A Not So Pet Peeve

I hate bureaucracy. I hate the idea that in order to achieve my objective I must jump through all sorts of hoops at the behest of someone who happens to have a bit of power, with the rationale from their part amounting to little more than "because I said so". I also hate being treated with the assumption of dishonesty, the attitude that I must first prove myself honest is something I find demeaning and disgusting. Lastly I loathe badly designed and poorly working systems. Having read all that, I'm sure you see how I'm not particularly relishing the prospect of acquiring my residence permit here.

There's a photo requirement which I can live with, though a few years back they just took a snapshot with a digital camera and were done with it. I'm required to show proof of residence, ie the house owner must produce a notarised (!) document stating I have permission to live in her house. Thirdly, I will need bank documents stating I have more than €99 on my account, to demonstrate I won't be begging on the streets. Not even joking about the last one.

Then I will need to go with my documents to the foreign police -not the same as normal police department- which has moved to another town and is open three days a week. All the while hoping that some requirement wasn't omitted from the info or that they don't have further hoops hidden somewhere.

This sort of thing always brings out my anti-authoritarian side and I then develop a strong tendency to get irritably impatient. Which I realise, is not very conducive to getting a petty bureaucrat to do one's bidding. I'm only hoping they will accept my -likely to be in Finnish- printed out bank statement, otherwise the risk of me getting stroppy at them will grow considerably.

So tomorrow the notary, bank statement print outs and photos, the day after the bloody foreign police in another damn town. I shall just have to swallow my desire to elaborate on my true opinions regarding the process and attempt to channel my righteous indignation into witheringly courteous behaviour. Oh, and mustn't forget to practise my best posh RP.