Rattling Cages

So there's still no news on my immigration case. To say that I'm now hacked off with the whole thing is the understatement of the year. I didn't for a moment think, when I was saving a sum to live off while jobless, that I'd be almost into December and still not be sorted. "Six months is a worst case scenario", I said. So I finally gave up last Thursday on day 398 and tried to contact them. My emails to the address listed on their letterhead and website bounced back immediately as undeliverable. That's taking "do not contact us" to extremes, I think.

I re-read the last communication they sent me in August, and it stated my case would be reviewed in 120 days, which would be next Wednesday. Again, I snapped this evening and found the 'Case Specific Enquiry' function on the main immigration website. What prompted my snapping is the observation that, following another passport request yesterday, pretty much every other case in the tracker of September/October 2010 has now had their passport request. Two other cases aren't updated, a British citizen and someone who I think was rejected in September and hasn't updated their status. So it could be that if CIC have had someone in their UK office do the security check, it might be sat on someone's desk in London, a noted black hole in these sort of things.

Or it could be that my hotmail account has been aggressively blocking any emails they've tried to send me; numerous ones from my parents also never made it through. I had a promotional email from the hotmail PR team today, proclaiming only 2% of spam gets through. Very pleased with themselves, they were. It's one thing to block spam entirely, but important communications from government agencies? FFS. And wouldn't you know, not five minutes since I sent my request, I've just had a confirmation to my gmail that "we have received your request and will review it shortly". Again, not from an email address listed on their website or letters. We'll see what their definition of 'shortly' is.........

Developments

To describe Bradford City's season thus far as a bit of a roller-coaster is something of an understatement. Just when you thought that they might slowly be piecing it together on the field after being onto their third manager by October, along comes another bolt from the blue. Up until today, we were confident, following a quite superb set of articles on one of the leading independent BCFC sites, BoyFromBrazil, that the club had a long term plan. The fans have been, on the whole, quite patient given the team was at one stage only a Plymouth goal away from being 92nd of 92 in the professional game. The man to oversee the long term plan was the head of development, Archie Christie.

So imagine my puzzlement this morning, when an email from my brother - partly in reply to my rant about HSBC secure keys below - signs off with "I see the BCFC fun bus has been driven into the ditch again". Eh? A quick look at twitter made the heart sink. Archie Christie had left the club. Due to "ill health". Later in the day, BoyFromBrazil published this article. If the allegations (for want of a better word) are true, then this is the latest in a series of very spectacular PR own goals. The club, of course, denied it within a couple of hours through Derm Tanner of BBC Radio Leeds. I'm not sure what I find more depressing: that there was another in a long line of PR fiascos brewing; that a second member of the football staff had walked out with zero notice or explanation inside three months; or that barely anybody out there believes a word the club says anymore. I mean, "ill health"? Do the Christie articles above read like a man who's about to bail out? He was, according to various people "in the know" offered the job of Chief Executive very recently. Ill health?

There's a part of me that's also a little bit annoyed with the local media (Radio Leeds, The Pulse, The Telegraph and Argus) who, it seems, walk on eggshells so as to not antagonise the club into withdrawing media access to their players and staff, and it's left to fans with day jobs to provide the objective coverage.

I don't know what happens to the development squad approach in the future. The cynic might suggest that, since the club appears to be overspending the budget again (how can it not be, given the turnover in playing staff this year and the huge size of the squad?), the development squad might well be jettisoned to make the books balance. And then, not for the first time, the club will be back at square one again.

Edit: the whole BfB website has been pulled this morning after 12 years. The club wheeled out John Hendrie to deny everything. What a mess. An absolute mess.

Back In The Game

So here's the end to one long-running saga on these pages. I would have hoped the other one would have been concluded first, but that's Immigration Minister Kenney and his cavalcade of clowns for you. I digress. Remember my post about the doctor at the hospital saying that "November" was an OK time to see whether my gimpy leg was up to the rigours of sport again? Well, last night I decided that since it was barely November I'd give it a whirl and take my place between the posts for indoor football. I found out four things: 1) I can just about run. 2) diving sideways is harder, 3), blocking shots with the 64 million dollar ankle hurts, and 4) I'm very much not used to the speed of the ball indoors. Hopefully that will come, because for three of the goals in a 5-4 defeat, I'm afraid the commentator would be saying "he'll be disappointed with that"

Still, I'm still in one piece, since a) I was bothered I'd suffer some agonising relapse, and b) the game was at Forest Lawn High School, which if you don't know is Vietnamese drug gang central. Just the usual stiffness from my antique back to report, which is no different to usual.

Progress

About two months ago, I had a letter delivered to Mum and Dad's from HSBC about their new security key and how it would make things more, erm, secure. It's an incredibly incovenient size: "put it on your keyring" - er no, thanks - and looks like it's been knocked out of some factory in the far east [looks on back] "made in China". Go figure. Without it, you can't access your interweb banking. So Mum and Dad sent it to me and Canada Post somehow managed - in some sort of miracle - to get it here inside five days. I think I've used it three times in the month/six weeks that I've had it (once to set up and twice to use) and now, when I want to transfer some money across, the thing has died.

There was no need for it in the first place, and now I can't access my accounts at all! I suppose I'll have to apply for another, and have all the same palaver. I'll be thinking pretty hard about closing all my accounts with them on the other side of the pond when I'm next over there (since becoming a permanent resident would mean me transferring all my money over here anyway). What a shower.

Edit. After pressing and holding the button repeatedly over the course of an hour-and-a-half, it has suddenly spluttered back into life. All the vented spleen above stands, though. It's a pointless, crappy thing.