Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Praise for American bureaucracy

I take back everything nasty I've ever said about American bureaucratic institutions. Well everything that is except for the stuff that was true or deserved, or both, which was, sadly, most of it. Those lovely people at the US Embassy in London have given me back my passport, they even went so far as to stick a visa in the passport for me. There is quite a stark contrast between the washed and unwashed visas, the old one really looks quite shabby. Comparing the two I'm amazed they didn't tell me to take a hike and get a new passport.

So there we go all it takes is a ten day holiday in London (during which I was working most days, sadly) and about £80, or $145, to get oneself a shiny, well more matte really, new visa so one can return home to Ohio. Before I do return, there is just enough time for me to spend the weekend in Geneva. I'm quite looking forward to going back there and maybe having a spot to eat at l'Aviation or La Meyrinoise (the owners of which used to run the infamous Pizza D'Oro).

On the subject of Geneva, this Swiss map site is fantastic. If you click on Gastronomy it even shows you the locations of the restaurants. It's like Google Maps only better, and for Switzerland. I also find it rather amusing that the world stops at the Swiss-French border according to the map.

In other news, because I'm stupid I bought a new English phone this week. I'm even stupid enough to do it three hours before I was meant to be getting a text message from a friend telling me when she'd be meeting me for a coffee. Fortunately the phone decided to start working about half an hour before she sent me the message. So, I'm now the proud (?) owner of a swanky little camera-phone phone. I feel such a ponce.

In yet more news, I've got to work out where City Airport is and how I can get there before 8:00am on Friday. I've resolved not to throw up on the way to the airport this time. I think this is possibly a resolution I can keep.

No comments: