Day 07 - This isn't going too well at all! Saturday May 20th

Another less than perfect sleep and once connected to the internet, a bombshell email.  Paula’s Russian dance teacher, on a work permit in NZ, Artur, needed a visa to visit the UK for 48 hours.  The Blackpool organisers had to send a confirmation letter to Artur, that he was coming to the event, which he had to produce at the Auckland office for the UK consulate – or whatever it is called.

The letter from the UK didn’t in fact arrive until May 9^th (even though the 7 kiwi ladies had to have their entries in by March 24^th.) The dance school principal. Kingsley, went with Artur and lodged the application and paid an extra $355 on top of the $160, for a fast track, 5 day processing fee May 9th.  The passport has been lost…  Could be in Auckland, Manilla or who knows where, but despite strenuous efforts to resolve it, the chances of him even making it to Blackpool are about 99.9% against at the moment.

This is of course devastating to all 7 ladies who have spent thousands on lessons, travel, accommodation and entry fees for a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience.  The office is closed for the weekend and they were due to fly out Sunday, NZ time…

Kingsley has even emailed the local MP (Minister for Culture and Arts) to see if someone could get into the office.

So with heavy heart, we called on Stewart and Noah, had a bite and a coffee (Costa!) and then headed out in the sunshine for a game of crazy golf at ‘Pirate’s Island’.

Half way round, we had to seek shelter as it rained.  Oh dear.  More rain on this trip so far than the total UK days we’ve spent over the last 30 years. 

Fortunately, it cleared and we carried on and it was won by Stewart – of course, yet Noah was the only person to get a hole in one.

We then headed for Brookfields and it was Stewart’s turn to sample the meat pie.

After dropping them off home, we crashed out again for yet another nana nap.  We are looking forward to the luxury of a decent night’ sleep sometime soon. 

Sue had invited us around for the evening so Dave ensured I did some ukulele practice, whilst he played guitar.

Back to the AirBnb, thankfully for the last time, as it hasn’t been the best of choices.  The last pic shows the total lack of hanging space, towels on the door, 1 suitcase on the floor, the other is at Sues.

A check of the emails before bed and despite pleas of various sorts, the NZ dancers heading to Blackpool are unlikely to have Artur, their teacher.  The passport appears to be ‘lost’.  We know that some dancers are on their way and without email access so won’t yet know about the change of hotel or the fact that Artur won’t be there.  This is shaping up to be an interesting situation and the full story will probably mean some finger pointing, with the UK being the bad guys in all of this, with Blackpool being slow but the NZ based Consulate and their systems (or lack of them) being the focus of the current finger-pointing.  What will the girls do about their dancing?  The mind boggles.  An email to their former teacher, UK based Richard, was the first thought, but he is unable to make it.

We are off to Blackpool tomorrow anyway, determined to be positive.  So far, every cloud had had some form of silver lining.  Fingers crossed.