Well, on Thursday it was off to the US Embassy for the 4th time in my life. Now, as I mentioned, I just went on a cheeky holiday to the States for 10 days so I couldn't go and get my visa any earlier really as I needed my passport. So I returned from Orlando on Tuesday morning, spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday feeling rather jetlagged and then was up at 5am on Thursday to go to London to get my visa.
My Dad travels to London every day for work so we went to the station together and I paid through the nose to be on the 6.01am train (£50 for a single!) so that I got into London at 7.30am. All the other trains were even more expensive in order to be at the Embassy for 9.30am! Anyway, I said goodbye to my Dad and then got myself a hot chocolate and bacon roll at McDonalds to warm myself up - it was bloody freezing despite being mid-March (we've just had snow... again). Then I headed to the Embassy where it was discovered that I'd forgotten to print my appointment letter which had been emailed to me when I booked the appointment... as I mentioned, I've suffered from jet lag this week which mostly means I keep forgetting things. So, just down the street from the Embassy is a pharmacy which must make an absolute mint from people having visa appointments because they charged me £6 for 30 minutes internet access (of which I needed about 1 minute) and to print off my appropriate letter. However, it is very useful for them to be there - they also have locker facilities for electronics if you need to take your phone etc to London. I just went without electronics (which made for very boring journeys!) but frustratingly ended up spending this £6 for a piece of paper but hey ho. I walked back to the Embassy and now with all the correct paperwork got let in through the security scanner and entered the building at about 9.40am.
Now, in previous years it's taken a shorter and shorter amount of time to get processed but I still steadied myself for a good hour or so in there at least. After sitting for about 2 minutes, my number was called for the first window where you just hand over your documents and they take your fingerprints. Then I sat back down for the long wait.... about 10 minutes later they called my number for the second window! It was a pleasant lady at the window and the conversation literally went like this:
Lady: "What cruise line are you joining?"
Me: "Disney Cruise Line"
Lady: "What are you doing on there?"
Me: "Merchandise cast member"
Lady: "How did you get the job?"
Me: "I heard about it when I was working in Florida and I applied when I got home and was successful."
Lady: "Okay, visa approved".
Literally so easy, I was in and out in 20 minutes!! Unbelievable! I paid the extortionate £16 to get my passport returned by courier next week and then I was done. And I had a good 4 1/2 hours before my train home with no phone and hardly any money - joy!
Seen as my holiday back to America has just cleaned me out money-wise (my own fault, I know) I didn't want to spend any money really... so I headed to the Apple Store. LOL. Nah, really I just needed a charger for my new iPad Mini as I only had an American plug. Then I went on a nice long walk from Oxford Circus via Regents Park to Baker Street. Then I got on the tube and went to South Kensington to visit the Victoria & Albert Museum. It was one I hadn't been to before so I thought I'd check it out... yeahhhh I found it pretty boring and a bit pretentious. Also, I was super tired and hungry by this point.
So I went to Paddington and got myself a baguette for lunch and then still had over an hour to wait for my train so I went to the waiting room which was vaguely warmer than the main station and read my magazine until my platform was called and I got the train home... ready for the next day to do it all again...!
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