Corruption, or just retarded people? Hard to say

On Wednesday night I went to dinner with my parents, and they regaled me with the most remarkable story about my dad's British passport (with extra details added after the fact included in the story below). You see, my parents are due to go to Mauritius on Monday morning at 5am so that my dad can be at some actuarial conference to talk or somesuch, I'm not sure on the details. His passport was supposed to be ready in July when him and my little brother went on the Orange River, but it wasn't and so he temporarily got his old one back for that. Now, he's been phoning intermittently between then and now, but there has always been some delay or other. For the last month, his secretary has been phoning every single day, and been getting responses ranging from 'It's being done as we speak' to 'Oh, it's about to be done, I'll make sure it's in the overnight courier today' to 'It's in the courier bag right now, you'll have it tomorrow.' Needless to say, none of these prophetic words came to pass. My dad decides that only a face to face confrontation will be able to solve anything, so he flies up to Pretoria on Friday night. I can think of quite a lot of things I would rather be doing with the cost of a flight and a day in Pretoria. Or not a day in Pretoria, as my preference would be. So he apparently talks to some person quite high-up in the British consulate (how high up was not made apparent), and this man has never heard of any of the names that my dad gives him, and the numbers are now miraculously fax numbers or the number of the Archives section. Who needless to say should not be dealing directly with customers, especially in the area of passport submissions. Dodgy. This man tells my dad that he will do everything he can to get the passport done, and that he should come back at lunchtime. He does so, and is told that they can't print the passport, because of a Telkom problem. Out of their hands. My immediate thought it what the fuck Telkom have to do with printers? But it might require authorization from the UK or whatever, so maybe. There is a slight possibility, that's as much as I am willing to concede. My dad, ever the optimist, has decided to stay the night in Pretoria in a Holiday Inn across the road from the consulate in the hopes that Telkom (or whatever) sort their shit out. I'm not holding my breath.

I've just phoned my mom, and apparently Telkom arrived at the consulate at 10am this morning to try sort it out, so it looks like the man might in fact have been speaking the truth. However, once he gets the passport, he still needs to go to the Department of Home Affairs (closing time 3:30pm) to get his permanent residence stamped into it or South Africa has no obligation to let him back into the country. Personally I would go with or without, since I'm sure Old Mutual can arrange to get him back if he gets deported to London. My mom says she will let me know what happens, so I in turn will let you know =) *holds thumbs*

Yesterday I had my second interview with OpenBox, a technical one this time. I think it went pretty well, despite having a few questions where I didn't know the answer. There were also a couple of times where I knew the concept but not the terminology, and also once or twice where he was fishing for a specific answer and had to lead me to it, but hey whatever. I think I gave a fair representation of myself, and I think the interviewer (whose name I now forget) got a fair view of me and my skill level. Apparently they might only make a decision as late as the middle of next month, so I'll have to wait I guess. Our current development cycle is running to a close at the moment, so a decision anytime between now and next month should see me in a quiet period, which is good. I hate leaving people in the lurch like some of our other developers have, with stunts like 'I know you're in the middle of development on this version, and I know I'm the only person who has worked on this feature, and I know I've been on maternity leave for the last 2 months, but I'm not coming back. Thanks for the work experience, though.' Actual story, not the actual words. I am making those up.

After the interview, by which time I was actually a bit shaky, Chelle and I headed off to roleplaying and the first real set of interactions between Connor and the rest of the party. Last week's 'Hi, how's it going' followed by was less than satisfactory. There still seems to be a fair amount about druids that I need to look up, and a lot of Wild Shape templates I need to copy down for easy reference. I think I'll just bring a whole bunch of blank character sheets along and fill them out for each Shape I'm likely to use. Leopard was awesome, as was Eagle, and I'm really looking forward to getting access to Large creature for some giant crocodile action. Tasty! Baldur, my bear, spent the session frolicking in the woods, since he is a little less than sneaky. Hell, I'm a little less than sneaky in Human form. The mage isn't much better, I did notice. Also, PSA: Try not to attract the attention of flying demons and devils while you are in eagle form. It sould prove to be a little too much excitement for one day.

And at last, it is Friday. This week has felt like an eternity, and I have no idea why. There is a LAN on this Saturday, but I've been lanning so much recently I don't know if I am keen on it. It is at least limited to 2am, so no 17 hour marathon this time. Apparently a couple of OpenBox employees are going, so it might be a good opportunity to get to know some of my future-potential work mates.

EDIT: My mom just SMSed me to let me know that my dad finally got the passport, looks like it was a Telkom problem (well blow me down), so Mauritius is once again on =) Awesome.