The Visa

There have been numerous requests for me to start blogging again, so here goes. Apparantly people enjoy what I write, imagine that! But I digress; this blog is about my trip to Singapore( As an aside, I never seem to be able to blog from the comfort of my own home, but do quite well in far away hotel rooms).

This trip was planned way back in April, but for various reasons that we will not delve into here, it was repeatedly put off. Then in September, it suddenly becomes imperitive that I travel ASAP. And this is after I have numerous things scheduled, including but not limited to my soccer refereeing and my dear niece's visit. I resign myself to my fate and start looking into what is required to obtain a Visa to Singapore. Quite a lot, it turns out and by the time I have it all ready, it is way too late to mail it in and hope for it to be back in time. Well, there is no time to mail it in. But there are many ways to skin a cat. I decide that the only way to make the whole thing work is to drive. I call Nagendran and he is game to go the distance. We set out at about 8 on Thursday night but have to spend an hour in finding a Kinko that was open for a prepaid FedEx envelope. Departure from Corvallis is finally at 9 PM.

It's been quite some time since I have done an 'all nighter' and I'm wondering if this old body is up to it. Bear in mind that this whole week, my day has started at 4:25 which is when the bedside alarm goes off. Don't ask me why it's 4:25 and not 4:30 - thats just the way it's been for many months now and one does not change stuff without understanding the implications fully (unless one is in management, of course). We drive on into the night, stopping many times along the way for coffee and once in a dark stretch of highway to look at the stars. I never fail to be amazed by the number of stars that you can see on a clear night if one is away from the city lights. One begins to understand what 'as numerous as the stars' really means. Traffic is light until we reach San Franscisco and the last 50 miles takes us about 3 hours. The original plan was to leave at 6, reach SFO at 2, find a hotel and sleep until 8. Well we reached the Consulate at 9:00 AM; looking on the bright side, we saved on the hotel; and that's in line with the new 'cost saving' mantra!

Parking in downtown San Franscisco is impossible. So we pay a valet $10 to park for us. Well spent, if you ask me. We get our first bit of luck - we are parked right next to the Consulate. But first things first - we need to find a restroom. We start with the closest which is Starbucks, and then move on to Subway, Walgreens and a few more. We look in maybe ten places and find only one thing in commin : No public restrooms. We are gettng desperate. Nagendran asks me what the fine is for going in public and whether it will qualify for reimbursement as we are on a business trip. I don't comment as I don't know. Anyway, I don't imagine that it would be easy; it would require a a long written justification at the very least. The last one on the block is the San Franscisco Soup Company and we reluctantly go in. The soup is passable and the sandwitch is downright bad, but heaven be praised, the restrooms are clean! I am forever a fan of the San Franscisco Soup Company (though one does wonder about the soup base).

The Consulate is housed on the 24th floor along with a bunch of other offices. Somehow, I thought consulates were imposing buildings with security guards; but maybe those are embassies. It seems that my paperwork has a lot of things missing. A few calls back to the office gets a letter faxed. Then I find that my precious FedEx envelope does not work. The website may say it does, but the lady at the counter says it doesn't and she rules! She intently scrutinises my application and informs be that my given name and surname are interchanged. I tell her that it's my name and that it's been this way for as long as I can remember. She thinks different and I have to write a letter certifying that my name is indeed my name and that it is in the right order. I say a silent prayer my parents didn't think like her - I would have had to spend a lifetime thinking backwards. Isn't it strange how high handed average people become when they are put in positions of power. The higher the power, the more the high handedness - but that's politics and let's not go there.

The last task is to find a post office, which is conveniently located about 8 blocks away. It's about 12:30 by the time we are done and we start on the long drive home. It takes us about 12 hours and I am back home a little past midnight. It's taken around 27 Hours and 1300 miles - thats 50 miles an hour on average for the whole trip. The math doesn't seem right - we must have been over the limit! Now all thats left is to wait to see if my passport makes it back in time. The monach at the counter says 5 business days; I try to turn on my charm but it is wasted. At last she relents and says that she will do it in four. This means that I should get my passport back on Thursday; my flight out is on Friday morning.

The dragon does not always breathe fire, it seems. My passport makes it back a day early and I am all set!