I'm on my way to get my residence card renewed. The appointment isn't until 14:30 but I got a lift most of the way with No. 1 son on his way to work at 07:30. I've taken a leisurely and circuitous stroll, crossed the river twice and now I'm having coffee and a chocolate croissant in the student café.
The police station is just around the corner so I'm over four hours early. That's okay because the whole point of starting so early was to put myself in a situation where there is nothing to do but walk so I get more exercise than I've been getting lately. With my car out of action I've been staying home more which means I've had more time for hobbies. But my principal hobby is computer programming which means I spend rather too much time sitting down.
So when I've finished my coffee I'll take a walk to a shopping centre on the edge of town and visit another café. The round trip is only an hour and a half so I don't need to rush.
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I wonder if the Utlendingsdirektorat (UDI, Directorate of Immigration) has a high staff turnover. When I got my first residence card five years ago (after over thirty years a a permanent resident without needing one) the woman dealing with my case was 'under opplæring', under training. Today was the first time I've been back since and it was the same again, different woman of course. All the staff there seem to be women too.
Anyway, they examined my passport, took my picture and finger prints, asked me if I was going on holiday and when. The latter was simply to ascertain whether i would get the card in time.
As I mentioned earlier this was my first time en femme dealing with such a formality. Not only that but my picture was taken with lipstick and earrings, I wonder if that will be obvious in the image printed on the card. if it's anything like the image on my current card which is a rather wishy washy grey the lipstick probably won't show but I think the earrings might. It's not an ID card anyway so it doesn't really matter I suppose.
