Svetlana, Светлана, Svitlana or Світлана

Obvioulsy it was not going to be as simple as that. Go online, book airline tickets, go to Budapest, return.

I made a mistake. However, I think that the mistake itself was understandable. Of course, there is someone who does not really think its understandable. That person was and still is quite angry about it.

I got Sveta's name wrong....how unlucky is that?

To be fair, for the two years that I have know Sveta she has always been Sveta. Svetlana to be more formal. I have written to her using this name. I have done some offical documentation using this name. This is the name on her national ID card. So, at 1 am in the morning, whilst booking the tickets for us both I used the name: Svetlana Podoxxxxx.

Frankly I was relieved that my credit card worked and so went to bed happy.

To be woken to a storm. To be fair to Sveta she is ill and is not at her best when ill. Apparently, whilst her ID card has her Russian name on it, her passport has her Ukrainian name on it. That name is Svitlana Pod'xxxx. So the ticket that she has does not match her passport. That will result in visa refusal and inability to travel.

Of course, I should have remembered that, when we traveled to Poland she used her Ukrainian name. Of course I should have remembered this. But it was 1 am and anyway, she filled in the forms for Poland and we went by train. I also dispute the fact that " ' " is actually a letter in any known language and that to have two spellings of the same name on two separate offical documents is something of a nonsense.

This problem remains to be resolved.

In other news Bea has taken up yoga. I'm putting that into the category of nonsensical things that I have discovered today. How can a 5 year old do yoga? I asked her about it and she said she was learning to be a little seed that grows into a big tree.

Hector is now wearing big boy pants. Much to the delight of his mother. Probably much to the amusement of Sveta/Svita who has been telling me for a year and a half that babies in Ukraine are out of nappies within 2 weeks of being born or something like that. That might be an exaggeration on my part but there were times when she appeared to be suggesting that my son was a little slow...

Apart from that, not much news. I am still pondering which books to take on holiday. There is a book reviewed in last weekends FT that I think I might get. Its the new one from Vikram Chandra
I am sure that I have read and enjoyed Love and Longing in Bombay though Red Earth was, if I remember correctly, impenetrable. Aside from that I shall flick through the recommendations that were kindly proffered and see what I think.

Comments

[Patrick]

Would a phone call not fix the name problem ? One would think that a small fee would fix it. Then again what is a small fee when you deal with those guys.

[Cris]

Damn! That is not good...not good at all! Id be damn pissed if anyone (notice for Mr Patrick who always gets my name wrong) would mispell my name when im supposed to meet the loved one. Thats why i dont let morons book my flights!

[Jenny]

No sympathy from me. You're an ass.

[Oedipa]

That sucks. Still, do you know how much of a problem it's going to end up being? You do seem to run into visa problems. Hopefully, it's fixable.