On Monday this week I headed through to the SA Embassy first thing and joined the queue to get in there early and try sort my birth certificate with apostille stamp attached. It was the first time I'd heard of this stamp which is clearly very different to the Home Affairs stamp on it. As part of the requirements to getting married in Ireland is getting my birth certificate with this stamp. After an absolute headache and annoying few hours at the embassy I left there having submitted something but in the dark as to how long it would take - my guess being more than 6 months but worth a try.

Then yesterday I spoke to the folks who said they would try apply for me and see if Francis could help out at all with speeding things up. So this morning they headed up to Home Affairs first thing and, in what I can only describe as unbelievable, they left there after almost no time with a reprint of my birth certificate. That was followed by a trip to Pretoria to get the apostille stamp attached which was also find then and there. Absolutely amazing!

So the good news is we can go ahead with our original plan of getting married in Ireland and not having to look at plan B which is the local Peckham registry office beforehand. The only challenge now is finding someone coming over from Joburg to get it here...