Tomorrow morning I'm off to the Consulate. Actually, I'm staying over at my brother's in north London tonight so it should make the journey a lot easier.

There is, unsurprisngly, still scope for things to go horribly wrong (besides me oversleeping). The original plan was for me to be out in Russia on January 5; it's now December 29 already, and a visa ordinarily takes a week to prepare - so even if the Consulate decide that I am worthy of a visa tomorrow (unlikely), it still won't be ready by the 5th of January. What to do? Go out later, and possibly miss the start of the new term? Or ask for a fast-track (and especially expensive) visa? I don't know - it's up to Language Link. They are the ones who will have to pay the fee for the visa, fast-track or not.

I explained all this to them in an e-mail yesterday morning, and they promised that they are going to e-mail me *tomorrow* morning, before I head off to the Consulate in Kensington. What with the three-hour time difference, it should all work out okay. As long as they remember! Of course, if they forget, I will just have to guess what they want me to do. There's no way I'm postponing my trip to the Consulate due to Russian incompetence.