General Discussion Thread – 25 November 2025

2 comments

1. Just cleaned out the father-in-law’s old house. He still uses the storefront for business but gave me the ultimatum that if I clear the back out, I can use it as my hobby space. Well, I cleaned that place out and now have a room where I can put my golf gear and also have a full on ski tuning room. Complete with an AC for heating and some old speakers he used when he did DJ stuff in the past.

   Now I have so many trash bags that it is going to take weeks, maybe even months to get rid of everything. It’s all sitting there, ready to go every trash day, little by little. I off-loaded a lot by donating things (they even took an old surfboard!) but it is still a lot to do.

2. I just renewed my UK passport. Key takeaways.

   * It was dead easy compared to 10 years go.
   * Every is online. You can take the picture on your phone and get it instantly validated (as probably OK).
   * Registered mail to the UK takes a long time. The letter remained in Narita for several days and also took time to clear in the UK. I would factor in over a week at least for the postage side. The good thing is that with registered mail,you can get online updates about where exactly your letter is. You can even see the scrawl that the person who received it wrote when they signed for it.
   * Along with the tracking of your letter, your passport application status is also available online and if anything changes they immediately send you an SMS and/or email.
   * My application was processed in two business days. I’m not sure whether that was because I left it to almost the last minute to reapply. I would definitely not do that again.

   My first renewal in Japan required three trips to the British Embassy. One to pick up the form, one to apply in person and one to pick up the passport. I’ll never forget the voice of the Japanese receptionist at the British Embassy who sounded like she had been educated at a very expensive British girls school.

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