Tuesday, July 31, 2007

procrastinatin' like hamlet

things are working out. i thought they would, but they actually worked out faster, smoother and better than i could have hoped. my australia journey started out low, with the sky opening and massive amounts of rain starting to come down just a minute or two before i was going to leave for the train to the airport. so i had to get my rain gear out of the bag, and i couldn't bring my hat, and i missed the train. i felt like shit when i was running up the stairs to the platform, because if there's one time you shouldn't miss a train, it's when you are going on an interhemispheral flight on a sunday and the next train doesn't leave for thirty-five minutes. i still had decent time, but missing that train meant that i had used up my buffer time for "things that can go wrong" for that part of the trip, and if the next train would be delayed, i would be in serious trouble. fortunately, it was not and the rest of the trip worked out way too well.

on friday, around noon, i applied for a tourist visa for australia. that's two days before i was leaving. now, i already had a working holiday visa that lasted until mid-september, but i would like to stay longer than that and i wasn't sure how difficult it would be to extend my visa from australia. because of this, i contacted the closest australian embassy and they said it was possible to get an extended visa as long as i applied before my current one expired. what they didn't tell me was that applying before going to australia would cost me exactly $0, whereas applying whilst in australia would cost $215 (that's for the exact same type of online application). i didn't realize this until i rummaged different official websites for the third or fourth time, on friday, around noon. my flight was on sunday. i applied for the visa, but for it to be valid it had to be granted before i got on my plane to australia. fat chance, i thought. australia is 8 hours ahead of sweden in time, so when i applied it was 8 pm there and a weekend coming up. then i started thinking. why is it that i can't seem to get things done until the last possible second? i do this with everything. i waited way too long with getting my ticket, resulting in having to pay extra and getting 18 hours in bangkok. i needed to buy an mp3 player and new headphones, but i didn't look into it until wednesday, meaning it was too late to order them online and i had to settle for worse and more expensive options locally. and i only had to buy one because my old one broke and i haven't pushed enough on the manufacturer to get a repair and now it was too late. and i only booked a hotel in bangkok they day before leaving, meaning i couldn't be sure i would be able to get a room at a good place.

when i booked the plane ticket and found out that my three days of procrastinating had cost me so much, i felt awful. when i realized that my procrastination when applying for a visa extension would cost me a totally unnecessary $215, i felt awful. why is it that i can't seem to learn the lesson? why is it that i find it so hard to do everyday stuff like this, that i know needs to be done at some point? and i know i'm not the only one who's like this, why do people just not learn the lesson and start living happier and more efficient lives?

this time, like most times, things worked out better than they should have if i was to learn some sort of lesson. my visa was granted on saturday, i got the e-mail at about 4 pm, which means that it was midnight in australia. my visa was granted at midnight on a saturday in australia. i find this very amusing. my hotel reservation in bangkok came through within a few hours, not that that ended up mattering anyway, because i was able to get on an earlier flight in bangkok and cut down my idle time there from 18 to 2 hours. i spent most of it going back and forth on horizontal escalators (i know that's a contradiction, but whatever they are called - you know those things they have at airports that make you feel really jet-set because you are walking at lightning speed) and then went through the usual security thingamajig before boarding the plane with a giant smile on my face. i had considered the possibility that i might be able to get an earlier flight, but i couldn't count on it, i couldn't expect it or i'd be crashing hard if it wasn't possible. they took care of my baggage and everything, it was really smooth.

i should probably try hard to find some sort of structure to my life that would make it harder for these situations to occur in the first place. i'm not sure how to create it yet, but i need as much assistance as possible with getting things done in time. i'll try to learn the lesson even if i managed to get out of it this time.

so i got to sydney monday evening instead of tuesday lunch, which made everything a lot better. it was also infinitely better to arrive in the evening than at the ungodly time of 4 am, which i did last time. rachel picked me up at the airport, we took a cab home and had turkish apple tea and tim tams and i patted the cat and i felt so at home and so in love.

on a different and more humorous note, someone yesterday found my blog when searching for "+calculon +pirate +hamburgers" from google in chile. i hope my post answered all their questions. at least it's more likely than the personed who found me after googling "bra adventure".

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Åh, Peter, vad glad jag blev av att läsa att allting gick så himla bra!

Om det där att (inte) få saker gjorda i tid, så är jag precis likadan. Och det löser ju sig alltid på ett eller annat sätt, men det hade känts ännu bättre om man hade hoppat över ångestmomentet och bara gjort det istället.

Kumadude said...

Dude! I should so have hit refresh before replying to your previous post. Never mind; congrats on... the travellators? And also on getting everything ready in time, after all. However! I am still in the dark when it comes to the planned length of the tour. This post provided some hints - for which I am very grateful - but alas, they are not enough for me to solve the puzzle.

Yeah, that whole paragraph was all a build-up so I could say "alas" in a sentence.

Peter said...

j: ja, vad är det med människor egentligen? de flesta av oss är ganska dåligt geneteiskt programmerade/tillverkade och har alldeles för svårt för att göra saker. kanske räckte det förr i tiden med att samla mat och bygga bo? allt utöver två saker förtränger man. eller jag i alla fall :)

k: refresh? reply to previous post? i was way off and probably would not have updated, were it not for that post! also, where are your updates? and who actually won the vicious blog contest? and compliments on your casual use of alas! next time, i expect casual use of "lest".

Anonymous said...

Jag tror också på genetiken. Jag kan absolut inte rå för att jag inte gör saker i god tid :P

Em. said...

alas. such a beautiful, beautiful word.

Anonymous said...

yo homeboy!

me is getting the häng of these ägg-pizza-thingys! loooovely.

Maja said...

Jag sällar mig till skaran som skjuter upp allting till imorgon. Innan mitt flyg gick ungefär samtidigt som ditt fick jag köpa ny dyr resväska (den gamla hann inte fixas i tid, på garantin), sulor till skorna (de hann inte skickas till skomakaren i tid, på skoaffärens bekostnad) och så fick jag 60 dagars visum istället för 90 (med följden att jag snart måste åka till Chile och tillbaka för att få en ny stämpel). Och inga timtams finns det i Peru. Hoppas våren i sydney är fin mot er. /ellens syster som snokar på din blogg

Maja said...

åh nej, åh nej! jag borde inte förstöra din nöjdhet genom att avslöja att det i själva verket var 2 helvetiska transfers (heathrow och miami - de är inte så trevliga på något av ställena) och sedan 10 timmar i Lima med möte inbokat med Sida (då borde man ju vara pigg och alert), och sen en 1,5 timmes flygresa innan jag kom till en tom provisorisk lägenhet helt utan kärlek. Men OM jag hade åkt buss hade det varit 16 timmar till, så det blev inte så den gången. Den australiensiska vintern är inte att leka med om man har fel kläder, håll dig borta från Melbourne någon månad till. Och ät en timtam mint också!

tya said...

hahaha... thx