Continuation...

  ... so after the questions we were told to come back at 4pm for the visa and to go pay at a different booth. We paid in cash only, I find it very strange that they dont take cards there, and then left to wander around for a few hours until it was time to come back to pick up the visa in my passport.

We took the tube to hyde park, which was only a few minutes walk away we were told after swiping our oyster card, and wandered over to Kensington mosque to pray Dhuhr. Then we walked over to hyde park to play with the camera and relax on the grass, we had tons of fun that day alhamdulillah. We played for awhile and then it was time for asr.. we stayed in that area as there was a mosque close by.. ok so it was a mosque that hubby didnt have the best experiences with but it was a mosque and he was able to pray in congregation alhamdulillah.. that was the important part. After Asr we leisurely strolled back to the Embassy to pick up my visa, sitting inside the marqee waiting for the official people was quite interesting.. I was obviously the only non pakistani there until a pale girl walked in (and by pale I mean she was caucasian in a nice way) who actually came to pick up a pakistani passport much to our amusement and nosiness ;) So we eventually got it, yes its in my passport.. still questionning why they need 2 photos with the application yes the actual visa has no image ;)
After that we wandered back to the park for more photos before maghrib, it was so nice to get out and about just the two of us out of the usual four walls, we do miss that.. we used to spend all our time outside before we got married. We prayed maghrib and was about to make our way through the park to walk up to Edgware Road, then out of the blue I got an unusual photo call asking for someone who was obviously not me. When I told the caller they had the wrong number the lady on the other end told me she hadnt and asked for my name. When she called back I asked my husband to answer it, after which he began a long conversation with this person and when he got he he quickly told me we had left our marriage certificate at the embassy. He ran back there while I quickly walked ;) before the building closed at 6pm.. alhamdulillah we got it back much to my embarassement *blush*
Then we made our way back through the park to walk up to the arab quarter of London on Edgware road for cake :) There is a particular shop that we used to frequent alot in our pre wedding days, which sells good cheap halal meaty food for hubby, yummy spinach fatayer for me and delish chocolate for us both with good mint tea ;) yummy!! mouth watering just thinking of it all. We sat for awhile, had chocolate cake and mint tea, took a few photos, chatted about the day still not believing that they didnt give us the marriage certificate back and how much of a hassle it would have been if we didnt get it back that day. After announcing that we were both nicely full we decided to head home :)

What an adventurous and much needed day out in the capital masha'Allah
Ammena