Beyond My Control

Location : Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

On Tuesday morning, I went down to the British High Commission to submit my working holiday visa application. Prior to this, I'd already done a whole lot of homework relating to this application. 2 months was spent on it. I doubt I left any loopholes in which I can be rejected and if I am rejected, they've got to have a pretty damn strong reason for it! Still, anything can happen so I'm keeping my fingers and legs crossed(fingers are not enough). Sometimes, you can never ever control an outcome even though you've put in your best effort. The High Commissioner opened at 8am and I was the second person to walk in. I expected to zoom down to the city centre, drop my application forms and documents quickly, and then shoot out of the city centre as fast as I can to avoid as much of the traffic jam as possible. But I should have known, who am I kidding? This is Malaysia! Whenever bureaucracy is involved, something's bound to go wrong somewhere and you will always need to dedicate at least half a day to get things done because of some rude, smartass, smug and sometimes corrupt moron sitting behind the counter. And it did.

Like I said, I'd prepared everything meticulously way in advance so there was supposedly no way in hell anything could've gone wrong. I even filled out the application form 3 times just to make sure I entered the right answers in without any mistakes. After a 48 hour marathon insomnia attack, I sit down with the lady receiving my application at the desk...

Me    : Mornin'.
Lady : Good morning, can I see your documents, please?
Me    : Sure... (and I confidently laid out all my hard work on the table)
Lady : Oh, I'm sorry but the passport photographs you brought are only meant for Malaysian passport applications. We MUST have passport photographs that are white in the background.
Malaysian passport photographs are blue in the background
Me    : (In disbelief)...Do you know that I called you guys in ADVANCE and spoke to someone with an Indian accent to check if I can submit Malaysian passport photographs and I was told yes, it was valid and ok?
Lady : Oh really? Well, it's not ok with us and I can't submit your photographs if they do not meet the exact specifications.
Me    : Oh, come on...what's the difference if the background colour is white or blue? It's not the background that's applying for the visa but the face!
Then I proceed to put the photograph next to my face and smiled like me in the picture...
Me    : And what makes it even more ridiculous is I called you guys 3 or 4 times before today just to avoid something like this from happening, to make sure I got everything right and STILL I am facing a dead end here.
Lady : There's a photography shop downstairs, across the road, where they take passport photographs that meet our exact requirements.
Me    : Really? How much do you make out of it? What's your cut?!!

Ok, I didn't say that last sentence to her but I swear I really wanted to throw a tantrum, do the usual slam-the-table-and-then-turn-it-over thing. I would've bent her over and whoop her ass too. But I didn't. I couldn't. I still had to submit my forms and I was handing in very important documents to these people. The lady behind the desk wasn't too snotty or snobby at all, just very strict about application requirements. The person at fault is that stupid bitch on the phone so I told this lady to please inform the people answering the phones that they have GOT IT ALL WRONG and if they don't start getting it right, they are going to be answering phones all their lives.

So off I go to this shop downstairs across the road and they are bloody CLOSED. Of course! Who on earth opens their shop at that hour of the morning? I normally go to sleep at those hours!!! After drifting in and out of sleep on the sidewalk for 1.5 hours(I hadn't slept for 2 days), the shop finally opens and I dragged myself into the shop looking like a walking corpse. From a proper picture of me looking nice and healthy(with blue background, left), I ended up submitting a picture of myself looking like I hadn't slept for a week, pale, baggy eyes, unshaven, with a silly looking jacket, looking like Homer Simpson(with white background). So if you're ever trying your best to prepare for a chore knowing full well that you've avoided every possible mistake, remember - something is going to go wrong and there is nothing you can do about it!

Well, I'm feeling a sigh of relief coming over me because I'm just glad that the application is in and I don't have to fret, exert anymore effort, be stressed over it, mentally occupied with it and lose touch with anyone because of it. Speaking of which I've only just found out today, that I'd lost something which was never really mine to start with...