After a longtime, planning, waiting and fulfilling numerous diplomatic procedures. I was close to getting Taiwan. I have never been great at waiting, to impatient I guess and my mind always thinks the worst. Some people say "No news is good news!" For me though, "No News" means "What is going wrong!" I had to get documents to say I could get married and a Disclosure to show I had a clean code of conduct (No Police Record). The Police Records bureau forgot to stamp the Disclosure (despite me calling them to inform them and reminding them through email). This added some stress to an already stressful procedure. Luckily, my work had given me gardening leave so I had time to go to Glasgow. So I called them up on Monday and negotiated they they would stamp the form if I came through to their office, rather than waiting on them to process another form. I made it back from Glasgow with just enough time to print off some documents, fill them out and send them special delivery to the Foreign Office for legalization which would keep me on schedule. I got them back by the end of the week, which would give the Taiwanese Consular one week to process the documents and visa.
I sent an email to the Consulate Office to confirm that they would be able to process them and they reply telling me that they are closed Monday, Friday and the following Monday (the day I intend to fly). One week just got shortened to three days and I forgot to also mention that they only open from 9.30am to 12, adding to the urgency. To top it all off the Consular is not in the office for them to confirm if the procedure can be completed in three days. I hold off on booking the ticket and call them on Tuesday morning to confirm they can process them and I am told it can be done as long as I get everything to them today. I book the ticket online, grab all the stuff and run to get the bus into town.
I arrive at the Consulate office and go through the documents and payment with the receptionist. She informs me that I will have to wait as the Consular will have a short interview with me. I panic a bit, but I was half expecting it and am prepared, hair unspiked, £300 suit on, shirt and tie, looking every bit the fine upstanding gentleman I am. He is busy, so I wait. Another woman enters for visa purposes and then an older Asian gentleman. He says "Are you the one who wants Visa?" and leads me to the bank of tables to the left, while the new applicant seamlessly transitions into the seat while I am vacating it. He flicks through my passport and documents a few times, looking very much like an annoyed Uncle, (I suppress my natural urge to be witty) then he says “I think we will process this for you” then stands up gives the documents to the receptionist, says something in Mandarin and walks off. I stand there confused as I watch him walk off. The receptionist calls after him a few times. I don’t know if he heard her or not but if he did then he chose to ignore here. Then she turns to me and says “ok, thank you” I smile and say “Umm is that me finished?” “Yes” is the reply.
Job done, it is out of my hands now. I rush home to get into more normal clothing and head to see some friends. I don’t want my mind to work overtime. It is sunny for a change in the ‘Burgh and we are working in the garden destroying tree roots, when my friends mum says to me “You were always a nice laddie, just a bit crazy” I will take that as a compliment.
Anyway, I got the visa and all the documents on Thursday, so it was all “Much ado about nothing”
My last week in Edinburgh went really fast and I felt like I was running out of time. I never got to say bye to everyone etc. Met my old work mates, many of whom gave me baby presents which I really appreciated and also collectively they gave me money. The last week was really strange, I looked upon Edinburgh with open eyes, feeling it would be a long time before I saw the place again. I spent a lot of time replaying memories in my mind. I know for one I will miss her beauty. People seemed to view me as seeing me for the last time which kind of made me feel like I was dying a very strange feeling. I had a great time with my family at my mum and then a final game of flag of Sunday. I got to meetup with Dean and Rab etc for the last time and I am happy I got to see all those people. Which brings me up to date to the night before the flight.
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