Amazingly, we got our passports back on Friday morning – under 48 hours after the interview – result.  We now have four passports with four VISA’s inside.

We have cleaned out a large proportion of old clothes from both Simon’s and Vicky’s wardrobes.  It is amazing how much stuff we have that we have not worn in more than a couple (yes a couple) of years…. Simon is clearly a hoarder 🙂

Grandma and Bernard came over on Saturday to baby sit while Simon and Vicky went out with Kerrie, Drew, Yvonne and Mark – had a great meal etc.  Apparently the boys behaved impeccably….. y, OK !

Finally – a game of guess who – can you guess who this is?

Yesterday was the big interview at the US Embassy.  It took a couple of hours but we are in 🙂

We (Vicky and Simon) stayed in London on Tuesday night to ensure that we could get to the embassy nice and early – appointment was for 8am – we were there at 7:40.  We were given a ticket (number N115 if it matters) and we began to wait.  The counters opened at 8:10am and in honesty they were really quick. 25 minutes later we were called up, and the lady began to process our documents.  And then the question came – “where is your kajdhfdskjf878?” Simon’s classic response – “erm, what?”.  Then she checked the documents again and then said that we had been given the wrong ticket – we are there for an E2 Visa and not a standard N visa… Great, so we had to go back to the beginning and start again.

So, we now had ticket E903 (again, for those who are interested) and then sussed out that although there were 8 counters open, and only 2 people in front of us (E900 was already done, and E901 was just starting), we found that ONLY ONE of the damned counters were doing E2 visas!!!

So, 45 minutes later and we were being seen.  All systems go, and we would be getting the second interview shortly.  a further 30 minutes and we were given the all clear, asked to pay $420 and then a further £35 for delivering the passports back to us in 10 days 🙂

As well as this – we saw Dermot O’Leary applying for a visa of some description

So, we are all set now.

We have also figured out that HSBC offer some bank accounts that we can use to minimise the cost of money transfers between UK and US – so we have an appointment setup to proceed (subject to all being satisfactory of course)

The letting agent came around today and will be coming back in the next week or so to take photos and measure up etc.

Now all we need is for a buyer for the cars…..

We all went swimming this morning.

We just played at home all afternoon and got an early night – well the boys did.

We have packed up the crystal tonight and sorted through Elliot’s old clothes to set Olly up with a few and to figure what is left and then prepare to move it on.  There is an awful lot unfortunately – we definitely spent a lot of cash on designer clothes and the like.  Oh well, can’t take it with us…

The 7 has been on sale for 6 days and not a single bite 🙁  Wondering whether the £14k is too much obviously – but think not – think it is just a case of big car takes time…. Hoping anyway..

We have made good progress during the week with a realtor in the bay area so hopefully our home will be much easier and quicker to locate when we head out there in a month. Visa interview this Weds and then we are all set.

We are thinking that we will take not much with us and hence minimise on what we end up shipping out to CA.  Just about toys and clothes really. Oh, and Simon’s computers…

Swimming tomorrow morning hopefully.