It is not supposed to make sense

Today it is beyond freezing. The apartment is the coldest it has ever been and the heating system in the apartment has responded in its usual helpful fashion – it has shut down completely and now only blows cold air – so I have turned it off.

I have be wearing a beanie and gloves in the apartment and am lighting the fire early – but I am nearly out of firewood.

I may burn the new lounge suite because Cate says it will not work in  our new house. It does not work in this one why so would it work anywhere else?

After my protestations about not being on the bank account the bank – in the form of Bradley – sent me an email saying they had decided that I could be added.

Unfortunately – he said - they will close the account 30 days after it is opened if we do not provide them with a Social Security number. The closure date is 4 April.

We do not arrive in the USA until 2 May and cannot apply for the number until we get there – then it will take 10 days to issue.

I have told him that this does not seem to make a lot of sense (and I am guessing it is not supposed to) and does he have a view of the appropriate way forward. Thus far he has remained silent.

He is after all billed as a ‘Financial Wellness Expert’ and it can hardly be financially healthy if our account is closed before we can use it.

On another matter – Monika was fitted with her first collar yesterday she has never worn one before. I was expecting problems but she took to it like a Duck to water – and looks quite fetching.

The dates are set

It is snowing again and is bloody freezing.

This morning I awoke to a new Pope and felt no different – perhaps a slight headache.

The crowd in St Peters square last night was certainly very excited so they are obviously expecting big things. He looks much like all the other Popes and I am sure he will do just as a good a job as his predecessors.

I have not had a reaction from PK – who is the only person I know who was actually excommunicated from the Catholic church – but I am sure he is just as thrilled as I am. He will – I am sure – celebrate with a large noggin of Jamies.

Today I did not have any forms to fill out but I had some questions to answer. Some of these are very difficult and tax me to the limit.

I have to make up a lot of answers and I just know that one day I will be sitting under the spotlights being grilled by the House Illegal Aliens Committee trying to explain myself.

Now you apparently cannot – and I can understand this – open a bank account in America unless you have a Social Security Number.

So we cannot open bank accounts unless we have a number – which we will not get until some weeks after we arrive – so what do we do for banking in the interim?

Well actually – we have opened a bank account – or Cate has – and she does not have one of those numbers – but when she asked for me to be added to the account they said no because I don’t have a number.

This type of stuff happens every day around here.

I have decided on dates.

29 April          Cat collection

30 April          Furniture collection

2 May            Badger leaves Vienna 

Sadly - Cate will be away

Two weeks ago I filled out an enormous number of a forms and answered a stupendous number of questions in respect of our USA visa applications. These went to a company in the USA that is preparing the applications. Well that’s done – I thought.

Not really

Yesterday the US company advised that it was time for me to make an appointment to see the US Consulate here – and to do this I had to fill out another stupendous assortment of forms. 

Many of the same questions from before – but also some new ones – and ones impossible to answer.

Like ‘where do you intend to live in the USA?’ And yes you have to give a street address and postcode. And it is one of those forms that will not accept no for an answer and will not budge and inch until you have completed every box.

Fortunately – it also accepts nonsense so as far as it is concerned we are living in a hotel in Indianapolis. It also would not accept that I was not going to work in the USA so I had to say I was working for Ducky Pharma at a salary of $0 per annum – it was OK with that.

They also (of course) do not accept normal passport photos. They have their own unique requirements so that we have to go off to get new ones.

I wonder if anyone has ever answered yes to the question ‘do you intend to engage in acts of terrorism while you are in the USA?’

Perhaps this is designed to catch really dumb terrorists.

Any way that’s another lot of forms out of the way. Can’t wait for the next bunch.

They reckon its going to snow here again this week. WTF?

Cate is in Moscow and goes to Turkey tomorrow. She told me on the weekend that (sadly) she will not be here for the move so I can do all the packing and farnarkling on my own.

Beauty!