The receipt of an insurance cheque moves one step closer following a meeting yesterday. The insurance company head office sends me a list of documents that they require me to hand over. I gather them together and agree to meet the company representative at the office of she who must be obeyed, on the grounds that it easier to find than my condo. Amazingly the representative arrives almost on time, a sure sign that cock-ups are ahead.
We sit beaming at each other across a table and it soon becomes clear that he has no idea what he needs to do. I try to help by passing the documents, spare car keys etc. that have been requested across the table. He smiles and looks at them. I tell him that the company has told me that I have to sign the car ownership document before passing it to him, and that he will show me where to sign. No you don’t, he says. Yes I do, I say. He ignores me. I show him the e-mail from head office. Yes you do, he says. I sign it.
The e-mail also told me that he would bring two transfer forms for me to sign. Where are they, I ask? Uh, he replies. I show him the mail. I don’t have, he says. I sigh. He sighs. I consider kicking him under the table.
She who must be obeyed leaps to the rescue by seeking out the relevant government site on the wide wide world of web, finds the documents and prints them out for me to sign. He is unclear where I should sign, she who must be obeyed comes to the rescue again.
After half an hour of messing around he is finally out of the door, carrying everything he was meant to have been carrying; what a plonker.
Three hours later I get a further e-mail from head office saying I should get a cheque early next week. Then all I need to do is send it to my bank in Bangkok and wait for a week or so while it clears.
Patience is more than a virtue here, it is a necessity.
Comments 🔗
2008-11-19| Camberley saysMy blood pressure would never cope with all this.
2008-11-20| Spike saysThis is one area where I can say that Thailand has changed me, and for the better. Things are constantly being screwed up here and the Thai response is “mai pen rai” which I loosely translate as “it doesn’t really matter”; and it’s true, most of the annoying stuff in life is trivial stuff and if you let it go, it ceases to be annoying. Over the years I have learned to adopt the mai pen rai approach and I am certainly a calmer man than I used to be. Of course, I have my limits.
2008-11-21| Jock says“mai pen rai” = “inshallah”
I adopt the same approach … if God wants’s it done it will be done … sometime or other … and if the result is that my contract lasts a year rather then the 4 months it should take to get the job done then I’ll be a rich man … Inshallah !!
2008-11-21| Spike saysIt’s clear you are currently in the Middle East!