the window, no one had even heard of the six month rule, so we had to go make some phone calls. Really the people we needed to talk to, were the UK visa folks, but, of course, they weren't answering the phone. The really nice American Embassy guy (who actually was American, but wasn't actually nice), informed Jim that because he has a perfectly good and valid passport, he was not entitled to get an Emergency passport, which is good for a year. So the lesson that we learned is that we should have lied and said he didn't have a passport at all.

Determined not to be brought down by the man, we took a nice walk through Hyde Park and checked out some funny little birds called Coots, who swam along beside us and made little squeaking noises and, occasionally, went under water, causing lots of bubbles and swirls, and then popped, comically, back to the surface. We saw a TV show being filmed in the park and were amused when some guy with his dog walked right through the middle of it, causing the director and all the crew members to frantically wave their arms and then exclaim exasperation. Then we went to Notting Hill, where we visited the Books for Cooks shop (floor to ceiling cook books from around the world)and perused the market.

Then, on our way home, we got a wild hair and decided to visit St. Paul's Cathedral. It is majestic and the dome is incredibly high and huge. We climbed up as far as we could and looked down over the cathedral floor, whispered to each other from across the dome (we could hear each other) and then climbed some more to have an outside view of the city from the top of the dome.


Climbing up to the top of the dome..an illegal picture taken away from the security guards.


ancient graffiti on the walls of St. Paul's.


multicolored houses along Portabello Road.

So, all in all, despite the fact that we might not be able to get our visas and we still don't have a home, it was a pretty good day.