Sheephouse manor & Indian (Grrh!!!!!) Visas

Our cottage is very comfortable and has absolutely everything we need for the week. 

http://www.sheephousemanor.co.uk

The Sheephouse cottage welcome basket - what a lovely surprise

The Thames is a five-minute walk away from the cottage.  On Sunday we walked along the Thames Path to Boulters Lock in one direction then went back and picked up the car as it was raining by this time then we drove in the other direction to Cookham.  

This part of The Thames is known as middle Thames.  It is scenic and perfect for fishing, boating and the barges/houseboats to hire.

The Thames Path

Barge cruising

Sheephouse Manor entrance

Yesterday, Monday we woke up to steady rain.  It continued all day.  Our plan was to catch the train to London, which is a 45-minute trip and apply for our Indian visas.  Easy. 

What a nightmare! 

Getting to the passport application centre wasn’t too bad having to catch two trains and find the office (in the rain).  We queued to get a number and waited, not too long a wait so that is good.  The admin officer checks our application forms (computer generated which we completed while we were in our Surrey house sit) but he points out the present address is incorrect – we had our Australian address not an UK address.  He was most apologetic but the form would have to be redone so we head to an Internet office (in the pouring rain) and redo the forms. 

We go back to our friend at the passport office – lucky for us we don’t have to get another number, he said go directly to him when we return.  While he is processing one application we ask if we can pick our passports and visas up on Thursday as we are leaving the country on Saturday.  ‘No’, he says they take 7 to 15 days to process but I say the website says 3 to 4 days.  He says that is only if you are a resident.  I said I rang and asked was it a problem to apply for a visa because we are Australians not UK residents – no problem I was told.  That phone call cost 10 pounds ($17).  I obviously didn’t ask the right question and missed the bit about the 7 to 15 days on the website.  

By this point we are deflated and frustrated because we have no visa, it’s been 2 hours trying to get one, we are wet from running up and down the street in the rain and it has cost $60 in train fares.  Grrrh!!!!!!! 

Back to the drawing board.  We will have to try again in France when we are in one spot for a few weeks at one of the house sits.  That is going to be an issue in itself as far as location of the visa application office.  We couldn’t apply any sooner than September for the visas because they are only valid for 6 months from date of application so any sooner it would have expired during our stay. Grrh!!!!!!!