Police bean counters

Spent the day running around Suva. I needed to get a police clearance report for Fiji work permit application. So I walked to the police offices beside the central police station in town. When I got there, I was told they weren't doing the reports in town any more. They only accept the requests at the police headquarters four miles out of town. I wasted a trip out in the sun and you know how I hate the sun. I had to go back to the office because I didn't have small notes for taxi fare. Some taxi drivers won't change a $50 dollar note.

Back at the office, I worked on my laptop. Needed to upgrade to a bigger disk. My original 40gb disk was full and very fragmented. Cloning the disk and de-fragmenting it took a lot of time. I still haven't got it installed yet because I'm missing a small jumper switch.

I left the office again after lunch. This time to go to the police headquarters. I don't understand why they moved their services out of town. It is very inconvenient. As far as I'm concerned, 4 miles, Centre Point is the middle of nowhere.

When I got there, there was just one lady in front of me so I thought I didn't have to wait long to lodge my application. That was just wishful thinking. The bean counter at the desk was particularly slow at everything he does. He wrote the cheque numbers down very slowly. He printed the words on the receipt one letter at a time. He took about 3 minutes to take the woman's cheque and give her a receipt. The whole time I was there, he kept up a running conversation with the clerk sitting beside him. Sometimes, pausing whatever he was doing to look directly at his colleague so he can pay more attention to the latest gossip. If that's what they do all day, I don't know how they never run out of things to talk about. I don't think I've ever encountered a slower bean counter. The only redeeming qualities about these guys were that they were polite and friendly.

Finally, with the application lodged, I returned to the office. Processing fee for police clearance is $22.50. The taxi fare to 4miles and back from town was $10.50.

Post Scriptum: In other news, I played squash today. Today's players were of a higher level than Tuesday's. I got many good games. Haven't got any sports scheduled for tomorrow. Thinking of playing squash again.