you know how everything in the valley seems to be 20 minutes away from the next thing? that you'll always be there in 20 minutes.. well it seems like the newcastle equivalent would be 10 minutes, but that's beside the point. it seems as if everything around here gets done in about two weeks. like processing a check. like replying to a work-related email. like issuing a new credit card. like restocking the cannula trolley. like connecting to the internet.
mind you, installing new curtains take 2 months and planning a couple kilometers of bypass takes 10 years so i guess two weeks isn't that awful, relatively. urgh what am i saying! anj is absolutely right in saying that this place breeds mediocrity. pretty soon, this place will be an idiocracy. like my visa saga. it finally ended! it's about time..
the medicos had my health exam results finalized on monday the 19th, as promised. i'm not sure about the hand-delivered part but the results should've been on the linked computer systems. immigration didn't have a clue, telling me that my case worker only works monday weds thurs afternoons so give him some time and call back in another two weeks. they took it one step further when i wanted to complain about my case worker not replying emails by saying that there aren't really case workers anymore. whoever's free processess the next job in the line. pfffft.
so anyway, i was feeling magnanimous. they were swamped with visa applications after all, as they keep telling me. i let them peacefully go through 2 whole working days without a peep from me! woohoo! when i called 'em up this morning and explained the whole situation for the fifteenth time by now, the guy curtly said they were swamped, call back in two weeks time. dude!! wtf! i yelled... in my head. i audibly continued the rest of the sentence telling him i didn't have two weeks to spare with an application deadline pending. well whaddya know. five minutes later, intermittently listening to the stomach-churning pre-recorded propaganda about becoming an australian citizen, i get the churlish voice back on the phone.
"are you there?"
no, i went to take a bath. no shit, i'm here.
"found. approved and emailed your new visa"
hallelujah. five frickin minutes to do all that. holy cow, batman! the guy completed three different tasks without any prior preparation! think of what they could accomplish in 15 minutes if they would just get their act together! australia would win the nuclear race! /sarcasm.
for those of you who've read the previous post on inefficiency, don't get confuzzled. this wasn't efficiency at all. that was merely an example of normalcy, something else sorely lacking in this fresh hell. with intern allocation preference forms due soon, i don't expect to be as disappointed as i first thought if i don't end up getting to stay here. a fresh start in a fresh hell.. will it be a matter of jumping from the pan into the fire? i'll let you know in two weeks.
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