Take a Number and Wait
The subtle art of making bureaucracy bearable
The sun continues to shine here, and temps have been reaching a balmy 17ºC/63ºF, which, based on how the locals are dressed, is the middle of a frigid winter. But I’m pretty happy with it.
What were our rays of light this week?
Portugal’s got queueing up, down pat
Hilary’s first 2-wheeled Portugal adventure
Two paws forward, one paw back
Onward!
Take a Number, Any Number
This week I took the first steps down a couple of paths fraught with bureaucratic booby traps. I’m switching my US driver’s license over to Portuguese, getting my social security number (NISS), and I had my first doctor’s appointment.
There’s one thing that Portuguese institutions have in common: They all make you take a number. Not in the proverbial sense either.
Walk into city hall, the post office, the hospital, or the Loja de Cidade (city office - the final boss of bureaucracy), and you’ll be greeted by a little device ready to assign you your very own personal number and print it out on a ticket (or even text it to you).
To many Americans, taking a number may sound annoying, but I’ll tell you, the Portuguese have some aspects of bureaucracy down to an art form.
First off, they categorize needs and assign your queue based on that. So if you have a quick task, you’ll be put in line with other quick tasks. This is FAR superior to the single-queue system, where you end up waiting behind someone who has a complex problem when all you need to do is something small.
Second, your NIF (Portuguese Tax ID) is connected to everything on the backend. So at the hospital, for example, you can just type in your NIF, and the machine associates your vitals to your queue number. When you’re called to the counter, they know who you are and move the process along quickly. A small innovation with plenty of benefits.
My NIF is attached to so many things here, including the checkout at any store. I can buy some stuff, tell the cashier my NIF, and the receipt is synched with my account on the Finanças website, where I can categorize it if it’s a tax deduction. So much better than keeping a paper receipt in a box and pulling it out on April 14th…
Third, one of the beauties of this multi-queue number system is that you are not competing with everyone around you. You don’t know who is there for what, and that means less angst if the person who walked in after you gets their number called first. They could be there for something small or have an earlier appointment, or whatever, but either way, it’s not worth worrying about.
How did the hospital visit go? I had a good first meeting with my new Doctor and was able to get a couple of tests done later the same day, similar to how it would have happened at Kaiser back in the US. But it was quicker here.
Later this week I take it to the next level: Loja de Cidade. The bureaucracy lore surrounding this office is the stuff of legend. I have an appointment Friday for my NISS and another one the following week for my driver’s license.
Wish me luck!
Biking Down The Coast Part II
Hilary saw the photos from my EV bike trip to Espinho last week and had a bit of FOMO. So I scouted out a place to rent an e-bike for her and on Sunday we went for a ride together.
Ironically, it costs about 3x more per day to rent a bike here vs. a car. Probably because car rates fluctuate drastically, and bike rates don’t. Regardless, it still wasn’t too expensive.
We rode a similar route down along the river and out to the coast in Gaia, then down the various coastal bike paths until we got to Capela do Senhor da Pedra, just a bit north of Espinho.
It was around 17ºC and not a cloud in the sky, with just a few gusty winds. The seaside walks were teeming with people out enjoying a sunny day stroll, and all the beach bars and cafes were packed to the gills. Plenty of surfers out, and the waves were perfect (about 2m/6’ clean swells with an offshore breeze).
We stopped in Lavadores for a snack on the way back and sat out on the lawn of a bar soaking up the sun. T-shirt weather, even with a breeze. Perfection.
Making Progress, One Hiss at a Time
Banguela (pronounced bang-EL-ah), the little black kitten/teenager, is still with us. I say teenager because she’s got the attitude of a feisty, sassy 16-year-old, which I’m sure Elaine will probably think is karmic.
For every step forward, she takes two steps back. Hilary has been working diligently, following the Kitten Lady’s guidance, to socialize this little one so she will be adoptable.
She started out petrified, hiding and hissing and lunging out of fear. In just a couple of weeks, she has progressed to the point where Hilary’s feeding her off of her lap and can pet her while she is eating (with a glove on, and more recently, bare hands!).
Banguela has graduated from the bathroom to the full bedroom and loves to play. That’s really when she’s her most adorable. She still hisses at me a lot, even though I built her a rad box castle (Castelo Idiota).
Hilary spends plenty of time in there with her while meditating, doing yoga, watching shows, or playing with her. Banguela is happy to sit near her on the bed or otherwise just chill out.
Hilary tried doing some cardio blast in there the other day and the cat wanted nothing to do with it. I think she prefers chill vibes.
Next, we will try to break the barrier to us petting her when she’s not eating.
How are things in your world?
This week’s playlist is another of my year-end 2022 lists, this time Hip-Hop. Not all released in 2022, but what I listened to a lot. Warning - Explicit Lyrics, and not-as-chill beats as my other playlists.