More bureaucrazy fun

I'm wondering if it's too late to declare this week bureaucrazy week at Delinissima?

Following on from my last post, I went to the Ufficio Anagrafe today. "Anagrafe" translates as "registry". So where I went was the registry office. I didn't realise that before I went. Now I know, and it makes things a bit clearer.

I arrived at 8:45, fifteen minutes before kick off. There was a crowd of people already outside, all "persone per bene" as they say here. This is a commonly used term to mean the "good people" - rather than the bad people mmmmh. Expats, think the questura crowd but power dressed. I was a little surprised by this as in most government offices don't you get a mixed bunch of people? However now that I understand I went to the registry office, I know that these people were likely to be lawyers and commercialistas there to register various contracts and the like.

Anyway as soon as the doors swung open in they all pushed in, elbows out to be the first in the number queue. They knew the drill alright. I was carried along with it all, Ufficio Anagrafe rookie that I am. I got my number, 24 this time. There was a board which displayed different booth and ticket numbers, so you really had to keep your eye on the board as the numbers kept moving up and down. Eyes down looking. I'm not sure if it felt more like bingo or "come on down!" today. As soon as 24 showed I waved my number in the air and ran on down to the booth. Woo hoo!

It was a simple procedure once at the booth. Filled in a form and was done.

But, there's always a but, today's public office hitch is that even though the woman at the health office place said she hadn't authorised the sending of my health card, she actually *had*. This means that my health card is now on it's way to an old address, ie to someone else's house. The man told me today it will be there in about 20 days, but from the comments on my last post I'm not sure I believe him.