Jason’s visa finally came through! Thursday morning a woman called for Jason regarding the visa. I spent a frantic 20 minutes figuring out how to bleep him thinking that something else had gone wrong. It turned out that the paperwork was done and we could pick it up- in Sheffield
The DfES, Department for Education and Skills, closed at 5.00 and the train got us there at 4.38. Thinking it would be a long but potentially pretty drive we decided to drive. Turns out, either way we were screwed.
Storm Kryill lifted roofs off of homes, turned lorries on their sides, and blew down brick walls. There was footage of Dutch people being blown off their bicycles and stranded boats being blown out to sea. It was the worst windstorm to hit Britain in a decade with winds up to 100mph. It was on this day that it took us 7 hours- 7 HOURS – to drive 147 miles to Sheffield. We didn’t make it by 5.00.
The traffic was unfathomable. At one point the entire highway was shut down in both directions. No idea why. It just was. At another point we were stop-and-go for 2.5 hours for no reason that we could discern. It was pouring in Sheffield and, as luck would have it, there were conferences. Three hotels later, drenched and without toothbrushes, we got a hotel room at the swankiest hotel in town.
By 8ish we had borrowed toothbrushes from the front desk and gone in search of dinner. On a seemingly deserted street we found an Ethio-Cuban restaurant.
Did you know there was such a thing? It was surprisingly good. BUT the BEST part of the day. I found my new favorite tv show. Its “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” meets “Who’s Line” meets “Daily Show.” Mock the Week- the best show on BBC 2. Ever wonder where John Oliver came from????
In the morning we walked to the DfES and pretended not to know eachother because it is illegal for Jason to have any dependents. At 9.05 they came downstairs to have him sign his shiny new visa and, wait a second, wouldn’t you know it..the passport number was incorrect. At 9.45 Jason finallysigned off and we were able to go home.
The drive home took 2.5 hours. That’s it. No traffic. No closures. Nothing.
No comments:
Post a Comment