What Can Brown Do For You?

UPS came this morning with my visa and passport! Yay! I'm now leaving for England on Friday morning. Percentage packed: 95. Things are coming together.

I also learned today that on the old British monetary system, a pound was 20 shillings, but there were 21 shillings to a guinea. There were 240 pence to a pound but 252 pence to a guinea. Furthermore, a farthing was a quarter of a pence and a crown was five shillings, but a half-crown was two shillings and six pence, not two shillings and five pence. Logic?

Counting Chickens Before They Hatch

Visa has still not arrived. Called UPS; they said that, while the British Consulate has paid for the shipping, they have not given the package to UPS. So there is no visa on the way. However, the email I received from the Consulate says that they sent the package on the 29th, and it should have arrived on the 31st. Furthermore, the Consulate phone number will not allow me to talk to a human being. FML.

Crisis (Nearly) Averted

I received an email from the British Consulate this morning. My visa has been approved and shipped; it should arrive here tomorrow. Hallelujah. This reminds me of one of my favorite movie quotes from Shakespeare in Love:

"Don't worry, it will all work out."
"How?"
"I don't know; it's a mystery."

Now: packing...

Panic!

I just got an email from the British Consulate yesterday informing me that, while they received my visa application weeks ago, due to the large number of applications they have received, they just opened it yesterday. Furthermore, it will take anywhere from 24 hours to 15 days to process, not including shipping time. AAAAAAH!!! Not Good! Not Good! So I'm officially in full-fledged panic mode. Not quite hyperventilating yet, so I suppose that's a good sign, but Now What?

On a separate note, due to the violent reaction had by Tristan on the color scheme of this blog, I have changed the template to the blander and more non-committal "Scribe." Hopefully this one will not trigger the estrogen-induced gag reflex in some of my readers. I, personally, am rather fond of rose, but I think parchment will fit better with my profile pic and furthermore won't clash as much with any photos I may post.