Pass on the Passports!

It is now just over ten years since we moved here from the Big Smoke.

How do we remember that?

Our passports will be expiring in March! Not that we needed passports to gain entry to the wonderful Cape............. hmmm, could be a plan though!

Renewing them in Randburg was not an option! That was the stuff of nightmares! The offices were dingy, cream coloured walls and not enough officials to help, and those that were there were not very helpful anyway! The queues were hundreds of people long, either leaning against the walls and waiting until their name was called, or sitting on long wooden benches and shuffling up a space every time the next in line shuffled up to fill the gap left by the next one to be helped!

You get the picture?

So we waited until we were settled here in Jacobsbaai and then made a day of it by going to our nearest Home Affairs office in Malmesbury. Malmesbury was a dream! we arrived there clutching our old passports, filled out the forms, had our fingerprints taken, handed our forms and photographs over and left........

Wow, what a pleasure.

Our new passports arrived by registered post a few weeks later.

So, here we are ten years later!
On Monday we went to town to have our photos taken. Two coloured ones (stern faced, glasses off....... ghastly!) and two black and white ones (smiling, glasses on, hmm not bad) for my driving licence that also falls due in March. (How quickly ten years goes...) Yesterday, Tuesday would be 'P Day'! (It was, in more ways than one!)

We do have a Home Affairs office in Vredenburg now.......... but naturally, they do not deal with passports at all.

So, we made arrangements with our friends who live in Malmesbury, that when we had finished our business, we would arrive for a spot of lunch and a good chat! Off we set yesterday morning at 07.00, reckoning to be in Malmesbury easily by 09.00, business completed easily by 11.00, surely two hours would be plenty, it was more than plenty last time.

Yes, well that was ten years ago! When we arrived at the Home Affairs building yesterday, dead on time, we couldn't believe our eyes. The doors were closed.... and they open for business at 08.00, what could be the problem? And the queue was from the doors, down the veranda, down the steps, out of the grounds, down the road to the corner, and round the corner. There must have been over 300 people standing there, from young to old.

Rob stayed in the car while I went to ask a few questions. I spoke to the first people in the queue....they had been there since 07.00! Two hours and they had just reached the door. How many people had been in front of them... and what time did they arrive? Apparently only fifteen people were being allowed in at a time, once they were out then the next fifteen were allowed in etc etc. So the people standing round the corner could be there till the office closed at 16.00!!

Also they told me, if we were applying for new passports, the office only took 100 a day! So, if after several hours of standing in the queue, you found out that you were numbers 101 and 102, then very sorry, come back tomorrow.

I reported back to Rob.

Now, we debated whether we could bear to stand in the queue-with-no-end-in-sight until we finally collapsed at the door, or whether to abandon the entire enterprise and slip away. I knew that neither my bladder nor my back would cope with a long wait, plus it was one of the hottest days that we have had so far this summer and the temperature was forecast to be 35 with no cooling breeze!

Hobson's choice!

We arrived at our friend's house for (surprise surprise) breakfast! Lovely toast and coffee!

As they were knee deep in plumbers with half the garden dug up, we didn't stay long.

Home via Darling Olives and the Darling Butchery, to re-group and re-plan.

Chairs, books, a cooler bag and the Porta-Potty will go with us next time.

Like a Boy Scout, we shall be prepared!