Moving countries is all very well - packing up all your belongings, saying goodbye and finally making peace with the fact that things will be very different on the other side of the world. But the amount of paperwork and annoying administration is another matter entirely. In England it was relatively easy: make a few phone calls, send a letter, write an email - and in the age of the internet it is still going on (sorry Orange. And BT, Southern Electric, National Insurance etc. I will get around to paying those last bills.....ha ha ha you've seen the last of me suckers!).
So the simple task of enrolling Henry into Primary School went like this:
Me: "Hi. Could I please have the forms to enrol my son please?"
Incredibly Large But Happy Woman in School Office: "Certainly Darl. Oh and you need to include passport, birth certificate, proof of address, utility bill and immunisations certificate".
Me: "Ah. Yes about the utility bill. We don't move in until the 5th. School starts on the 10th. I very much doubt we will have a bill by then".
Woman: (very stoic) "We need to see a bill".
Me: "I have Henry's immunisations all signed in his Child Health Care book from UK."
Woman: "No you need to get an Australian Immunisation Certificate. Blah, blah, blah...."
And on it went about how to go about that annoying little task.
Sweet Baby Jesus. Take my heart, draw blood from my veins and sign my name on these bloody forms, and while we are at it get some live chickens and do a little sacrificial enrolling dance with their blood as well. Should have been a hippy living in a teepee up at Byron Bay. Smelly but no forms up there I'm sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment