A weekend of recovering

As much as I thought the previous time that Home Affairs was a breeze when we applied for our passports, as much my mind has been changed completely!

We were there on Saturday at half past seven, and the queue was a queue ... was A QUEUE!.
It took ages to get in there as they do not let everybody go into the building all at once. (Which makes sense!)

We had to be there with Little Miss as her thumb print is required again when picking up the passports. She was hungry (of course!) for three whining hours long. The breakfast bars only went as far as breakfast bars could go.

We finally got our passports, but it was an epic!

We did not do anything much the rest of the weekend!

Earth Hour 2015

We switched off the lights on Saturday at 20:30, and got very sleepy with the dark of the dark hour! Earth Hour is always something we enjoy doing with the children.

In final news: Little Miss pulled her seventh teeth yesterday. It is the first one that she managed to dislodge herself, and she was very proud.

The Tooth Mouse was also very eager, and she got R15 (a note and a R5 coin, nogals), while she was in the bath. The note stated that he was very impressed with the quality of her teeth!

----

Little Miss is attending Vacation School during the holidays. She is still eager to go to school while they are keeping them busy. With an extra payment from the parents (of course!), but it helps as we are busy saving leave for the longer vacations coming up!


What are you doing with the kids during the school holidays?

South African Home Affairs - a breeze! What?

Yes, we finally scheduled an afternoon to go through to Home Affairs to apply for two passports. We were dreading the queues and the bad service. We should already have gone last year, but there are
always ALWAYS a better thing to do than going to your local Home Affairs!

We decided on the Roodepoort offices as most people said the service there is the best.

We were pleasantly surprised:

- We did not have to fill in any forms. Everything is electronic. (A BIG bonus to me, as I HATE filling in forms.)

- We were immediately put into an electronic queue after we paid the said amount (R400 *ouch!!*= 35.38 US dollar) for the passports. That helps considerably as you don't have to figure out in which queue you need to be.

- The photos were taken on site. (Little Miss and I rocked up with a whole set of awful "passport photos" for ourselves). You don't have to fight all the budding photographers outside the door, or pay for your own set of photos any more!

- We could wait for our turn sitting down, and helping Little Miss with her homework.

- The fingerprints were taken electronically, and we did not have to content with getting black ink off our fingers any more!

- It took us just a little over an hour to get it done, and they said we will only have to wait for four weeks for our passport documents. (*Holding thumbs*)

Instruction by Little Miss to take photos of her hairstyle while waiting
(We had time for this...)

- We got an sms notification immediately that we have applied for the passports.

- The service was good, although there could have been more friendly faces. (But I don't blame the Home Affairs officials for looking like Dread at the end of the day working there...)


- Final note: So glad both parents went together, as the passport for the little ones requires both parents' fingerprints!


My brother in San Antonio, we are seeing you in middle 2015!
Little Miss and I will be going over the oceans for the first time in our lives! (The Student has been to France and England, and Hubby has been to a couple of places as well!)

Weekend update

Our weekend started with such a great Bang:
The teen’s passport application was accepted on Friday at Home Affairs. Without the presence and signature of the dad... The teen and me submitted affidavits with it, and told our sad story again. We had to retake the passport photos again, because the set we had was with red eyes. Not acceptable at Home Affairs. But that was it! (I was not that optimistic when we went there that they would accept it. And the affidavits were not used in the end. But I am sure it made a difference.) Passport headaches sorted...

Now the French tour is more of a reality. The teen bought her own camera with her own pocket money. The camera is for the French tour, of course.

(The photo of Mieka was taken by her today.)

We had a glorious weekend of sun and family and swimming!

Mieka with her niece and nephew yesterday

I have a new “toy” as well, a Blackberry! Great fun! It kept me very occupied this weekend. I think I am irritating Hubby already... I was told to put it away for a while. (Wink smile)

 Have a great Monday!
What is going to happen this week in your life?

Passport headaches

The passport for the teen for the French tour next year. It turns out to be a big headache.


A signature is needed by the dad for his permission for the children to get passports. We got the signature! He signed the form a while ago. Nowhere on the form or on the website does it states that the dad (both parents) needs to be present when going to Home Affairs.

The teen and I went to Home Affairs on Thursday. No, they said! The dad needs to come as well! Oh, brother! The teen is seventeen, and by July next year she won’t have to ask him anything. But the French tour is in April already.

Now, the big question. Should the teen engage with him although she knows he is going to use it as big time leverage? Should she just plain ask him, but no further contact? He could say NO! A “normal dad” would have had no problem with stuff like this. But then, a “normal dad” would still have been in her life…

My divorce settlement states that I have “control and custody”, but unfortunately to them there should have been a word in there of “sole” or “only”. It is the first time that this seems to be a “problem”. Up until now I have made all the decisions with regards the teen.

I do understand the rules with regards passports, but I think there should be some special circumstances that need to be considered. We do not want to give up on her hopes...

(Photo: Arnia at Cedar Lodge in Krugersdorp over the weekend)