Working From Home

Today I took a day to work from home. Technically, it was running errands that would enable me to keep living in Belgium and traveling for work. Woke up early, addressed a few emails and then headed to the Administratif Centrum to have a form in Flemish validated. They tell me that it says that SWMBO and I still live in our town. Oddly, this form that the Administratif Centrum validated, goes back to my company, who then attach it to another form that goes back to the Administratif Centrum. Somehow I think they could probably cut out a step or two, but this is how it works. It gains you nothing to question it. The people in the Administratif Centrum are supposed to only speak Flemish to me, but they are nice and we chatted in English while she took care of filling out the bits that I could not understand. I hear horror stories about this sort of thing all the time, but the people in my town are just really nice and accomodating. With that done, I realized that I had locked myself out of the house while SWMBO was at the gym. Fortunately, my doctor had an opening, so I was able to turn the mistake into a multitasking opportunity.

The big event of the day and the main reason for my working from home was to head into the city to go the US Embassy. The process is that you make an appointment, generally at least a week in advance. You must specify the reason for the visit. I made my appointment for 1:30 which is the first one after lunch. In Brussels the entrance to the Embassy is quite well guarded and you cannot just walk in front of the Embassy. If you have an appointment, as I did, you have to wait until the time and then stand in line in a cattle chute. Because mine was the first after lunch, I was able to get close to the front of the line and within 15 minutes I was inside. I needed to get new pages added to my passport as I only had two spots remaining and several trips scheduled. I was prepared for them to tell me that I would have to come back later in the week to pick up the passport but the woman at the desk said I could wait and she would have someone take care of it right away. Imagine that, beurocratic efficiency!!. I was out of there in about an hour with my new passport, thick as a paperback novel.

In case you are wondering, yes, I did get some real work done today. A slide deck finished for an upcoming meeting and several other requirements for my meetings the rest of the week. After 20 years of working out of my house, today was a welcome return to that old routine.