Chasing Paper

We uncovered a huge visa problem with the boy at the weekend. It seems that, although he is blessed with a Taiwanese mother, he can only enter Taiwan for a maximum of 30 days without a visitors' visa. The dragon discovered this on Saturday, and after some quick calculations, realised that we had 6 days to sort out a visa because she is taking the little chap to Taiwan on Friday for more than 30 days. How we overlooked this is beyond me. Ironically I don't need a visa myself, despite being British. I'm already a resident you see. The dragon and I are reluctant to get him resident status because it would mean that he is likely to get drafted into the army. See how complicated life gets when you involve politicians?

So, long one short, we spent yesterday buzzing round the city chasing paperwork. The boy was super good. We dragged him into town on the 9.30am train, arriving around 10.30, and didn't get him home until about 9.30pm. He had to suffer crowded tube trains, shouting people, pollution, car horns, and dodgy sandwiches. On the plus side, we did swing past the palace and wave to Her Majesty, and we had an excellent dinner in Chinatown. We did also find an hour to visit Hamleys in Regent Street and the boy thought he'd gone to heaven. A five storey toy shop is the stuff of dreams for a three year old.

I thought he'd be impossibly grumpy by the evening because he had no chance to sleep as we dragged him round the oldest underground system in the world. It used to run steam engines you know. But actually he was in remarkably good spirits, even on the ridiculously overcrowded train home. A gentleman gave the dragon his seat, and he sat on her lap (the child not the gentleman), but actually the train almost emptied at the first station, so I got to sit down next to her after 20 minutes. He finally went to bed around 10pm, and was still all cheery when he got up at 7 this morning.

Here is a photo diary type thing...

The underground at Paddington with iconic signage in background:


The eye wasn't going round, don't know why:


Westminster, what were we doing there?


Where we ate dinner in Chinatown: