Finally Changed the Travellers Cheques - (Monday 8th June)

First thing in the morning I rang the Visa Application Centre to see
if the biometric systems were working now. The lady who answered the
phone sounded extremely surprised that we had done all the Visa
paperwork and not done the biometrics, but I explained that the system
had not been working last Friday. She checked for me and the system
was now working and suggested we make our way down there. I asked how
long the Visa might take, and she said it would probably be 3-4 days,
but could be longer (FANTASTIC NEWS). We rousted out the children,
got a bag of baby supplies packed and set off to walk to the Visa
Centre. It only took about 10 minutes, but it was VERY hot,
especially carrying baby in her sling!!! When we got there we were
ushered to the front of the queue to see the same lady we had checked
the documents with the first time. She shuffled our papers, printed
out some labels and then sent us to sit down and wait for the
biometrics room to be free. We jumped the queue and were next in that
room too!! As it was a tiny little room I went in with baby on my
own, the lady checked the labels, printed out a receipt and asked me
to sign it. She underlined the case number on the receipt and their
phone number and said that when we come to pick up the Visa we HAVE to
bring this receipt (OMG don't lose that piece of paper!!!). I took
baby out of her sling expecting her to be fingerprinted and
photographed next, but the lady said that they don't do that for under
fives!!! So why did baby have to come to this appointment??!?! No
idea - but I've given up arguing and just do as I'm told!!! To
celebrate our "victory" at finally having put in the application we
visited Saay Pastry for breakfast. Little Prince had two chocolate
donoughts and was thrilled with them, Mr Messy and Drama Teen chose
giant ring donoughts, but Drama Teen didn't like hers!! While we were
sat eating and chatting we got a phone call from the Visa Application
Centre saying that baby's photograph was the wrong size (it needs to
be 45mm x 35mm) ours was too big!!! So we walked back down to the
Friendship Mall and took baby to have MORE photographs taken!! The
display on the glass counter only noted the passport photo sizes in
inches, but the photographer asked which embassy it was for and knew
what size we needed. We took baby into the studio and out of her
sling and then waited for ages, and it was even hotter in there!! The
photographer eventually came in and said he'd been waiting for us,
trouble was we didn't know that and had been waiting for him lol. He
had four or five tries to get a photograph where baby wasn't either
being sick or had her eyes closed, but eventually got an acceptable
one (the beauty of digital photography!!). We had to hang around for
10-15 minutes for the photos to be printed and then we went back to
the Guest House. We got the Manager to arrange a car to take us to
drop off the new photos and then to take us to the Head Office of the
NIB Bank, where Mr Messy had successfully changed travellers cheques
previously. I stayed in the car while Mr Messy took the photographs
up to the Visa Application Centre (its up three flights of stairs!!)
once that had FINALLY been sorted out we headed off to the bank,
hoping that we would be just as successful on this errand!! Luckily
we were :-) We are finally flush with cash again :-) Which means
that Mr Messy and Drama Teen can finally make their trip to where baby
comes from tomorrow. Unfortunately for my sleepy teen they have to
set off at 6am - yes Drama Teen there ARE two 6 O'clocks in one day
lol.

During the afternoon Little Prince decided to have a completely crazy
and naughty time!! He drove me to tears with all his antics! He went
into either the Manager's room or a store room and emptied a bag of
powder all over the yard, then paddled in it and covered himself with
it!! I dragged him in for a bath, a change of clothes and a stern
talking to!! He was very contrite and promised to be a good boy. He
must have forgotten because he emptied out most of our lip salve and
bum cream down the toilet when he said he was charging his DS upstairs
in our room!! Later we found out that he had also emptied most of the
Russian UN worker's sun cream down the downstairs toilet too!!! By
this time I was LIVID!!! I shouted, threatened, cried and got so
upset with him!!!! I even cut his comfort blankie in half (knowing we
had a spare) it was either that or wallop him, and I figured he'd
recover quicker from the blankie wrecking!!!

Mr Messy was a star and sent me and Drama Teen out to the supermarket
for drinks and snacks for them to take with them, and then to have a
relax in Kaldi's before coming back to the Guest House. We managed to
find a few snacks that Drama Teen found acceptable, and then went to
look at the sweetie counter! We found Mars Bars, Bounty and Milky
Ways, but the lady behind the counter wouldn't let us buy any of them
as they were doing an inventory count!!! The only things she would
allow us to buy didn't appeal to Drama Teen, so we gave up and paid
for the things we had managed to find and walked over to Kaldi's. I
had wanted to eat there, but Drama Teen wanted spaghetti bolognaise at
the Guest House so we just had a drink and a cake. Drama Teen didn't
want a cake, but managed to pinch quite a lot of mine!!!!

We had a bit of trouble getting back to the Guest House, as it was
dark and we hadn't brought a torch and my night vision is pathetic.
Once we had finally got back (without breaking any ankles either) we
found a fairly stressed Mr Messy with baby who had screamed blue
murder the whole time we were out!!! I picked her up and she was
asleep in minutes, sorry Mr Messy :-) He then took Little Prince to
bed, and I just hope he goes straight to sleep and doesn't mess with
anything else!!!!

Guest House Manager has just come in and asked Mr Messy if setting off
at 5.30am is OK?? Me and Mr Messy thought it was a fantastic idea,
but Drama Teen was disgusted lol. She is now cheering herself up by
eating her caramel cake we brought back from Kaldi's.

I won't be sending any more blogs until Mr Messy and Drama Teen are
back from their trip as I write all this waffle offline on our own
laptop, Mr Messy puts it on his iPod and transfers it to the Guest
House comptuer and sends it off on its merry way to the internet!!!
That is WAAAAAAAY too complicated for me to deal with, especially with
Little Prince in the mood he's in!!!