Because one should praise the efficient as well as curse the incompetent or laggardly
So I wish to state that I am very impressed indeed with the Home Office Drug Licensing people.
I have had to do with this governmental office because the most recent issue of Holiday Which has a whole article on taking medicines abroad, in the course of which it indicates that if you are going abroad for more than 28 days, you need a licence for any medicines containing controlled substances.
On investigation, I discovered that a couple of medications that I take intermittently do contain substances listed in the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
So I obtained a chit from my GP to confirm that these were prescribed items, and faxed off the necessary forms yesterday morning. Because according to Holiday Which, you should do this at least 14 days before leaving the UK (and I thought I had better also allow a few days in case of postal service strikage).
I later emailed them because the fax machine was Acting Funny and flashing up all sorts of weird error messages, even though it appeared to betransmitting things okay.
And got a response saying my form had been processed and put in the out-tray yesterday afternoon.
And I received it today.
Heavens, one might be living in the nineteenth century!