Got the passport info in the mail Thursday afternoon. All four went in one envelope with reference numbers all over it to ensure there is no confusion about any paperwork included, along with a cover letter!!!!
Sent it airmail, with signature required. Didn't require me to take out a second mortgage to pay for the postage...LOL So all in all happy with that.
So now we wait.......Canada Post told me 6 business days for delivery in the UK. They did say there had been a number of these same envelopes going to the same address over the past few days from a lot of disgruntled people....no kidding!!!
Hubby, I and our two children were all born in the UK and despite us being Canadian citizens, we are also British citizens so we hold dual nationality. Imagine our surprise when we found out over the weekend that as of today, February 25th, 2026 we were no longer eligible to travel to the UK on our Canadian passports, that we had to have a UK Passport 😕ðŸ˜
These past few days have been interesting to say the least trying to sort all this out. We have family in the UK and my mother is getting up there in years, so the ability to travel to the UK is paramount. We have no intention of going this year, but I will be probably going next year to celebrate my mother's 80th birthday. Our daughter and family were there last year and we were all over in 2024 for a funeral.
We have ran into numerous issues sorting all this out but are slowly getting through the issues. Our last UK passports ran out in 2000, and the kids were on my passport at the time. Both kids are applying for their own passports, so they need my birth certificate to include with their paperwork. I need my birth certificate for my passport. No photocopies are allowed. Luckily the UK government were very prompt to our son's email enquiry about this and we are all sending our applications in together as a family group.
Because our UK passports had expired, we all need our parents dates of birth and places of birth, plus the info on whether they were married or not. Hubby is in his late 60's, his dad died 43 years ago, so he has no idea of their dates of birth etc. So when we put unknown he had to supply names, dates of birth etc of his grandparents, didn't know that either 😕All to prove he was born in the UK.
All these changes have been in the works for a while now, but were done very quietly. I hadn't heard of this happening. To my mind it's a total waste of time and a money grab, but what do I know??? It cost us just under 130 British Pounds which included 20 British pounds for courier costs from them to mail them back to us. I am praying and hoping it's for a 10 year passport, as that wasn't made clear?
Overall no one is impressed with this, especially as we have never ever had an issue entering or leaving the UK.
So if you hold a dual citizenship with the UK, don't even think of traveling to the UK without have a UK passport.
Went to the passport office last Wednesday, and it was delivered by Canada Post the following Tuesday.
Really glad we didn't pay extra for them to be rushed through. Excellent service I would say.
We could travel with a British Passport as well, but find it's as easy with just the Canadian one, plus it means going to downtown Toronto to get one of those and it's total gridlock downtown unless you use the subway.
Funny story, last time I was on the subway I was with our daughter and she told me off for talking to a stranger. It turns out that's something you don't do on a subway; who knew? Also I have no sense of direction at all on the subway, so am not allowed to go on it by myself!!!!
I wonder if we'll be getting another 10 year passport, as we'll be 70 and 76 when this one expires?
Our passports expire February 2025. As you can't travel with a passport that has less than six months on it before it expires, figured we may as well get them renewed well ahead of time, in case there was a delay.
As we have a CAA membership we got our photo's taken there. Mine was free and hubby's was just over $10. So if you have a CAA membership make sure you take advantage of that.
We completed hubby's Canadian pension application online and the CPP was easy peasy!! The OAS though, was another matter. The word that comes to mind with that form was "ambiguous." The way they worded some of the questions was confusing. They also required copies of our marriage certificate and immigration papers.
Both the pension and passports applications required a visit to the dreaded Service Canada office. Now depending on where you live this could be an all day job. However we were warned ahead of time not to visit our local office due to the long lines, and go to another office a 50 minute drive from the house.
Believe me when I say it was well worth the 50 minute drive, as we were in and out in under half an hour. The person we dealt with was so nice and very thorough. It helped that we had all our paperwork filled out and we brought with us exactly what they needed.
I will say though I felt that $160 CDN each for a 10 year passport was a little pricy; but it's a need not a want in our case. They told us it would be back within the month; but it will probably be back sooner, or so I have been told by other people.
As for the pensions; we'll hear back hopefully in the next month or two is everything is good with the paperwork. As we don't need either of them to start until January of 2025, there is plenty of time to fix any issues that may arise.
