Working Sunday...

Delft, sun, nice weather

Tonight it was nearly spring here! And guess what: I had to WORK. Spent all day making slides for my presentation on next week. Next week will be quite busy:
Monday-Tuesday: conference where I present a poster
Thursday: talk for a new project
... it took me 2 whole days to get my poster printed ... and therefore I lack time to prepare my talk...

You would think that when you clik on "send" and that your email contains all information (your poster attached, your name, adress, the university BAN-code from which the printing compagny can get its money for printing and delivering the poster back) you're done. You just have to wait and check your mailbox (the real mailbox, not your email). Obviously wrong. I sent the email on Tuesday, after phoning the printing compagny:
- Will I get my poster before Friday, I leave on Monday, you see?
- Sure! Of course! [sounded like I could have sent it on Friday and get it the same day]
On Thursday, no poster, no email, no phonecall. So I call back:
- When will I get my poster?
- Hu? Which poster?
Poster not made. My email never arrived. Impossible:
- But I got an automatic reply that you got my email??
- We don't have your email.
I send the email again. And call to check that it arrived this time. I get again an automatic reply but they don't get my email. Luckily, some neurones seem to work on the other side:
- Aaaaah, I see: your emails arrive as SPAM.
- ? Well, ok, but now you've got it, so you will print it?
- Yes, we will print it but we can't deliver it.
- ??
- You didn't send us a bon, you see. And we are not autorized to deliver posters without bons.
- But I went to the administration to get a university BAN-code? I wrote it in the email?
- We don't work with BAN-codes. We need an bon. No bon, no poster, sorry.
Of course the guy I spoke to for the BAN-code has a day-off. But I am sent to another guy, a nice guy, who seems to know that I should not have gotten a BAN-code in the first place. Things speed up: he fills in an online-bon. Great, I think, I just have to mail it to the compagny. Alas, the nice guy knows better: the bon has to be approved by the Administration. Little problem: the Administration has moved and NOONE (can you believe it??) has told us what the new phonenumbers/emails are??! The nice guy tries old phone numbers: they don't work, we check online on the website of the University (and complain how bad it is), get new numbers but we get to hear that "this phone number is not attributed". It would be funny if I was not losing time !###%/%%¤?? (and my talk to prepare...). The nice guy phones the main secretariat: he is told that yes, the new phone numbers do not work, they still didn't solve this little problem yet, but we can use this other number (we immediately write down the magic number). We finally get someone at the phone who can provide an email adress. We send the bon by email.
Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.
It is Friday, 14:30, the printing compagny tells me that they have my poster ready and that their driver makes his last delivery at the University at 16:00... I boil... and go back to the nice guy: where is my bon?? He calls immediately the magic number:
- We send a bon to be approved this morning?
- Eeerm... yes, we were working on it...
Two seconds later, we get the bon by email. They just had to sign it. Unbelievable. I transfer it to the compagny. It is OK. Last detail:
- Where do you deliver my poster?
- At the main intrance.
The guy at the main intrance leaves around 16:30 (after that it is the security guy who is there and he does not give posters, so I was told from my colleagues). To be sure I get my poster, I contact the main intrance by phone. I found the trick for the phone-numbers: just call a random number from a University web-page and say "sorry I am wrong, could you put me through to Main Entrance?"- works fast and efficient - the secretaries seem to have a secret list of phone numbers that do not appear on any web page. The main intrance guy is very helpfull too (I am lucky today, haha!... ). He will call me when my poster arrives. Of course he couldn'd do that: my own phone is still not connected to my name but to the name of the guy that retired 2 years ago and occupied my office. I do not exist in the phone book (and don't say I should tell the administration: I DID, at least 3 or 4 times!!). Luckily (again) the name of the nice guy was also on the poster, and his phone corresponds to his name (since he works already 25 years for the University I suppose he got the privilege to have his name in the phone book). So he came to warn me, and so I got my poster. At 17:00, on Friday.

Little note: I didn't even dare looking at the poster, I just took it (it was rolled-up) to the conference.... when I unwrapped it there -horror!- some of my symbols had turned into little squares!! Tomorrow I have to complain to the printing compagny... get a new poster... argh.