Yes, I'm in London, and it's 3.32am in Singapore, and 8.32pm in London. And I'm very very very sleepy. I must have brought the monsoon weather with me because when I arrived it was 15 degrees C and this morning it started raining and it felt that a Melbourne winter - I'm dead serious. It really felt like being back in Melbourne.
Do you know why my blog title is 'GBP 39 blog entry'? Because my internet connection (wifi in the service apartment) is GBP39 for a month! I thought it was free before I arrived. GBP39 - SGD120 or more! Who pays that kind of money to get an internet connection in Singapore? But as you know I can't check emails or use MSN at work, so until I subscribe to an ISP network, I really haven't got much of a choice, do I? So I'll make the best out of it.
When I got out of the plane, Heathrow terminal 3 reminded me of a cross between Bailieu Library & old Engineering building, i.e. furniture, walls, signs, toilet facilities look like they've been there since the 1950s which they probably have. Not that everything has to be new, but really, the airport reminded me of Melbourne. As a matter of fact, this is my first time in London, and I will say that it resembles Melbourne somewhat, although I should be saying Melbourne resembles London because London came first right? The buildings are either gray, or light brown or beige.
Anyway, guess what - at the immigration counter, the officer was filling out all kinds of forms when I told him that I'm here on a work permit. And I 'casually' mentioned that he had so much paperwork to do, and he said, 'Yes, you have to go for a chest x-ray'. I replied, 'Are you kidding?'. He said, "No, why would I be kidding? You come from Singapore which has TB". So I was promptly told to go to the health control section, wait in line, get more paperwork done, went to a room, took off my shirt and took a chest x-ray. All in the name of preventing TB from spreading/getting into the country. And all because I had a work permit which is longer than 6 months. Why didn't they do a medical when I applied for the entry clearance visa? That's why it's called an ENTRY CLEARANCE VISA right?? I'm actually going to find out whether I really needed to have one. Does anyone know how WHO classifies Singapore in the TB world? And to make things worse, the whole process took me half an hour to forty five minutes, and I had a taxi waiting for me. And when I tried to make a phone call to the taxi company, one of the health control people told me not to use the mobile phone. I was already very exhausted from the journey, and all this was happening. When I was finally cleared, it was a good two and a half hours after my plane landed, and my luggage must have gone round on the carousel half a million times.
I'm braced for more 'inefficiencies' of this nature from now on....imagine opening a bank account, getting a tax file number!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Heh. I think there are going to be a lot more of these kinds of posts. Time to remember the inefficiencies of Australia. Think that will help you to cope.
I didn't know we still had a TB problem.
Post a Comment