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“What, more?” I hear you all cry.

Sigh. Of course more. Because I obviously have loads and loads of time to waste, and my life wouldn’t be complete without a mound of ineptitude or bureaucracy to deal with, now, would it?

Over here in the Netherlands, when you move you have to register your new address at your local town hall. It’s the law, and if you don’t do it within a specific period of time then the address police hunt you down and drag you off to prison in The Hague for a gazillion years and you’re never heard from again. No, not really. The police here are very nice and polite, and I have no clue what the authorities do to you if you don’t register at the town hall, but I’m guessing that it would include a strict talking to and a hefty fine (you can get arrested and fined for jay walking over here – it happens more than you’d think).

So, let’s wind back a few weeks to when we signed the lease for the new apartment with the management company. Nice Rep (before she became Ms. Hyde Rep) gave us an official piece of paper with our names on (including Teenager #2′s name) and told us that it was vital that all three of us took this to the town hall with us. Fine. We could do that.

Wind forward to a couple of weeks ago when Oh Patient One took a day off work so that we could go to the town hall en famille and do our legal duty. First, we go to the reception desk, explain our business, and Nice Receptionist checks our ID cards (everyone has to carry one by law), and looks at our paperwork.

“I’m sorry,” she tells us. “You also need to provide a copy of your lease agreement before I can give you an appointment.”

There was bound to be something!

But no problem. The town hall opens until 8pm on Friday evenings, so we duly trot back to see Nice Receptionist on the aforementioned evening, this time with the copy of our lease. We hold our breaths as Nice Receptionist checks our paperwork.

“Fine,” she says, hands us a ticket, and tells us to take a seat with the gazillion other people in the vast hall. Our ticket number will be flashed on the various screens around the hall, along with the appropriate desk we should go to when it was our turn. We wait. And then we wait some more. And then we wait some more.

An hour later it is our turn. Finally! So we find the appropriate desk, present our documentation, and. . .

“I’m sorry,” Nice Admin Person tells us. “This copy of your lease is not signed by your management company. I need to see another copy with signatures before I can change your address.”

Oh Patient One and I collectively hit our heads with the base of our hands. Of course it isn’t signed. The management company hasn’t sent us the signed copy of the lease, as promised, so you know what that means, don’t you? I have to go to see Ms. Hyde Rep and get a copy of the signed lease. Oh joy!

“I’m sorry you waited an hour for no reason,” Nice Admin Person adds as we turn to leave. “I can make you an appointment to come back if you’d like. You wouldn’t have to wait in line next time. Oh, and you don’t all have to come. Let me take a copy of your passports and give you an official document.”

Great. This means that Oh Patient One doesn’t to take even more time off work. We make an appointment for the following Tuesday at 8.30 am (the first appointment of the day).

The following Monday I steel myself and trek to the management company HQ. Oh Patient One suggests that I call first, but after my last experience with Ms. Hyde Rep I am not prepared to be fobbed off and hung up on. I am ready to do battle. As per with the key problem, I am not leaving the building without a signed copy of the lease and. . .

“No problem,” the nice reception person tells me.

I am pleasantly surprised. I’d forgotten how helpful she’d been last time about the key situation. I am even more pleasantly surprised when getting a copy of the signed lease does not involve Ms. Hyde Rep. Whew. Five minutes later I leave with a signed copy of the lease. Success! We’re very nearly legal! Nothing can possibly go wrong, now.

So I go to the town hall the following morning. I arrive at 8.15 bright and early, but by 8.45 there is still no sign of Nice Admin Person at her desk, and I am questioning my euphoria of the day before. Will we ever be legal? Do I have to go back to reception and get a ticket and wait an hour before I can see someone? Will there be Yet Another Problem when I finally get to see someone? I’ve wasted enough time. I decide to take action.

I go to speak to another rep who currently doesn’t have a member of the public with her, explain the problem to her, she apologizes profusely for her colleague’s absence and sorts out the paperwork for me on the spot.

Five minutes later, ta dah! Whew! Yay! Legal again!