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My sister and niece just came over for brunch, and my niece seemed quite fascinated by our musical instruments. Like many toddlers her piano playing leans towards the avant-garde jazz style, but after a few false starts she was starting to get the hang of which end of the recorder you need to blow into to make a sound. Actual fingering of notes may be a way off, but she was having fun, and also seemed to take pleasure in listening to me play, which was reassuring.
Yesterday the new church treasurer came over and I have now handed all the files and logins over to him, which is quite a weight off my shoulders. I suspect I'll still need to be around to answer questions as he starts to get up to speed, but it's good to know that the buck no longer stops with me.
The saga of applying for a visa rumbles on. I've now managed to gather together all the documents I need except one, which should be in the post reasonably soon, but the latest hurdle is actually getting an in person appointment to lodge the application (which is needed because they take fingerprints). As far as I can tell, demand for appointments is just much higher than supply, and despite following the agencies instructions to log in and check morning afternoon and evening for about a month, there have never been any slots available in London. It's now slightly past the point at which I could guarantee that they'll have processed my application within the 90 day window they commit to, although apparently actual turnaround is usually closer to 4-6 weeks if all the documents in order, but I recently realised that there doesn't seem to be quite as much demand for the appointments in Manchester and Edinburgh. Of course, by the time I realised this, the only slots that were available even there were whilst I'm going to be in France, but it does look as though I'll probably be able to book one for the Monday after I get back - hopefully Manchester, but maybe there'll be a day trip all the way to Scotland...
Yesterday the new church treasurer came over and I have now handed all the files and logins over to him, which is quite a weight off my shoulders. I suspect I'll still need to be around to answer questions as he starts to get up to speed, but it's good to know that the buck no longer stops with me.
The saga of applying for a visa rumbles on. I've now managed to gather together all the documents I need except one, which should be in the post reasonably soon, but the latest hurdle is actually getting an in person appointment to lodge the application (which is needed because they take fingerprints). As far as I can tell, demand for appointments is just much higher than supply, and despite following the agencies instructions to log in and check morning afternoon and evening for about a month, there have never been any slots available in London. It's now slightly past the point at which I could guarantee that they'll have processed my application within the 90 day window they commit to, although apparently actual turnaround is usually closer to 4-6 weeks if all the documents in order, but I recently realised that there doesn't seem to be quite as much demand for the appointments in Manchester and Edinburgh. Of course, by the time I realised this, the only slots that were available even there were whilst I'm going to be in France, but it does look as though I'll probably be able to book one for the Monday after I get back - hopefully Manchester, but maybe there'll be a day trip all the way to Scotland...
