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Miranda's US passport renewal
Today we all took the day off to visit the US Consulate in Edinburgh: Miranda's passport expired and for renewals the child must attend in person with both parents. In the UK adults may renew passports by courier to the US Embassy in London; in the US one sends passport applications in a special kind of in-person interaction at certain post offices. Anyhow, we took the direct train from Perth and it was my first time crossing the Forth Bridge. It was cool and sunny and everything went quite smoothly. On our way back out we picked up some sushi in the Princes Mall Shopping Centre which seems a nice indoor mall to have near the railway station; it even has a proper post office, rather than consisting only of one of these counters at the back of WHSmith.
There were quite a few families at the consulate: for not only passport renewals but also registrations of births of US citizens abroad, that kind of thing. There was an entertaining moment outside when a family ahead of us included a daughter who realized that she'd accidentally brought a penknife. I was surprised that perimeter security was provided by G4S but I suppose that it is fairly usual for US consulates to use local private security.
There were quite a few families at the consulate: for not only passport renewals but also registrations of births of US citizens abroad, that kind of thing. There was an entertaining moment outside when a family ahead of us included a daughter who realized that she'd accidentally brought a penknife. I was surprised that perimeter security was provided by G4S but I suppose that it is fairly usual for US consulates to use local private security.