Things are happening!

I really need to get better at keeping this up to date. Ah well.

I spent Saturday hunting for my birth certificate. It was the last piece of paper I needed to get hold of before I could send off my visa application for New Zealand, but could I find it? I didn't even need to send them a copy; all I needed was the date of issue (presumably so they could check up on whether a certificate in that name was issued on that date. Clever).

Why is it that when you're searching for something, it becomes the dearest thing to you?

It wasn't all bad, though. I finally sorted through lots of papers, so now I just need a shredder to get rid of them properly. After all, there's a lot of fuss about identity theft and I really don't fancy dealing with that hassle. I decided that I didn't need my UCAS stuff any more, or my "Welcome to Durham!" papers. That part of my life, while fun, is now over and there's no point in hanging on to it. I have kept my graduation stuff, of course.

Anyway, I was halfway through sorting papers when my mum decided that an Ikea trip was a good idea. That shop is evil, in the nicest possible way. I do have organisational boxes now though - including a little chest of drawers for papers, which I can put the damn birth certificate in! So yay for organisation.

I was resigned to doing more of the same on Sunday, and despairing of ever actually finding my birth certificate. Then I went to one of my Boxes O'Stuff and found my National Record of Achievement (does anyone actually use those?) - guess what was tucked inside? Yes, that's right - BOTH copies of my birth certificate, long and short. Huzzah! I now had the last piece of information needed to turn the little red x on the application into a nice green tick. I filled in the required date, and voila! Everything was good to go, including the NZ$120 application fee. Boo. (Although having just worked it out, that comes to £47.95. Huh.)

TL;DR - found certificate, sent off digital application form. Joyfulness ensues.

Now I just need to send off the medical certificates to London, which should be done this lunchtime. Fingers crossed that Eccles post office hasn't been closed down! EDIT: done now, recorded delivery and everything. Good stuff.

As for other things that happened this weekend, there weren't many of note. I drove a different car in my driving lesson than usual, since the normal one was in the garage. It was a Citroen C3, I think, and felt a lot bigger than the little Corsa! I had to reach quite far over to find the gear stick, and the brakes were sharper, and the steering was lighter. I quite enjoyed it though, nice car. Still can't bay park - I seem to be able to get it in the bay, but WHICH bay I'm never quite sure of. Ho hum; I only need to do it once on my test, and then I can park nose-first like the rest of the world.

The rest of the weekend was taken up with more sorting of shelves and boxes. This means that most of the stuff from my Boxes O'Stuff is now on my shelves, which is exciting (not least for my mother, who has been complaining about them being on the landing since I put them there eight months ago.

Now it's Monday again, as happens all too often. The difference today is that I'm being "trained" on some software. The reason that "trained" is in inverted commas is because this training takes the form of one person giving me a copy of a database and the user guide, and saying "Learn how to do this". Well, I'll certainly try, but don't blame me when the (rather big and powerful) customer can't get anything to work. Proper training? We do offer that, and indeed A is on the Basic User Course this week (she says it's boring) but because this needs to be rolled out to the customer yesterday I don't get that. Ah well.

TL;DR - room is tidied (ish), different cars are fun, work is as disorganised as ever.

That's all for now, I think. Long post for me!