A quick post having been back in Scotland for a week. The time has gone fast and we have been busy with many mundane but necessary tasks.
Most of these tasks have involved filling out pages and pages of forms and ticking box after box (strictly speaking it’s not ticking though, it’s putting an ‘X’). The first day back we applied to renew our passports – so that they are ready for when we fly back. Given that the Post Office have a ‘check & send’ service, for £8, you would think they know what they are doing when they fill out a passport application. No. You’d be wrong. Despite me being the one paying £16 I was also the one who had to correct them 3 times as the form was being completed! Not a good start. Let’s just hope they are ready in time!
Then I was filling out a form for renewing a driving license photo (yes it has been nearly 10 years, surprisingly!). It took 20 minutes or so to queue just to get the form at the Post Office (common theme here). Once I got the form I carefully read through the enclosed leaflet about the form. It explained that it was the correct form for a number of different scenarios including renewing a photo. Great! That was all that was said about it in the leaflet though so I proceeded to fill out the form. Section 1 about who I am and my drivers license number etc. Section 2 about my address (becoming more of a sticking point now we don’t ‘ordinarily’ live here), right up until Section 7 where you sign and date. Then I turn over the page to the end of the form where it tells you how much to pay and where to send it. Oh wait, except one of the last lines on the form, yes right at the end, tells you to only fill out Sections 1 and 2 if you are renewing your photo! Why couldn’t they have said that in the information leaflet or at the beginning of the form?!
We have braved a few trips into the City Centre in Glasgow. It’s nice to see the new motorway coming a long nicely – I was surprised at how much progress they seemed to have made.
Now I admit that it is probably not as cold as what I feel when we’ve been out – not many others had three layers on when walking along Buchanan Street! But that is my next point – even if everyone else feels ‘relatively warm’ some of the clothes they are wearing suggest they should be in a private jacuzzi at home rather than walking down the main shopping street! Grumpy old man syndrome? Maybe.
I mean no offence by this next remark (isn’t the blog looking more professional now that I am including disclaimers?) it is just an observation. There is a high proportion of people out and about who seem on the overweight side. Has the global economic downturn in the past year or two really altered the Scottish diet that much? It is slightly worrying some of the excess baggage some people seem to be carrying about – esspecially given my comments above about suitable clothing!
We’re on to our next bit of the trip now, travelling around England a bit. We flew down from Glasgow yesterday. I find it much easier flying than taking the train. The only frustration was having to wait for 15 minutes at Heathrow once we had landed to park at the gate as there was “another British Airways aircraft at the gate about to depart”. Maybe I don’t understand the complexities of the logistics at Heathrow but I’d have thought they would have had time to arrange a free parking space for us given how long they had known we were coming!
We had feared we were following the bad weather but even thought it was a bit overcast it was much milder than up North. I am now looking forward to seeing more friends and family and hopefully the weather will remain dry at the least!
One last point to add in as I was able to watch the last 20 minutes of the British Grand Prix on Sunday. Congratulations to Mark Webber. I’m delighted for him give the struggles he had with his team over the weekend. Taking parts of his car and giving them to his ‘team mate’ becuase his team mate’s fell off due to his mechanics careless work? He’s a great honest guy and although Australian is really an adopted Brit! Well done Mark (follow him on twitter @AussieGrit).
Do you live in the UK? Have you been to the UK? What do you find annoying? What do you really enjoy in the summer time? Let me know what you think!
-PlaneSimple
PlaneSimple Thoughts 