My weekend in Liverpool
I had to go to Liverpool to go for an interview with immigration because my spouse visa expired October 12th. Normally I could just go to Glasgow, but they were booked up, partly because the royal mail has been striking every few days and no one can trust them with a postal application.
So, Thursday morning we piled food into the guinea pig cages, and gave them giant water bottles and topped up Binky's food and water and then got on a bus at 7:30 to go to the train station. Halfway there, an idiot in a van parked in the bus lane and refused to move. The bus driver had to call the cops, and meanwhile we were stuck there. After about 10 minutes, Neil was starting to panic about catching our train, and I told him, "You are large and intimidating. We can use this." So Neil started walking, or actually more like storming, to the front of the bus. The driver looked up the aisle and saw him coming, and suddenly let us all get off and catch other buses. We got to the train station on time.
We bought ourselves some sandwiches for lunch and got on the train. It was pretty uneventful. We had to switch trains at Wigan, and they had appalingly bad bathrooms at that station. I wanted to have lunch on the train from Wigan to Liverpool but I couldn't because the train smelled weird. So we ate in the Liverpool train station.
We found our hotel (a Travelodge in the center of Liverpool) and then went on to the interview place because it was too early to check in.
We had to go through a lot of searches at the door of the building because we still had all our luggage with us. It was a big pain in the butt. Then we went up to the interview room, which had glass booths with the interviewer people in them. We waited for our number to be called. It didn't take too long. They pretty much just took our piles of documents and sent us back to wait.
They called us back and told us that they might have to refer our case to London because I didn't have enough documentation from October 2005 to May of 2006. But he said he'd ask his manager if maybe they could put it through here. So we waited and started quietly freaking out. My visa expired the next day. I didn't know if I would even be able to go home or if I would have to leave the country.
About 8000 years later (or maybe 5 minutes) the guy came back and said, "We're going to do it for you." I didn't quite immediately believe him. But he said that there was no question in his mind that we were a legitimate couple and I had good reason for why I didn't have documentation for that time peroid (I didn't get any mail). So since it was 3:30 in the afternoon and they didn't want that kind of extra paperwork, they put it through. I just had to wait another 20 minutes or so for the visa to be attached to my passport, and we were done.
The rest of that day was just kind of a shell-shocked recovery from that meeting. The only great revelations after checking into the hotel were that a) Travelodge is not a particularly good hotel and b) takeaway food in Liverpool is very cheap, but does not come with forks.
The next day we had breakfast at a little cafe next to the hotel that was cheap and really good. Then we went to the World Museum of Liverpool, which was free and pretty nice. Then we went to the Boots (drug store) in the train station to buy the hairbrushes Neil and I both forgot to pack. Then back to the hotel to order more takeaway food and relax for the night. (4 kebabs and 4 cans of pop for 12 pounds)
Saturday did not start off well, as it started at 1:15 in the morning with the fire alarm going off. We stood outside in the cold for a long time. Neil says ten minutes, but I think it was a long time. Then the firemen came and decided that the building was not on fire and let us go back to bed. I hadn't really been sleeping anyway because the bed was very bouncy. Like sleeping on a trampoline. Or possibly a bouncy castle.
We got up later that morning and checked out of the hotel after finishing the rest of our kebabs for breakfast. We went to the Cavern Club, where the Beatles were discovered. Then we found a very nice shopping area. I bought a snoopy scarf and a blue stuffed monkey that I have named MonkeyPuppy.
After that, we met my husband's parents in the train station (since they live not too far away in Wigan) and had a nice conversation and coffee with them for a few hours. Then we all got on trains heading home. We went from Liverpool to Preston than on to Edinburgh. There were a lot of Girl Guides on our train. Then we just barely caught a bus home.
The hamster was happy to see me, especially since I gave him banana chips. The guinea pigs were annoyed with us. Fudgie bit Neil when he was sweeping out their cage. But Neil is getting back at him by giving the piggies baths right now.
By the way, if you could all maybe keep our piggy Spike in your prayers, that would be appreciated. He's always been a bit sickly, and lately he's losing some fur on his belly. We're going to try to get him to a vet soon, but we probably won't be able to get him in any earlier than Friday.
Oop. Sounds like I need to dry a guinea pig.
Alana
