..and experienced British bureaucracy

Ugh. I had to take an extended lunch today to have my National Insurance number interview at the Department of Work and Pensions. I ended up spending almost an hour and a half at their office so, including transportation both ways, my “lunch” lasted almost two and a half hours (and I didn’t actually get to eat during that time).

I exited the Underground and, totally disoriented (as I tend to be after leaving any Tube station), I proceeded to walk in the opposite direction of the office. I wouldn’t have gone in the wrong direction had there been any street signs within 500 yards of the station! That’s one of the things I hate about London. Americans can bitch about lack of signage/confusing signs all they like, but at least we generally have signs to begin with!! In London, you’re lucky if you can find a single road sign at an intersection, and if you do find one, it’s never in the same place as in the last intersection, and the size and style of the signs varies depending on age. I don’t think anyone can drive around this city without getting lost.

Anyway, I managed to make it to the office right at the exact time of my appointment. To make a long story short, first they mixed up my name with someone else (a Karolina Petrovsky), then after 25 minutes they realized their error, then I had to wait some more, then they finally saw me for the interview, then I had to wait again to get my passport back. All the while my poor co-worker Jo was covering the reception desk for me. Thank god I had warned her about the interview.

Our landlord finally came and fixed the settings for the radiators… sort of. The settings seem to have been changed for weekdays, but the damn things were still running all weekend. Now he has to come back to figure it out. Assuming he gets it fixed hopefully we won’t run out of gas in the middle of the month again. For now, we don’t have gas until he adds more money to our gas card on the 1st. Why gas service here is pay-as-you-go I will never understand.