I spent the better part of this afternoon in a government office trying to get some paperwork sorted out. Talk about feeling like I was stuck in The Hanged Man. The last two times I visited this department I had to wait 2 hours to be seen but I was assured that on this occasion because I had an appointment I wouldn’t have to wait at all (Cue: roaring laughter). I kept going back to the door bitch who controlled proceedings with her iPad to question what was taking so long and was constantly assured I was first priority. But first priority for what, I wondered. Maybe I was first in line in a queue going nowhere. Charles Dickens had a wonderful name for government departments where you go round in circles wrapped up in red tape. He called it the Circumlocution Office.

The Hanged Man is characterised by the following qualities: Waiting (tick.) Feeling outside of time (That would be me and my fellow citizens watching the world go by while we sat in hard chairs for hours on end, tick.) Making sacrifices (That would be the afternoon I took off work, tick.) Letting go of expectations (Yep, I hit that mark after an hour and a half, tick.) Things suddenly clicking into place out of nowhere (That would be me finally seeing someone after I’d given up hope, tick.)

Have you ever been stuck in The Circumlocution Office?