Express my ass

Mr. O is having great fun trying to obtain his certificate of good conduct from the U.A.E. police. Here's a taste: The only system of addresses in Abu Dhabi for mail is a P.O. box system. When you live there you get in a taxi and say "Hyundai Showroom," not "123 Main Street." Street addresses are a relative science, and that's just the way it is. Hence the P.O boxes.

However, FedEx express courier ($150 worth, neveryoumind) requires a signature to deliver a package, so dropping it in the P.O. Box isn't apparently an option. They called Mr. O on Saturday after trying to deliver it three times (Thursday, Friday, Saturday), asking if there was any other number they could try. Of course, Thursday afternoon and Friday are known as The Weekend in that part of the world, and it would appear that there's some kind of larger holiday going on, which would explain the inability to get through. Why they don't just get the janitor to sign it and drop it in the PO box is beyond me.

The bitch of it is, this is the last piece we need for his PR application to be complete, and it's already taken six months, including our own procrastination. Once we got the OWP we were, as far as daily life goes, home free, but now I'd really just like to get the damn thing over with and get on with my life. We have no idea how long the processing will take on their end, but if delivery itself is this complicated...well, inshallah the rest of it is less of a gong show.