I just got this somewhat belittling e-mail from Viv Evans at the Visa application department of the Australian immigration office. Basically it said (in not exactly these words), “Hey dummy…. you got a Transaction Reference Number when you applied for your Visa… stupid. But well, considering you’re such an idiot… here it is anyway:”
I didn’t understand the hostility until I scrolled down and saw the e-mail I “wrote” to them that said I “didn’t recieve a transaction reference number at the time of my application, please send me it.”
Now the reality of the situation is that I just clicked the “I forgot my TRN, can you please send it to me” button on their Check The Status Of Your Visa page… sigh. The Australian government has them going in circles arguing robot created e-mails from their own system… and pinning the inadaquacies on me… sigh.
So yeah, the Visa’s all applied for – now all I need is the Shenyang Gang to reband and return with me to the Liaoning capital to get my chest x-ray. Appartently the Australian government hasn’t worked out any suitable doctors to provide this service in Dalian …
I’m going to try and combined this with one of the two visitors I have coming in the next month. Hopefully either Sarah or Sam will want to go up to Shenyang for a day or so. If not, well… it’s 8-10 hours on a train I’ll never get back, but there are worse things.
Speaking of visitors – Sarah is officially about 42 hours from arriving in Dalian. I’m a bit nervous that I’ll not be able to sufficiently entertain her and she’ll leave China wondering why she bothered… but at the same time, I think – wait… this is China…. it’s entertaining in and of itself… I’ve really very little I must do to make this an interesting trip. I’ll do what I can anyway.
In other news, it looks like I’m losing my roommate. Emma has decided that she would rather live on her own, and as myself and Matthew seem completely unwilling to live with each other, she’s just going to rent her own apartment. I think it’s likely for the best – she does seem to operate on a system that is very much unyielding to living with someone.
Oh, not sure that I mentioned that I started it, but myself, Matthew G. and Matthew B. watched the season finale of third season of The Shield tonight… it’s over – it’s really over. I am pretty sure the fourth season is running in the US right now… which means I’ll not be able to buy the DVDs while I’m still in China, which means I’ll be paying real prices for them… shit.
Anyway, it’s late… and though I’ve bugger all to do in the morning, I guess I should get to bed.
