Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Imagine if we'd known ...

I was laughing from the kitchen last night, and said something like 'Imagine if you had said to me back in Istanbul, 'I love you, come live with me and be my love ... although it will mean giving up your job and leaving this exciting city you live in.

And you won't be able to work again until my government is finished with you, and you'll be expected to learn Dutch but don't worry, you can stay home and fill in your spare hours with whatever you like, when not ordering various expensive papers from your country ... and re-ordering them with extra bits that need stamped and translated (again) later.

Oh, and Belgians are notoriously difficult to befriend so it might be a couple of years before you develop a circle of friends like you had in New Zealand and here in Istanbul. And you will have to give up that free trip home if my immigration system can't process you in time because you won't have earned enough to get back to Europe.'


And suddenly we weren't laughing anymore.

7 comments:

Manictastic said...

Looking at the bright side today, I see. Life can turn out weird if you think about it. But hey that's life. You have to life it. No other solution. Hope you get that Belgian piece of paper quick so you can go to work.

Jay said...

And now I'm glad I didn't know
The way it all would end the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance

Dave Morris said...

Uh oh, things are getting serious. Good luck with all of this, I know it can be a little scary to be in that position. Be strong and hang in there.

Di Mackey said...

We'd choose it again ... it's okay, it started out as kitchen laughter and ended up unfunny.

Thanks manic.

miss jay ... they are better left to chance and there's been good stuff in amongst all of it, lots of good stuff but marketing this process of movement would have been difficult if the truth had been knowable back at the start.

hi dave, still thinking about how to answer your question on the 'over the legal alcohol limit' question ... devil's advocate huh.
hanging in there ... just verbally sad on occasions. :)

Cindy Lane said...

I feel your pain! Some things are simply outside the realm of the imagination.

Di Mackey said...

Oh Cindy ... you would know this better than most people I know.

I hope San Diego is being good to you and that you're enjoy that beautiful city. Rain and grey skies here today ...

Dear Hone Heke ... how nice it is to write that as a kiwi lol, it does seem like Europe may have lost a few things in protecting its identity or old ways ... it's different but not all bad.

I'm almost done but sometimes I miss things ... that's all :)
Thanks and good luck yourself.

Anonymous said...

Kafka is always around the corner here. Imagine that when my husband was a student philosophy on a sabbatical I had to prove each month he was still alive in order to get his "kinderbijslag" (child allocation). What a nice question to start the day with : still alive? On the other hand the money was nice.