Ja, we neeeeaaarly had to wave goodbye to Sil! First she tripped over Marion's foot and sprained her hand and then with a month before D-Day (departure date) she discovered that her passport expired last year! We suspect that she has a touch of dyslexia ‘cos she read the date back to front and thought it expired in 2007.
A frantic visit to the Passport Centre then Home Affairs in Umgeni Road for fingerprints and a cool R600 later, she has applied for a temp and permanent passport. Temp passports usually take 48 hours but you might have read in the newspapers that our Government has run out of books (they should fire the stationery buyer on the spot) so there is a three-week delay for temporary passports and a three-month backlog for permanent passports.
LUCKY we are walking in Italy – the British Government no longer accept Temporary Passports so she would not have been allowed into Britain.
So, our organised, super efficient, on the ball SIL has spent the last few days checking and re-checking all our accommodation bookings just in case she has double booked us or booked us into the wrong place on the wrong dates! Watch this space!
Next step is to get our FOREX and then apply for Schengen Visas. Phoned the Italian Embassy and they said the Visas take about 4 days. Phew!! We might just make it with a few days to spare – otherwise we will just have to wave goodbye to her when we leave on the 14th June!!
