To plan or not to plan – that is the question

It was a peculiar feeling, wandering under the watchful and amazed eyes of those determined enough to brave the queues and prices that allowed them to ascend the London Eye - as opposed to those who’s eyes have yet to gaze down from it's dizzying heights at the bustling South Bank below.

It’s not often I find myself back, side-stepping and shoulder-dodging like only a Londoner at heart knows how to do. However, as I was meandering alongside the Thames today, I couldn’t help but fight against the urge to fall back into my natural London default of head down and walk, as I found myself nostalgic for the sights, smells and sounds of the thriving culture that is Central London.

For, you see, I had actually managed to get in and (with visa in hand) out of the Chinese Visa Application Center in under half an hour! Meaning I was blessed with over four hours to make my way to Earlsfield for a goodbye dinner with my old friend Kizzy.

As such, I was able to take a stroll past the many pubs, bars, food stalls, street performers, boats, restaurants, musicians and crowds that make up South Bank during the summer holidays; and actually enjoying the experience rather than muttering under my breath about those in my way, as I push on to my destination.

The real question is, how did I end up with an afternoon that allowed me the time to enjoy the South Bank and have time to sit and write this entry, while soaking up the sun in the beautiful beer garden of the Leather Bottle in Earlsfield, when, by all accounts, I should be frantically making sure I’m ready to set off on my adventures in just over a week!

Well the simple answer is I, stupidly in hindsight, based my estimate on how long the collection of my visa would take on my experience of dropping my application off.

Which I can now tell you are vastly different experiences or, at least, were in my case.

Although I found myself leaving the Centre in under an hour on the day of my application, it was for vastly different reasons…

Having run two blocks in the pouring rain, after leaving Bank tube station by the wrong exit, I found myself even less likely to make my appointment than just by my train being delayed by 25 minutes. I was confronted by a single receptionist rushing to reduce the growing line in front of her.

My heart beat, finally returning to a normal rhythm as I approached the front of the line, quickly sunk as the receptionist couldn’t find me on the system.

Dread!!!

Leaving myself only two and half weeks to get a visa that recommends at least a month was coming back to bite me in the arse.

I was quickly ushered to a desk where it was explained to me that the application I had brought with me, printed out as requested, was for the Hong Kong not the London office, which I very much was in.

I frantically tried to explain that I had indeed applied to the London office and the reason the code had changed was because the morning after I had completed my application online I was told by the tour company that the flights in and out of Hong Kong I had listed were superfluous.

What was really required were the trains I would be taking to enter and leave mainland China. As such I was sent a link to redo my application before my appointment the following day.

Well, a fat lot of good that link did!

I sat there shocked as the woman behind the desk explained that flights to and from Hong Kong were perfectly fine but the new application could not possibly be processed in London due to it being a HKG rather than a LON application form.

Desperately I plead “what can I do?”

She replied that IF I had indeed originally submitted a London application and IF I could re-download that application from the website and IF I could run to Rymans and get it printed and IF my original appointment, which by that point was hours past, was still free, I could possibly still submit my application without having to re-book for a later date.

So after another run in the rain, a desperate attempt to download a corrupted file, followed by an even more desperate scroll through my recently deleted files, I luckily struck gold in the form of my original London application. Rushing back, I was able to squeeze into one of the last spots available and get my application submitted enabling me to pick it up today.

Leaving me once again sitting, reflecting that this ordeal should be a lesson that poor planning leads to undue stress and runs in the rain. While a well executed plan, even if with over estimated times, leads to a chance to enjoy a city you’ve travelled your whole life in, in a new light… as well as a lovely pub garden and pint.

Yet, fully aware that my nature will still undoubtably lead me to leave things too late and poorly planned, who knows, maybe that’s what make the rare times I am not rushing around, that much more enjoyable!!!

Having said that, I’m hoping my next update will be coming as I sunbathe on a traditional Dhoni boat in the Maldives, having had a seamless departure to my adventure as planned.

Guess we shall see…