i’m kind of excited & proud today: i became a Reader of the British Library. i must admit that my card is only valid for a week, although they insisted that they keep the files and i only have to come back next time with the magic paper and i’ll get a full card. and the magic paper is… any kind of document or letter or bill or bank statement with my address on it. cause listen to this: i presented a perfectly valid Belgian passport (with a perfectly valid US visa in it), a perfectly valid Belgian identity card and Luxemburg residence permit. but in this British bureaucracy, these documents didn’t count (they lack an address).<\/p>\n
giulia was already read to go and find ourselves another place to work, but i stay put, grow roots on the spot, and argue. the woman lists all the possible documents that she would accept, proposes that i can get a bank statement or bill faxed and come back on monday, but i’m not ready yet to accept. i get lucky cause i find my international student health insurance pass, with the old Kenneth Street address in Santa Cruz on it. she doesn’t recognize this particular kind of health insurance card (admittedly, it’s a lousy bit of paper) but surely, i argue, with all of these documents together it must be possible. she gets her superior. he agrees to do me week card. then my eye falls on the expiry date on my health insurance pass: 31 June 2006. shit. (i mean, i’m sure i have health insurance somewhere somehow – hello there mum, no need to worry – only the pass doesn’t vouch for it). but they don’t notice and 10 minutes later i have my BL plastic card with digital photo. the magic card which opens the doors to an impressive reading room, what a amazing working space…<\/p>\n
so if i understood it well: three different kinds of valid official goverment-issued documents, but it’s a expired temporary health insurance card that does the trick. getting acquinted (again) with perks of British admin and bureaucratic logic…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
i’m kind of excited & proud today: i became a Reader of the British Library. i must admit that my card is only valid for a week, although they insisted that they keep the files and i only have to come back next time with the magic paper and i’ll get a full card. and … Continue reading “la british”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarah.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarah.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarah.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarah.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarah.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sarah.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarah.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarah.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarah.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}