Oh and a funny story about the passport photos. We were going to get our photos taken the week before, but I ended up with a spot/zit on the middle of my forehead for some reason. I took one look at it and told hubby there was no way on earth I was having a passport photo taken with that huge zit on my face, and having to look at my passport photo for the next 10 years and seeing that zit!!!
As it happened the photo I took is actually a good photo. Meanwhile hubby looks like an escaped convict. As I said to the lady, oh no, he's going to get stopped going through customs with that photo!! She just laughed and said yes!!
Why? I have been busy with this and that, mainly the Facebook shop. I have to say it has been a success so far; BUT you never know how long that success will last, or when your next order will come in. I booked a craft show at a parent and teachers evening in October. It cost me $30 for the table........oh and you have to bring your own table....LOL I figured $30 wasn't a lot of outlay and I am quite confident I will sell $30 worth of stuff to cover the cost. However, who knows? If anyone has done craft shows, any do's and don't would be greatly appreciated. I actually got a little bit of sewing done for me this week. I made our grandson a bunny when he was born. Then made two more ..............who can forget scary bunny!! He has chewed that one to death, as it's a favourite!! I made him another, along with one for the chiropodist's newborn and one for the grands cousin. I am thinking about adding them to the shop?
I then made a couple of passport holders out of cork for dh and I. I will be making more for the shop and selling those at $15 each.
Just finished another custom order today for an I-Pad/Tablet holder. Lots of pockets in it and very sturdy.
Taking a class tomorrow on hand stitching quilts, which I have NO interest in, but I want to pick up some tips and tricks about the hand stitching, so I can incorporate that into my work I do in the shop. Will be back with show and tell after the class!! Have a good one........
I am a lazy cook. I spend as little time as possible in the kitchen, but I do like to cook. I tend to go into the kitchen at 4 pm and have dinner on the table by 5 pm. More often than not, it'll only take me half an hour to cook dinner, which I think is about as long as it should take in my humble opinion. So due to this "laziness" of mine, I try and do things to cut down on the prep. If you remember I picked up a club pack of ground beef (mince). A "club pack" means its a bigger than normal pack, which in this case was just under four pounds of ground beef. Paid $15.25 for it, as it was "on sale" at $3.99 per pound. Gone are the days when you could get lean ground beef for under $2 a pound {{SIGH}} So on Tuesday I decided I had better sort out this pack of ground beef. I cut up three large onions and browned them along with the ground beef in batches.
I also cooked a large pan of potatoes at the same time. I ended up with this:
A shepherd's pie, which also used up some mashed carrots and turnip. Six 8 oz bags of ground beef and onions and one 4 oz bag of ground beef and onions, all ready to pull out of the freezer when needed. I also have a large tupperware container of mashed potatoes and a bag of mashed potatoes that I am going to put in the freezer. When we were in Britain I picked up the following:
I used the shepherd's pie mix for the shepherd's pie. We can probably get all these mixes over here, just wanted to try them and at 1 British Pound for all three they were a good buy I thought. The 4 oz bag of beef and onion, will be used when I make the Bolognese, as I will "beef" it up with other veggies. Just having the packages of beef and onion and the mashed potatoes all ready to go will save me time in the kitchen and time wise it probably took less than two hours. Would have been less but the mail lady called by with my new Passport............no excuse why I can't fly now!!! {{{SIGH}}} By the way feeling much better.
If you haven't already entered my first ever blog giveaway, here is the link to it.
Just spoke to my brother and he got back safe and sound, although he landed at 7am in Glasgow Airport, so hit the rush hour traffic getting out of Glasgow. Still he's a truck driver, so he's used to driving in traffic.
Anyhow, it's a short and sweet post today, as I have a guy coming to service the furnace this morning; wanted to get that done before the cold weather starts and we have to switch the heating on. I would like to think we don't have to switch on the heating for another month or so yet.....we'll see.
Then I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon, and while we are in the city we need to get our passports renewed. So as I am typing this, I am printing out the forms online. Still have to get the photo's taken, but that won't take long.
We get Canadian passports, despite the fact we can have British ones. It's easier; however the Canadian passport is only for 5 years, whereas the British one is 10 years.
Have a great Thursday and hopefully I'll get a regular post done for you for tomorrow.
