Not Lazy, just busy

Ciao Dudi,
finally I have time to update my life again... As I wrote last time, I was about to go to the Police Office to renew my Residence Permit. Obviously, this was, once again, unsuccesful. After waiting for 2.5 hours, it turned out I had arrived 5 minutes too late and didnt realise (I thought everyone was simply waiting for the office to open, but apparently the office had already opened and closed again). This was rather unfortunate and I wasnt happy.
The rest of the week consisted of working, visiting seminars, et cetera. Many many things. Thankfully, we did have time to enjoy a little Aperitivo every now and then, as well as a beautiful sunset (from our apartment window):

Friday afternoon, we went to the Airport in Bergamo to catch an airplane to London. The roads to the airport were incredibly busy and at one point I gave up hope that we would be in time. However, as I had decided to take an extra hour in case of security issues (and surprisingly: there were none), we did make it to the flight and arrived at Stansted in the rain at about 20.45. For an unclear reason, no buses were departing from Stansted until 21.45, so we stood in the rain for about one hour. We then paid our 21euro return tickets (21 euros each) and made it to London to meat Fedor's ex-flatmate Marike, who lives in London (and whose weblog can be found here). By this time, it was already extremely late in London (23.00: everything was closed), so we did not get a chance to meet Marike's friends. We did however spend a lot of time catching up with her, which was obviously enjoyable.
The next morning, we went to the British Museum, which I must say is one of the most impressive museums I have ever seen! It is absolutely stunning (and also important, it is free and it is on The List). After a few hours of strolling through the Egyptian, Greek and Japanese sections, it was time for lunch and shopping. In the evening, Fedor and I took a train to Coventry, to see our friends Matt and Anthony. It was great to see them and we thoroughly enjoyed a lovely Libanese meal had that night.
As always when we visit them, Matt had arranged something to do the next day. We took a train to Oxford, where neither Fedor nor I had ever been before. This was an excellent idea, despite the very English rain that came down occasionally.


A lovely lunch, some shopping and then it was time to go back to Coventry again. Here we rested for a short while, before taking the train back to London, where we were met by Marike again. She stayed up with us for another few bottles of wine, until we went to catch our 3AM bus back to Stansted. By the time we arrived home, at 11.00, Fedor and I were both "a little tired", and Fedor went to bed straight away. I did not however, because I wanted to use the opportunity to return to the Police Office. After waiting in the cold outside for 3 hours, it was finally my turn. REQUEST DENIED: FILE INCOMPLETE.

Excuse me?

What?

The

FUCK!

Yes, apparently between now and the time I filed my request a month ago, something has changed, because I can "obviously" not get my Residence Permit extension if I do not hand over a copy of a bank statement. What?!?!?! When did they make that up? But I was too tired to go into a discussion and disillusionedly left the police station again. What to do, what to do...
First, there was meeting Maartje and Eden: Fedors Nijmegen friends. Fedor was at work by this time, so I went for Aperitivo with these new arrivals who had already spent a week in Italy elsewhere. On Tuesday, after a good night's rest, I was able to work again and enjoy anther aperitivo, with Fedor and his friends. Unfortunately, their visit was a short one, because they left again this morning...
Ciao,
OJ

PS VOTE D66: KAJSA OLLONGREN (5) or MARK SANDERS (7)