I'm so not a dedicated beauty blogger haha! I guess I should be writing about beauty products and things but I get bored of it sometimes. So here's just another rambling post of nothing super significant.
Well today has been a rather shit day. I found out that either the Canadian Embassy or the Swiss postal service have somehow managed to completely screw things up, and the issuing of my passport has thus been delayed. I'm flying on December 4th so I called the Embassy today inquiring where the hell is my passport? Looks like I now have to pay an additional $67 for a bloody emergency temporary passport which is only valid for 30 days use, and then I'll have to pay another $100 or so for another normal passport!! All because either the Embassy or the Postal people screwed up, through no fault of my own, and I now have to have an emergency passport issued so that I can fly on Friday. Great. $167 for a bloody passport. (Not to mention the additional costs I had of about $20 for getting a reference slip signed by my doctor, and another $30 I'll now have to spend to go to Bern tomorrow by train. So a grand total of $217 for a freaking passport. Yeah, I'm pissed off! What a waste of money!! Especially because it's not my fault and due to the error of inefficient offices.
Then I spent like an hour arguing with my stinking cell phone provider because these morons wanted to force me into another year long contract without any additional benefits like a new phone, because apparently I didn't cancel 2 months in advance. The funny thing is I called about 3 weeks ago and told them to cancel my contract, which doesn't even expire until January 15, 2010! So finally after being passed through endless waiting lines on hold and arguing with several people, I managed to turn my contract into a pay-as-you-go, which is what I wanted as I've barely been using my phone lately. Sunrise, are you reading this? I hate you! Next contract will be with another company, for sure.
Meh, so this whole day has just been one endless headache and yes I'm going to vent on my blog. Tomorrow I'll have to somehow manage a trip to Bern to the embassy head office to get my emergency passport issued, and it snowed today so it will be extra soggy and slushy by then I bet. Yay me!!
Then today I found out I can only take on one 23kg baggage piece on my flight to Canada, which is supposed to have enough clothes and makeup and all the stuff I wanted to bring for about 3.5 weeks. Yeah I can wash there, but I want to have lots of wardrobe options as I'm not sure of all the activities and things I'll be doing there. I'll just bring minimal cosmetic items as they are bulky and heavy and I'll just buy shampoo, shower gel, body lotion and stuff like that there. Anyway I was planning to do a lot of hauling for makeup there so I'll bring minimal makeup stuff.
I am however really looking forward to my trip to Vancouver and am really ready for a break and overall change of scenery, even if it's just for 3 weeks. Really looking forward to seeing my family and spending some quality time together, doing fun stuff and shopping, etc. I've prepared some makeup videos in advance so I'll have stuff to upload while I'm on vacation, and I'll probably be vlogging on my other channel around Vancouver, and uploading haul videos or things like that.
Today was also the first day of snow. It's pretty but - bah humbug!! Hope your day was better than mine!
I'm sorry about all that hassle with your passport :( But it's a common thing with embassies - they always screw up but it's never their fault :S Had that same experience several times over and it's just so annoying!
ReplyDeleteManchmal gibt es solche Tage, wo alles verhext scheint. Dafür bin ich sicher, dass dein Urlaub fantastisch wird. *Daumen drück*
ReplyDeleteoh wow, I'm sorry for the whole passport thing, I thought those sort of things only happened in the US.
ReplyDeletehave you checked with your airline if you can bring a piece of handheld luggage on board? When Traveling international I always do that, and put whatever can't be brought on board on the large bag that I check, and on the smalled bag (carryon) I stuff extra clothing. I take my laptop in a big laptop bag and I put my purse stuff in there, so that i have 2 carryons (most airlines will allow 1 computer + 1 any other carry on).
hope you can manage something girl, have lots of fun in canada!
Yuck!
ReplyDeleteWell, at least it's only one day, that's my life story. Can't wait to hear about your trip. Somehow I thought you were already in Canada. Have fun, just think of how worth it it's going to be. Cheers!
Aww you poor thing! Tomorrow will be a better day:) (well the day after because embassies are always a headache)
ReplyDeleteand for some reason Blogger doesn't show the comments for me unless I comment myself :/
ReplyDeleteFAILDAY!!
arf, apparently post offices are sh*t everywhere in the world :/ Have a great time in Canada !
ReplyDeleteAww... well tomorrow will be better Julia!!!! Have a good time with the family!!
ReplyDeleteThat's just one of those days.... Soon you'll be in Vancouver and I envy you for that. That's an awesome city I had the chance to visit earlier this year (when my sister lived there). I think about going back there all the time !! so I'm looking forward to see your pictures, and to read your journey diary impatiently ;)
ReplyDeletehugs from france xxx
I believe you have all the reasons to be upset. Post offices work like crap (pretty much everywhere), then embassies either work like crap, either slow or they make all kinds of mistakes...:( My friend really wanted to visit his relatives in USA but the embassy here in Romania didn't give him his visa and he still doesn't know why, because he didn't do anything wrong :(
ReplyDeleteSo..look at the bright side, you still get to visit your family. :) That's more important. I know it's annoying to make additional payments because of some people's incompetence but it's something material...money is something that you can make anytime...family is more important and I think it's worth it then.
