Lunch break

Today I went to apply for a new passport. A few weeks ago I went to the Netherlands without it and found that travel in the Shengen area is just like domestic travel. But I want to have a valid passport and since I can't find mine I needed to get a new one. Turns out we've just updated our passports. Now mine will not only contain an RFID chip, but it will also contain my fingerprints. So lots of details for anyone who would be able to steal one of those things and break into it.

Anyway I thought I could easily do it during my lunch break. Not quite as it turned out. First of all there's only one place to do it. Which is not quite next door to my current work place. Then when I got there. The nice numbered queuing system wasn't working. This I only found out after waiting for 15 minutes. When I asked how long it usually took and if it was fine for me to go out and get lunch and come back. The system is broken and we are waiting for IT people to come and fix it. Ah, the IT people need to fix the system and there's no way to deal with customers while it's broken. Actually they figured out within 5 minutes that they could, but by then someone else had gotten in front of me. So I had to wait. For another 5 minutes. It then took about 3 minutes to get the details about the new passport, take my photo and for me to sign and give up my fingerprints. Another couple of minutes and I could cancel out my old passport. What fantastic efficiency. The girl who took my application was really sorry. "I was just having my lunch break"...yeah me to.