Note to all: I am not promoting lying, in any circumstance. This was just the exhausted conclusion we came to at the end of our day...
Some of you may have heard that Mum and I have been going through the exciting process of trying (emphasis on trying) to exchange her UK license for a Quebec one. For myself this was easy: I phoned, made an appointment, brought all the necessary documents they wanted and voila! I had a Quebec license. My Mother on the other hand had a slightly more convoluted route to take. Mum started this whole process which took me a day to complete, way back in November. And it still isn't over.
To give you a rough idea of the "flow chart-esque" direction all this has followed, this is what we've done so far:
Brought papers to SAAQ; ticked "MS" box on declaration form, got sent away to see the Dr. ---> Made appointment with Dr. for letter saying "OK to drive" ---> found out the wrong appointment was made, we made another one ---> came back weeks later, then had to wait a week for the Dr. to fill out the form ---> brought it back to the SAAQ, where the form was sent to Quebec for approval ---> they say they'll mail Mum the result ---> Quebec says on of the parts wasn't filled out, which means another appointment downtown ---> which leads us to today.
So far, Mum and I have been to the SAAQ 4 times between the two of us, just once for me. That's 2 times too many, but we know the way really well now! Today's task was to get a Dr. to say Mum's brace was OK for her drive with. This sounds easy enough, if you can find the place the first time round. After arriving at the right building, we proceeded to turn up a one-way street...oops, then decided to go around the block and come down the road the right way, finding a space. After a nice lady came out and warned us about the traffic cops, I moved the car...twice. Second time into a space we had been told was for blue-badge holders. More of that later.
Once, parked and inside we were told the Dr. was in the adjacent building. Now that we were in the right building Mum finally got to see the Dr. All was well...no oops. He gave Mum a prescription for a brand new brace, and we set out to make that next door (first building we had gone to). They said they could take us today which was good because it would save us another trip out that way. So about 2 hours later, we left...to find a ticket on the windshield. Poop!
Moving on, we decided to go on a merry drive up to the SAAQ to finally get this done! So, confidently with the form in hand we went in and waited to be seen. A nice lady helped us - she faxed the form to Quebec, and again an hour later, we hear back from them...they need more time; Mum will receive word through the mail. Darn. Guess this means another trip to the SAAQ!
Success list so far: letter from Dr, check. New brace, check. QC license....no. Feeling deflated and hungry (remember it's 3:30pm at this point, and we'd left the house at 9am) we headed to Tim's for soup and a coffee. This was much needed, except for the blue-badge door button that wouldn't work going in (I wont take that as an omen).
Now we are home, and calm, and not hungry. After a day like today, and knowing there's still more to do until Mum does actually have her real license in her hot little hands, you can see why sitting in the Tim's laughing from fatigue, eating "cream of noodle soup", you can understand why both Mum and I came to the conclusion that all this could have been avoided if only she'd just lied in the beginning!!
http://www.saao.ac.za/~wpk/gallery/signs/nowarning.jpg
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