About the phone company, it really annoys me how they become so stressful and pushy when they want to keep their customers. I once went to my mobile phone dealer and asked them to change my subscription to "pay-as-you-go" and they said it was impossible, so that I could hear later that it was possible. They just wanted me to keep my subscription for a longer time so they lied to me but I switched to another mobile company soon after that. Ugh annoying! but now I know better :)
Awww, I'm sorry you had such a bad day, Julia! It sucks that you have to pay for somebody elses fault. Maybe your passport was stolen?
ReplyDeleteHope you'll feel better soon!
Hey Julia,
ReplyDeletesorry about the whole passport mess.. if that's any consolation at all, when I came to study in France, I got a student's grant, then one year later I asked for a renewal but the bloody French bureaucrats lost my file, so I ended up with no grant, studying and juggling with 3 part-time jobs all the same time.
BTW, Ive always been told that for transatlantic fligths you're allowed up to 2 suitcases of 23kg each. THough maybe that depends on the flight operator. It really is not practical at all and they don't care whether you travel for 2 weeks or for 2 years (my case)..
anyways, try and concentrate on the purpose of your trip (Canada, family, friends, major lakeup hauls lol) and skip the annoying details :)
take care,
Jurate
Well at least when you come here to Vancouver you'll be coming to some relatively decent weather. It had been raining for the past few weeks, but it recently started to clear up and now the sun is shining (even if it is chilly). Have fun while you're here.
ReplyDeleteOh, dear! It really was a shit day. But you gotta believe that it was all bad and now thing can be only better and the best. I hope you will enjoy your stay in Canada to maximum ;)
ReplyDeleteHope you feel better soon Julia! Hate when things like that happen...(big hug!)
ReplyDeleteI'm soo excited for you to come and visit!! :D
can't wait, its gona be so much fun..hopefully thoughts of all the wonderful makeup and fun to be had will cheer u up!
PS hope you remember to bring rain gear/boots and an umbrella! :( its raining a lot here!
Ziya
hahaha poor you!!! i know all this stuff is terrible and anoying! aghhhh hopefully in a few days you will be in Vancouver relaxing and haing fun ( i always wanted to be there cause there were filming X Files uhhh i love Mr Duchovny hmm).. good luck with your passport!!! ;)
ReplyDeleteI had to pay nearly as much for my passport (just regular fee for me, mind you), so don't feel bad :-) I thought international flights allow 2 pieces of luggage, 23kg each. Not sure why your airline only allows 1. 1 suitcase would be really hard to pack, tbh.
ReplyDeletewell it's just one day as others have mentioned too but I wish your tomorrow and all other days in future be the best..Amen!
ReplyDeleteyou're such a smart gal and you can make it up to you in canada by having lots of fun there with your family so cheers babe.
I totally know how you feel.. getting my Canadian passport was just as much a headache! A couple years ago, I went overseas to Asia. Had my passport application submitted 2.5 months prior to my departure date. 10 days before my trip, I still hadn't received anything! I went to the passport office and was advised that I would need to get a rush passport, which cost an extra $70 on top of normal passport fees... I had to fill out my application all over again, take new passport photos (an extra $16), and obtain another copy of my birth certificate (which of course, cost me an extra $35) which took a couple days to get to me by mail. I then had to take time out of my day again to go back to the passport office to resubmit everything and picked up my passport 1 day before my departure. And OF COURSE, the same day I picked up my passport, I get a package in the mail from Passport Canada containing my original application/passport photos/birth certificate that I had submitted 2.5 months prior returned to me. So those old passport photos went straight to the trash because I had no use for them. I was livid!
ReplyDeleteBut like others have noted... at least your plans haven't been foiled and you'll be home for the holidays afterall!!! :)
Debbie
Ugh! Sounds like the day from h-e-l-l! On the bright side you have a very lovely vacation only days away. I can't wait to hear all about it. Enjoy and safe uneventful travels!
ReplyDelete~DenieDV
Ugh!! Sounds like the day from h-e-l-l!!! On the bright side you have a very lovely vacation just days away. Yeay! I can't wait to hear all about it! I hope your trips there and back are safe and uneventful. I hate all the hoop-la leading up to a vacation, but it's all so worth it!
ReplyDeleteOOOHH Julia!! We all have those days, isnt it??
ReplyDeleteI ALSO hate unefficiency in offices.See my odyssey at the pastport's office.
When I renewed my passport (it usually takes a sort of 2 hrs off peak )I had to wait n wait for queues to move, the service was soooo tortoise speed.
Well, when I managed to be into the ones signing, being taken the pic n so... just on the last step, they said they lost my ID!!! (which was necessary to confirm my details) I had already waited 3 hrs!!! n now they were sending me home cause the person who was supposed to hand out everything had gone on break n wasnt coming in at least 2 hrs!!!!!
Even with the biggest complain I didnt get a thing. So I resigned to go home, calm the nerves down n return. Funny to say that when I returned, they said they found my ID somewhere which was only 10 min after I left the office.
They made me waste time, resources n my peace of mind. What cd i do?? I just checked my details , finally signed n went off.
"Blessed" office service!!!!
After a while it becomes into a nice anecdote to tell though. :D:D
Regards
Rossy.
PD. all these happened in Bolivia-South Anerica BTW. All over the world seems to be same.
I like the way you are! You're not the typical "I-love-pink" kind of girl =)
ReplyDeleteI like that you don't always post about make up stuff. I love make up, too, but it's nice to see a context for all this make up stuff. How'd you get to live in Switzerland if your family is in Canada?
ReplyDelete