alexist

I think my in-laws think I'm a mad cat woman.

"Sir will not be leaving work until 18:00 due to, er, the wrong type of Weetabix on the line."

(referring to himself, I was referring to him in the 3rd person in an e-mail)

This morning I went to the DVLA. The trip there was OK. The 221 bus is very good. From North Finchley to Edgware it goes down all these residential streets so it's very fast. It's kind of funny; this whole segment of the route is the kind of posh leafy suburbia that's normally a transport desert (there's a big chunk of this in my area) but because the first part of the route is Turnpike Lane to North Finchley, it gets a double decker and fast service instead of the usual single decker every 20 minutes. Edgware bus station is surprisingly large. Found 79 bus (3 buses go to Canons Park, but I wanted the one that actually goes down Honeypot Lane).

As we were going down Honeypot Lane I saw a sign saying "Vehicle Registration Office" and assumed it meant DVLA. The next part was fun. The indicated turn was an apparent dead end onto a field. It was helpfully signposted as follows:

http://alexis.spodding.com/Images/sign.jpg

From there it was another few hundred yards down this road, then another left and up to the offices. They really didn't seem to think that people would do anything but drive there.

Anyway, got in. It was jammed. I took a ticket: 253. Now serving: 187. I waited a bit, saw that the queue was moving at a snail's pace, and said screw it. I'll go back first thing in the morning. The thing is, I just need my photographs and application countersigned--since I've been here less than 2 years (and hence don't have anyone to sign for me) DVLA do it :/ All the documents still have to go to Swansea.

After that, went into town (forgot Canons Park is Zone 5, wondered why my Oystercard wouldn't work, then finally twigged and added some prepay) and bought a wok (35cm, sick of trying to do stir fries in my frying pan) and a new meat thermometer (Neil broke the old one). Oxford Circus station was closed with a sign saying "emergency". I guessed that because there weren't loads of police, it was just Oxford Circus and got a bus to TCR. I was right. :)

Now home and I've realized I forgot to defrost the chicken for dinner. D'oh!