My Passport has come back! + Free Guided Tour

(December 3rd, in the Library)

• On November 28th, I got an email in the morning from TFL(Transport For London) Lost Property Office, which told me that they had found my lost passport and could return it to me. As you can imagine, I became really happy to read that message. At the same time, I remember that I filled in the inquiry form on the TFL's web page (https://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/contact/lostproperty/default.aspx) and had sent my inquiry to them on the day when I lost my passport. However, there is information about their policy on it that if any contacts from TFL Lost Property Office are not made within 21 days, that means they couldn't find the item you inquired. Therefore, I've already given up the idea that they might find my passport, because, as of November 21st when I went to the Embassy of Japan to apply for a new passport, almost 4 weeks or longer have passed since that bad day. In other words, the 21-days rule had made me wait for any procedures to get a new passport until November 21st. But, contrary to my expectation, they have finally found my passport, and let me know almost one month after I made an inquiry. At first, I called the Embassy Office to ask for any advice in my case, that is to say, I'm supposed to have two passports. The office lady on the phone kindly understood my case, and gave me instructions to bring the old one so that they can invalidate it. Of course, I asked her if I could still use my old passport by cancelling my application for a new one so that I don't have to pay any money. But, she said it was impossible because a new one had already been issued. Thus, I was convinced that I had to pay 68 pounds for a new passport, or, rather for my stupid failure. As for my student visa pasted on the old passport, she told me that it was still valid. So when I go through the Immigration at any airport, I need to show both old and new passports, that is, new one for a passport itself and old one for my student visa. Next, I called TFL Lost Property Office to ask what I should do to get back my lost passport. The woman at the issue desk told me that first I had to come to the office, which is located in Baker Street, and then pay 4 pounds for a fee charged for restoration. Thus, I was equipped for getting my old passport.
  
• I could have gone to the two offices straightway in the morning on that day. But, I wanted to participate in Free Guided Tour at 1pm. So I decided to go to Holborn station first, where the tour was going to start. Now I put the reason first why I got interested in it; in the third and fourth week in November, we discussed Charles Dickens's Bleak House in our seminar. In order to attend the seminars, I had needed to read it, and most of the previous weeks had been spent on reading the novel. That was really tough and challenging experience for me. But, I could manage to finish reading it anyway, and I really enjoyed the story and its fictional world. I had been fully absorbed in Bleak House for those two weeks. In the first session of the seminar, my professor told us he would join the Guided Tour for Dickens the following day. Then, a few days after the first meeting, I got an email forwarded to the students in the course from our professor through the postgraduate administrator, which told us that by an astonishing coincidence the Guided Tour specialized in Bleak House would be held on 28th Friday. So I was really happy to get the information, and readily decided to take part in it. The brochure can still be downloaded from http://inholborn.org/app/webroot/files-user/files/WalksJunAug(1).pdf, which I got at the previous night. So on that day, first I had a really good time by visiting the relevant sites of the Bleak House world through the tour with intelligible explanation. I thought that I had had the best part of studying English literature on the spot. Although it was raining during the walk, I think I had been a bit excited by such a wonderful experience for those 45 minutes.
  
• After the tour, I hurried over to TFL Lost Property Office by bus and walk. I didn't know exactly where the office was, so I took a bus to Oxford Circus for the starting point because I had known that Baker Street is located north of Selfridge in Oxford Street. But I had to walk a lot to get around there. And I found later that I should have taken a tube because the office was right next to one of the exits of the Baker Street station. It was 3:30 pm when I left the office with my old passport in my backpack. Next, the closing time of the Embassy, which was 4:30 pm, compelled me to take a tube to Green Park Station. Thanks to the underground, I made it eventually. I was really busy with these experiences on that day, but I think all of them have taught me quite good lessons in any way.
• The picture below shows the building in 58 Lincoln's Inn Fields, in which the solicitor Mr. Tulkinghorn is supposed to live in the fictional world of Bleak House, and in real life Dickens's friend John Forster used to live.