Update: Call Back Later

Pakistani Visa

Some information is better than no information though I might cynically (moi?) wonder how true the information is. I've just phoned the Pakistani Consulate in London for the third time and this time the guy actually made an effort to tell me something rather than say "we'll call you." His said my application was awaiting an update from an organisation. The implication was that it was an organisation in Pakistan so I pressed him and he said yes it was and went on further to say that under the current circumstances security was of the upmost importance. I concurred. He said call back in a few days when the organisation might have responded.

Of course I've no idea what this organisation might be or why my tourist visa application might be being routed through them. A fevered imagination might have the ISI involved, tracking foreigners, or that too many people have been using the same LOI organisation to front their independent trips through Pakistan and therefore my own, um, personalised trip has a cloud of suspicion hanging over it. They might even be reviewing the Ian Fitchets of this world and how their actual border crossings didn't match their proposed border crossings.

They might even be concerned for my safety and are going through some appropriate internal process. That's far too prosaic to be true, though.

Troos

In the meanwhile, I washed and then re-waterproofed the waterproof layer for my riding trousers, the ones which had been sent off for repair to the waterproof layer having been mangled in the chain in Southern India.

The blokey in the shop had muttered something about Gore-Tex being essentially plumber's tape or something and my thoughts about how the repairers would repair the silvery surface of the trousers were met with someone having splattered three-inch wide white tape over the rips and holes like you might have repaired it with gaffer tape. For £70. I presume it's very special tape.

Anyway, the tape is not sticky enough to survive a washing machine cycle.

Gore-Tex repair? Don't bother.

Mail Redirection

Hmm, neither I nor the woman at the Post Office managed to notice that I'd not filled in the Business Mail redirection form correctly. It seems there is a requirement for two "senior representatives" of the organisation to sign the form. Perhaps that legislation meaning that it only required one person to set up a company (rather than the old minimum of a Director and Company Secretary) hasn't been enacted as, clearly, it would no be possible to get the company's mail redirected under those circumstances.

On top of which the letter informing me that form was filled in incorrectly took four days to arrive.

So, some company mail may get lost.