Happy Friday to you! Happy Friday to me!

One week from today, I will be flying from London to Chennai, India. Yes, one week plus one day, aka next Saturday, the Nokia Urbanista Diaries starts for Ms. Jen!

Starting tomorrow, I will be blogging about the cities I will be visiting. But today I will give you the amusing tidbits that happened during the course of the day in the name of getting ready for the Urbanista adventure...

Amusement of the Day #1 - File under small typo turns into "Fun with Bureauracy™", I will let my Twitter-stream speak for me:

msjen Assistant at WOM world office labeled the phones as £18,000 instead of £1800. US Customs is now holding them. I am to leave next week...

msjen I have to either file an expensive bond or pay thousands in taxes. All over a clerical typing error.

msjen No, I had to call them get the correct invoice, & then verify it with MY Social Security card. Ugh. Hopefully, all is well.

msjen customs wanted proof of my biz tax id, but I do everything with the IRS online & don't have a card. So my Social it was.

I will find out tomorrow morning if the US Customs folks at LAX will accept the invoice with all the contents listed & with US Dollar prices of approx $2600 and not $37,000 or if I have to post a $250 bond to get the Nokia N82 and other related Urbanista stuff out of hock. The best part about the bond is that when I leave next Wednesday and take it all out of the country back to its originating port of LHR, I would not get the $250 bond returned.

I told the WOM World folk that we should let US Customs reject it and DHL just ship it back to the UK on Monday and then I pick up the package from WOM World on Thursday. Bureauracy should never ever be rewarded with money. Ever.

Amusement of the Day #2 - File under Prepping for the Tropics, also from my Twitter-stream:

msjen Just took my first anti-malaria pill. Hopefully, I won't have any of the evil nightmares, depression, etc that Mefloquine is known to cause

msjen According to the directions: If one vomits w/in 30 mins. take another pill. If w/in 60 mins. take a 1/2 a pill.

msjen Up to 1850, folks mixed quinine with wine. So, what's good for the goose, must be good for the gander. ;o) glass of wine in hand.

msjen Nearly 2 hours after taking my Mefloquine pill and no vomiting! FTW! Now crossing fingers for no nightmares or psychotic breaks!