Possum Galore
A life ‘Down Under’!
Land of my Fathers.
GB Day!
So...this morning Will put in an application to renew his passport and paid for the express service which means it should be ready by next week. It will be posted to Ros's house and she will send it on to the UK.At the airport I handed over both our British passports but after a bit of keyboard tapping they asked for his Australian passport. Phonecalls were made to unknown authorities and we were handed our boarding cards.At Border Control I sailed through the automated border gates but Will was pulled out and taken to a Customs Officer. Again I could see more phonecalls being made and began to worry that this was as far as he would get but after about 15 minutes he was finally allowed through.We are coming 'Up Over'....ready or not!
Last Minute Panic!
So...the last few days have been pretty crazy getting ready for our departure. Will has been working every day for the last two weeks except at the weekend. We got the garden sorted at the weekend. We got rid of the two white roosters, one we barbequed, one went into a stock but spared Thor who has become 'top chook' and the girls seem happy with that.On Monday I tidied up around the house outside, Tuesday I was working at the 'Book Cave' and today I blitzed the house so that it is all clean and tidy for our return.This afternoon when Will came home I set about checking in online for our flights and discovered that Will's Australian passport has expired.He has a British Passport so I was able to check him in with that but the problem now is him returning to Australia on a British passport. He usually comes back in on his Australian one. I come back in on my UK passport because I now have permanent residency but others coming in on UK passports need a Visitors Visa. Will can't get a Visitors Visa because he is Australian.We have phoned the Australian passport office and the Australian Home Office for advice. We have even rung the Australian Embassy in London.Basically he will most probably be able to leave on his UK passport but we will encounter trouble coming back if he does not get it renewed in the coming weeks. To get a passport in London at the Embassy you need an appointment and they are booked up for the next five weeks. They cannot fit Will in on any of the days that we are in London. So we are going to try and put in an application tomorrow here and get the passport sent to the UK so that he can return on it.We both feel sick and not a little worried about the whole thing.