30 May 2006

I protest....

I am really bugged today. And here are my list of protests and pet peeves:

X Men 3 releases in the 2nd week of September. A release almost 15 weeks after the premiere doesn't make any sense, does it? Apparently where there's merchandising in connection with the movie, the Japanese release is scheduled at a later date. But this time lag sucks... Big time!

Getting my driving license translated to Japanese is proving to be a big headache. I called the office of one of the translating agencies, and not a soul there could speak English. Now do I trust them with the job of translating my documents when they can't understand a simple question like 'is this the translation service?' or 'do you speak English?'... I think not.

So my next option was to call er... (better I don't name names, no saying what trouble that could create in case I need something from there at a later date) .. A certain body of diplomatic representatives from my country.. And it was a waste. The dude who finally answered my queries had all the answers. "Yes of course it can be done, please send us the original and a copy attested by (er.... no names again) ... those we report to back home. You don't have an attested copy? Then no, it can't be done.... But maybe it can be done for an extra fee... But ma'am you will not be issued any receipt for the extra fees paid...." ... For a second, I should admit, I was quite stumped... then I realised exactly what was implied.... (&*^%*&#@%#*#&%!!!!) Why do these people make things so complicated? I asked around, and turns out this is the only mission that charges at all for these services to their nationals. And to think we need to depend on these @#%%&!$ in any crisis....
(And if for some reason I wanted to get the attestation done, it could be done in one of two ways. One, I submit the required papers in the local administrative offices and wait till eternity for it to get done and get back to me, if ever. Two, take it from point to point myself. involving at least 2 trips each to the state and national capitals! And going route 2 again implies fees sans receipts.. )

Despite my efforts I still can't get the hang of hiragana and katakana (the basic Japanese scripts).

The postman told me that our mail takes longer to get to us because the address etc is in English... takes longer to decipher.

Last but not the least... the salespeople at big local supermarket cant understand the words soda-bi-carb or bicarbonate of soda!

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