Monday, July 31, 2006

Mission Impossible

I give up!

I think we'll just have to live with money under a mattress, on some roadside without a phone or any other form of communication. Ok ... maybe the money can stay in a bank now that we've actually managed to get a bank account.. but the mattress and no phone bit seems like it'll happen.

I had expected to face red tape when I moved here, but having dealt with bureaucracy in France and India, I thought I had seen the worst. I could not have been further from the truth. Ofcourse, it doesn't help that patience is not one of my virtues.

As if it was not enough of a nightmare getting a decent place to live! After going to see a l-o-t of houses, we finally found a lovely house. Then after a quick bidding war, we lost the house before we even began to comprehend what was happening. So another round of house viewing and being a week away being thrown house of the serviced apartment.. we decided on a place. Not the ideal place.. but it will do for a year - beggars can't be choosers!

Just as we thought the worst was over we get into the pre contract phase where we need a reference from the employer, bank, our previous landlord in UK and everyone else possible! There is no ex-landlord since we've just moved here and a few frantic calls to the bank later we got to know that we can get a reference after we've been their clients for atleast five years! The employers letter won't do, bank statements won't do .. so this would be a good time to go and get a comfortable mattress and look for some place to plonk it.

The mobile phone connection is another story. As if the number of confusing schemes was not enough. After we finally manage to select a scheme and a phone its their turn to demand another hundred documents including addresses of our residences in UK for the last three years. Which part of - we shifted here two months ago - did they not understand?

It just goes on and on :( There's already been the bank account, credit card and national insurance we've been through. And to think that when we do manage to get through this phase we still have the landline connection, broadband and endless other challenges just waiting there to test our patience!

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