It's one of those Sunday mornings...
May. 18th, 2008 09:29 am...when the world feels perfect. The weather has been behaving in a rather atypical way here in Ankara - last year it was already summer at this time of the year, but this year it's more like late spring. The morning is cool and smells of acacias, everything is quiet, the sky is perfectly blue and the birds are chirping. I'm sitting here with my cup of tea and feeling perfectly happy watching ze boyz out on the balcony, sniffing the moist air and obviously enjoying life.
All this contentment does of course not stop me being a bitch and enjoying watching the Ambassador dig what we all hope will be her own grave. And since it's so much fun to watch, it really ought to be written down, if only for me to enjoy it all over again later.
More than a week after the inspection, nothing has changed. As far as I'm able to judge the situation, nothing is going to change in the weeks to come, because first there's the state visit of or Federal President (starting this Monday), and then there won't be much time for any changes to be made, because Madam Ambassador will be on holiday soon afterwards. The changes requested by the inspection team mostly concerned communication: re-introducing weekly meetings between the Ambassador, First Secretary, myself and Gabriele, which ought to provide a forum for discussing embassy business. Also, the Ambassdor's duty to keep me informed of everything concerning my field of work (i.e. budget, staff, administration in general).
For example, the inspector - I almost wrote 'requests and requires', which is nice but clearly a Vorkosiganism - stressed the necessity of staff rotation in the visa department (we're still in the clutches of our visa afair after all), which, as he rightly pointed out, cannot be organized by yours truly alone. Staff rotation would have had to be one of the topics of our first meeting, which the inspector said had to take place immediately after his visit. More than a week has passed, but still no sign of a meeting. Hence no rotation. This won't go down well with the powers that be in Vienna.
Not to mention that the Ambassador has written a report asking for a pay raise for the local staff, of which I've heard but which I haven't seen. Or the report concerning visa matters, which I haven't seen either.
Although the part of the innocent victim isn't usually one I like to play, I decided that, just this time, it would be very much to my advantage to just sit there and let things happen, in order to point, with an innocently trembling forefinger, at the state of things once the inspector comes back for a follow-up.
The Federal President's visit, however, might be the real grave-digger. Because, you know, the man won't just come on his own. It won't be as bad as Her Majesty Elizabeth II last week, mostly because there's less protocol involved. But is it really a good idea to put the accompanying ministers' luggage (there'll be three of them) not with the rest of the luggage but in the ministers' cars? It's definitely a bad idea, because those cars are put at our disposal by the Turkish foreign ministry, i.e. driven by people who don't understand a foreign language and have clear instructions to drive the visitors to the hotel and leave. Ministers don't usually bother with their luggage. They just get out of the car and enter the hotel, expecting that some lowly minion will take their assorted suitcases to their suites. Which might not happen, considering that nobody will be there to remind the drivers of the luggage.
It's hard to find words for the kind of gleeful expectation some of us feel, when we think of three enraged ministers wanting to get changed for the cocktail reception and finding out that their luggage is not in their room.
It's bad form to gloat, but if things really happen that way, I suppose there'll be quite a lot of gloating going on.
This said, let's move on to something completely different: The Canterbury Handfasting has been recommended on![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fangirl_tour, and I'm feeling very honoured. For those who haven't read it yet I'd like to point out that it's also available at ff.net, with the advantage of chapter links, which make reading a bit easier: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3565098/1/The_Canterbury_Handfasting . And for those who missed the sequel Once in a Lifetime, it's here: http://pigwidgeon37.livejournal.com/2007/04/28/ Still only on my LJ, I'm afraid.
And now it's time to do some household chores. Then coffee, I think, and toenail-varnishing.
Have a lovely Sunday, everybody!
All this contentment does of course not stop me being a bitch and enjoying watching the Ambassador dig what we all hope will be her own grave. And since it's so much fun to watch, it really ought to be written down, if only for me to enjoy it all over again later.
More than a week after the inspection, nothing has changed. As far as I'm able to judge the situation, nothing is going to change in the weeks to come, because first there's the state visit of or Federal President (starting this Monday), and then there won't be much time for any changes to be made, because Madam Ambassador will be on holiday soon afterwards. The changes requested by the inspection team mostly concerned communication: re-introducing weekly meetings between the Ambassador, First Secretary, myself and Gabriele, which ought to provide a forum for discussing embassy business. Also, the Ambassdor's duty to keep me informed of everything concerning my field of work (i.e. budget, staff, administration in general).
For example, the inspector - I almost wrote 'requests and requires', which is nice but clearly a Vorkosiganism - stressed the necessity of staff rotation in the visa department (we're still in the clutches of our visa afair after all), which, as he rightly pointed out, cannot be organized by yours truly alone. Staff rotation would have had to be one of the topics of our first meeting, which the inspector said had to take place immediately after his visit. More than a week has passed, but still no sign of a meeting. Hence no rotation. This won't go down well with the powers that be in Vienna.
Not to mention that the Ambassador has written a report asking for a pay raise for the local staff, of which I've heard but which I haven't seen. Or the report concerning visa matters, which I haven't seen either.
Although the part of the innocent victim isn't usually one I like to play, I decided that, just this time, it would be very much to my advantage to just sit there and let things happen, in order to point, with an innocently trembling forefinger, at the state of things once the inspector comes back for a follow-up.
The Federal President's visit, however, might be the real grave-digger. Because, you know, the man won't just come on his own. It won't be as bad as Her Majesty Elizabeth II last week, mostly because there's less protocol involved. But is it really a good idea to put the accompanying ministers' luggage (there'll be three of them) not with the rest of the luggage but in the ministers' cars? It's definitely a bad idea, because those cars are put at our disposal by the Turkish foreign ministry, i.e. driven by people who don't understand a foreign language and have clear instructions to drive the visitors to the hotel and leave. Ministers don't usually bother with their luggage. They just get out of the car and enter the hotel, expecting that some lowly minion will take their assorted suitcases to their suites. Which might not happen, considering that nobody will be there to remind the drivers of the luggage.
It's hard to find words for the kind of gleeful expectation some of us feel, when we think of three enraged ministers wanting to get changed for the cocktail reception and finding out that their luggage is not in their room.
It's bad form to gloat, but if things really happen that way, I suppose there'll be quite a lot of gloating going on.
This said, let's move on to something completely different: The Canterbury Handfasting has been recommended on
fangirl_tour, and I'm feeling very honoured. For those who haven't read it yet I'd like to point out that it's also available at ff.net, with the advantage of chapter links, which make reading a bit easier: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3565098/1/The_Canterbury_Handfasting . And for those who missed the sequel Once in a Lifetime, it's here: http://pigwidgeon37.livejournal.com/2007/04/28/ Still only on my LJ, I'm afraid.And now it's time to do some household chores. Then coffee, I think, and toenail-varnishing.
Have a lovely Sunday, everybody!
