It was like the Amazing Race.
Start: EST 16:50.
Challenge: print off, certify and post a statutory declaration so it gets to Adelaide by Tuesday. Not to mention how to do all of the preceding and find the locations of all relevant places…and the fact I had no map and had zero familiarity with Melbourne CBD. Bonus: find the gold express post box!!
Highlights: finding out that Melbournites are quite accomodating when “WHERE’S THE NEAREST POLICE STATION?” is screamed into their faces, being sent on a wild goose chase by shop staff who just want to get rid of the asian lunatic begging to use their computers/printers, getting ripped off by the Indian convenience store owner to use his computers/printer, sprinting all around Melbourne and nearly chucking my guts out onto the pavement.
Didn’t manage to make it in time before the main post office closed at 5:30, but then realised (saw express post advertisement in the window of this little store run by a Korean dude who was nice but refused to let me use his computer/printer - “it’s inconvenient”, he said with a little smile which is asianspeak for “you’re crazy, please get out of my shop”) could still post by using the gold express post boxes - deadline 6pm. Thus….30mins to do all of the above!!!
Managed to post at 6:04. Hung around waiting for post office van to make sure I wasn’t late. Mail collected: 6:14.
…and after all that, I still don’t feel safe. I mean I didn’t even get to check the stat dec/certification before I chucked it in the box. Plus the police seem to certify just anything - he didn’t even ask me for photo ID… probably because he saw I was desperate?
So…I’m flying back to Adelaide this Sunday early morning 6:30 (cheapest flight …$50! woohoo~).
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The stat dec is a document I have to lodge with the Legal Practitioner’s Board, or something, in Adelaide by Tuesday. Had posted it on time before but there was a very MINOR mistake that I made due to a technicality I didn’t know about.
Since I’m not confident that the one I mailed in a rush yesterday night was 100% correct, I’m flying down to lodge a 100% certainly correct one, and if that is not correct at least I’ll be in Adelaide to wash, rinse, repeat.
I am a courier, hear me roar.
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UPDATE: Forgot to mention that my mobile with net access was invaluable. No one seemed to know with any certainty where it was, and they’d point off vaguely in any direction. Yesterday was wild goose chase day, I tell you! Then I remembered I had net access! I have a SE K800i (3G) and together with the Opera mini browser I could quickly find the website of the Victorian police and lookup the addresses of police stations in the city. I heart web access on my SE, I heart Opera mini!
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