A few people have asked about the card and whether we will have to go back to Claremorris to pick it up. Bill asked Garda Treacy about that and she was sympathetic to the issue we faced, but she was unable to do anything about it. She did say that when she calls to tell us it has arrived, she will also let us know when she will be there during the day in her capacity as a regular garda so that we will not have to come back at night during a time when she is there as an immigration officer. She asked how much the taxi cost (someone in the waiting room asked, too-people here seem quite interested in how much things cost) and seemed appalled by that. She asked if we couldnt have taken the bus, so I told her that wed have to go from Ballinrobe to Galway to Claremorris and then stay overnight before reversing the journey the next day. You could tell this was a surprise to her. I was glad I had a chance to tell her this because even though she cant change the rules, its good for her to keep in mind that sometimes this little jaunt is a burden for people. Someone in the waiting room was worried that she wouldnt show up and I got the impression that hed come before and found her absent. That is not nice. She was quite nice, friendly and efficient once we were in her office, though she was surprisingly negative about Claremorris. When we told her that wed gotten to town around 1, she said, Mother of God, you dont mean to tell me that youve been hanging around here in town for all that time! I told her that we wanted to have a chance to make other arrangements if the taxi didnt show up, and she said, I think I would have taken my chances instead of being HERE all day. When we told her how much Bills social security dollars were in euro, she commented, Well, youre not going wild on that now, are ye? She, like most of the other garda Ive come in contact with, is very young. I felt like telling her that going wild for me means something like taking a walk by a field of sheep, finding a good book in a charity shop, listening to an interesting podcast, or possibly buying a pastry at the local bakery--LOL. Stamp my passport and I will go home to my decidedly unwild, peaceful and happy boring old life :-) She did and I did and Im glad. Bill commented as we were wandering around town yesterday that hes glad we ended up in Ballinrobe because its better than Claremorris. I agreed with him on that. Now we can plan our short summer jaunts to Letterkenny and environs and to Ennis. Yay! And just to put the icing on the cake, when we walked out of the garda station last night, it soon began to rain. Bill sought shelter. I stood out in the rain enjoying every bit, much to Bills dismay. He kept saying, At least it held off until now. It seemed like a fitting end to a stressful time :-)
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 09:58:39 +0000
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