Read yesterday's piece first, please, if you have not already done so.
There are wonderful days in your life. The days someone who tells you all the time how much she loves you finally listens to what you are saying.
So when I was continuing the discussion on completing the online visa form today for her so that she can get into the UK, adding in the process (three times) that she was the one that wanted to go not me, the quiet comment emerged from my wife's mouth:"I don't think we're going to England".
Maybe my hostility to the idea has finally got through - I am not that acerbic or prone to getting angry (having an old voodoo doll of Margaret Thatcher that you can stick pins in occasionally also keeps you calm - pity there's no Hell for her to rot in!), so you have to get the point over quietly and repetitively - but there is the other factor hitting home. Cost!
Before even looking at the cost of a plane ticket and hotels, we would have to shovel out 246 Euro minimum (for American readers that is, at today's conversion rate, $333.95) for the cost of the visa and the cheapest return for two people to Düsseldorf and back (she won't travel on her own unless forced) for the statutory humiliation required to get it. The prospect of paying out that much in advance strikes even her as outrageous.
Anyway this afternoon after she had gone to work, I proceeded down the interesting path of completing all the required documentation online. Changing her mind is always a possibility. Unfortunately in this case it could still happen.
Get past like all the questions like "are you a terrorist?", "are you a supporter of a terrorist group?", do you advocate terrorism?" (I wonder if anyone actually answers "yes" to these questions), you get to the interestingly funny bit at the end - paying for the appointment.
First thing to bear in mind is that you have to pay for the appointment before being given one. If you decide you do not want to go eventually .... Well they have you neatly scammed, right?
This though turned out to be third most enjoyable moment of the day - numbers one and two for reference:
1. Finding out that overnight European time that the Red Sox had won the ALDS in Tampa last night Eastern (American) time.
2. Completing a translation this morning that was the second quality piece of work I have produced in two days - at least I hope the customer thinks so.
Anyway - number 3. Funny joke almost. Name the two most common ways of paying for something in Germany. Answers of course being cash and using Bank Giro Direct Credit with your bank card (with a PIN live, but also available on the Internet occasionally).
Name the methods with which you can pay for a visa online at the contractor site used by the UK Embassy in Germany - Visa, Mastercard and Paypal.
I don't know many people here who have Visa or Mastercard, given the rip-off charges involved with such cards I wouldn't advise their use anywhere anyway. Paypal - my wife does not have. I do, but it would take several days to get money into the account, and I'm not the one who wants to get the visa. I am not the one who wishes, either, to torture him/herself by making this ludicrous journey, so why should I fit my own thumbscrews?
Cash? You cannot go to Düsseldorf with cash - they will not accept it! They also will not accept bank card payments. Does it get more ridiculous? It is almost as if they have planned to keep people out!
So it looks like I win the argument by default. Of course being what the Germans call "schlau" I could be accused of deliberately manoeuvring the Paypal possibility to my advantage.
Anyway Bern in November sounds interesting. Much more interesting than the UK, let's face it, and it would be her friend that we would be visiting .....
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