Opportunistic

For one terrible moment I toyed with the idea of tagging this for the Blipnic but discretion got the better of me and I decided not to lower the tone of such a worthy project. Truth to tell, I actually forgot about lunch blipping, what with one thing and another, and I just happened to catch this opportunistic gull in the act when I was around Dawson Street looking for some travel books for the holiday (I got an okay handy guide to Oslo, but nothing else -- I do miss Waterstone's!).

Time in Dawson Street followed my second encounter with the Russian embassy. I'd worked through until 3.30 am and was up again at 7.00 so I'd get over to join the Consular queue in plenty of time. I got there at 8.20 to find that four others had beaten me to it. The Master of the Hatch was late opening it (the blind had been raised before that but the actual serving point was left tantalisingly vacant), when he did finally sit down he first had to hand out passports to those there just for collection purposes, then one of those ahead of me in the queue took an inordinately long time to be dealt with and the person immediately in front of me caused complications by asking for same-day processing (imagine leaving it until Wednesday to apply for a visa when your flight is on Sunday!). The hatch master had to leave his post to deal with that, and he left again while I stood there for five minutes at the top of the queue.

My turn came at last. All went well until he told me I could collect the passports with their visas on 16th June. No can do, I told him, since we're flying to Oslo on the 15th (as I made clear in the Notes section of the online application form). 'That doesn't matter', was what he had to say about the Notes section of the online application form, and then he wanted to know if I had proof of travel arrangements to Norway. It never having occurred to me that I'd need that, I told him I didn't have any proof. 'What time is your flight on the 15th?' was his next question, presumably thinking that I could pick up the passports before going to the airport. No can do, I told him again, since our flight's first thing in the morning (at 7.10 am). '14th June'. I tried to tell him that I'd prefer a day earlier, since we're going to a wedding on the 14th (I'd actually asked online for collection on Friday the 10th). 'The 14th', he interrupted, not allowing me to even get as far as mentioning the wedding. There was obviously no point arguing with him ('He thinks he's the most important person in Russia', as one of the others there said).

Not a pleasant experience, and now I/we will have to visit the Russian embassy first thing on the 14th and go straight from there to the wedding. More hassle.