Bright was the day but my heart was grey when I sallied forth again to do battle with Medicare Burwood.
Twice had I queued in the carpeted purgatory on the top floor of Westfield, and twice had I been thrown back by the gatekeepers of the Sacred Plastic. This time, however, I was armed with a phone number and a name of someone at head office, who promised to wield the Flaming Pen of Bureaucratic Smackdown if I was given any more shit.
I told the damsel at the desk that I had lived in the UK immediately prior to coming to Australia and I needed a new RHCA card. I gave her my passport. I said I’d changed visa class, and it was purely electronic and therefore there was no stamp in my passport, but look—here’s the email. And she got up to get her manager and I said “Bring her out here, and call this number, and speak to this person.”
And the manager did come out, and saith “Look, it says NZ Citizen”. And I said yes, I am the spouse of an NZ Citizen, but I’m not one. And she saith “Look, it says NZ Citizen”. And I said “(Family Relationship)”. And she saith “Look, it says NZ Citizen” and I didst refrain from inflicting violence but told her to just call the number, and they’d sort it.
“Call the number,” saith the Manager to her minion, “and talk to Michelle.”
“No!” I said. “Call the number and talk to Jalisa. As it says on the piece of paper.”
And the damsel did call, and she saith into the telephone, “Hello Michelle, can I talk to Jalisa, please?” and I resisted the urge to punch the air and shout “Score!”.
Five minutes later the Manager had slunk back to her lair, the fair damsel was all smiles, and I had my receipt. “It’s confusing,” she said, “because it says NZ Citizen.”
“(Family Relationship),” said I, but very quietly.
Verily I say, wielding a UK passport in front of the
eejitsfair damsel should have been a bit of a clue… muppets!!!And, what’s more, you could have wielded the magic spell in the flyleaf of the British passport that exhorts (the phrase is ‘requests and requires), in the name of Her Majesty, no
fewerless, all authorities to afford the bearer such assistance as may be necessary. Or she’ll send the Duke of Edinburgh to Sort Them Out.I could, Henry: but I fear I would have looked like a Complete Tit.
No change there, then.
“Print will fade if stored with plastic” What? Is this a new kind of plastic?
Better not tuck it down your bra, Richard.
I recently got my Permanent Residence Permit for Finland (a small victory for an EU national after only 6 years) – the woman dealing with me was remarkably stoney at first, but visibly softened when it turned out that I had all the necessary paperwork and was all smiles by the end. I didn’t mention I only had some of the paperwork by accident. Didn’t seem fair to spoil her day.
Cheers! Finally, the system works…
Hurray! Now you can get sick! (Don’t get sick.)
Australia must be having a good week: they also let my sister know that she can come in, well within the promised time line, and they only mixed up her home town with a misspelling of her place of birth, but that’s pretty good, for bureaucracy.
P.S. How can I claim my rebate at the doctor’s?
Richard – congratulations mate. Now when are you leaving the country again?
I believe you deserve extra bonus points for (a) using the term ‘damsel’, and (b) apparently not incurring The Wrath Of Kate(TM) for doing so.
Now, if I may hijack your comments slightly, everybody should go and read this post about our crappy federal government, who we can’t really blame for healthcare here (it’s provincially administered – note to Richard: don’t emigrate here unless you want to repeat all of your frustrations with OzMedicare). And we thank you.
Eva, I don’t know. I still don’t understand it, which is why I don’t deal with financial matters in our household. It’s simple really: I earn money and Kate spends it. Anything more than that is a Dark Magick.
That’s terrible, Winty. I only have to survive another 6 weeks here before having to deal with our own, specialized British bureaucracy.
At least we speak the same language (although it’s probably all done through call centres in India and they’ll ask me about football and Eastenders and I’ll be forced to swear sotto voce.
)
oops. Mustn’t leave a parenthesis unclosed. Bad Things(TM) happen.
Yes. Jenny is likely to make some comment about toilet seats, for one thing.
Oi, I heard that.
Richard> … and I wonder if it is March 11 2009 that the date is indicating? I am so confused on how dats are written all over the world that I even did wrong the other day when I was ntrying to date the letter in Swedish.
but if you are saying that the move is 6 more weeks, March seems likely. Good luck!!
I’ll have you know I’m perfectly house-trained.
No
EvaÅsa, that’s the proper format (guys: either smallest -> largest or largest -> smallest. Not some hideous hybrid, please). Third November, which makes no sense to me at all. (I didn’t tell them I was leaving the country, that would have really confused matters.I am going to take advantage of everyone’s recent luck with administrative things, and go into the Dutch consulate tomorrow to get my passport renewed. Need to ride along on this wave of Kafka-karma.
Woohoo! Let us know how it goes—we’re all rooting for you.
It’s simple really: I earn money and Kate spends it
Bah humbug!
that’s the proper format (guys: either smallest → largest or largest → smallest
I am going to ignore the whoel E to Å 😉
Like I said, my way of oing it is 2009-01-30 …. very understandingly.Or sometimes you will write 30th of January 2009 if you type if out, still very understandably 🙂
Well, you
CanadiansNorwegians are a bit weird anyway.Well played sir. I hope you retain good health while you are there.
I think I will follow Eva’s lead and renew my passport tomorrow and get my Visa for China while I am at it. I can only wait till we get state-sponsored health care here in the U.S.
Oooh. Do let us know how it all pans out!
Regarding dates, I dimly remember learning that the SI-approved method is 01 February 2008 (with no punctuation), which numerically would be 01/02/2008. It’s really only Americans who insist on putting the month first.
That said, in documents like letters, I tend to use February 1, 2008, because it just looks nicer.
This may not actually be relevant to the topic at hand.
I am now passportless. They took my old one and made me pay money, and I have to wait 2 weeks and then come back and get my new one.
Ooh, scary stuff Eva… I hope it all goes smoothly and you become a real person again soon!
Richard, I usually write the month out (full or abbreviated) just to avoid confusion. Unless it’s after the 12th day of the month.
We’re holding our collective breath for you, Eva.
For two weeks? Good luck with that.
We’ll take it in turns.
Richard> I guess you Irish have always been fast on the keys? ^^ [Norwegian… hmm…]
Eva> yeah… scary to be without passport in another country. I had a fit yesterday and did not find mine where “I thought it was”. took me awhile to remember that I put it with “all the important papers that I need to get back into the US when I return in a few weeks” … thinking cap wasn’t really on 🙂
I know some Irishmen who would be very offended by that, Eva.
Stop doing that.
What?
innocent look
This
Richard> I know plenty Norwegians who would be very offended too… not to mention cheeky Swedes 😉
you started it, almost kiwi ^^
Excellent. What about the Finnish? No one cares about them.
Good news for old threads!
I picked up my new passport this morning. It was easy!
AND, last week I found out that I still have supplemental health insurance until August 31st because I was a T.A for more than 50 hours last semester! It doesn’t make sense, but I verified it with the union and I really still have $300 worth of dentist and optometrist visits and whatnot.
Hoorah for you Eva. Do you feel like a real person again?
Certainly! I was kind of a blurry transparent haze for two weeks there, but now I shifted back in focus.