Had Chinese food yesterday from a place I often utilise. I'm never happy with the main dishes so I always try something new. I got the "salt and chili" chicken. I got some salt and chili chips once and they were great but I got them subsequently and they weren't so great so...I don't know. But for some reason, I'm always hopeful with the salt and chili options.

This chicken was really weird, though. It was little chunks of fried chicken in this...onion and jalepeno and some other vegetable mix. I just ate the free duck (I collected enough stamps) and was full but didn't want to refigerate this chicken because I don't have a microwave so re-heating is difficult.

So I ate it. It wasn't very good but I forced it down.

A couple of hours later and for the rest of the night I had a progressively bad headache and felt ill. So at like 11.00 pm I'm in bed and really feeling ill. But I figure that I ate like 10 hours earlier. Surely if I was going to be sick it would have happened by now. I also didn't really eat anything after except for some peanut M&Ms and a few Walker's Thai Sweet Sensations crisps.

I just have to keep it down then. I get sufficiently ill that I start looking for some neurofen. If I just take some neurofen I'll make it through the night. I keep some in my jacket pocket but I couldn't find it.

That set me over the edge so I went to the bathroom and vomited this chicken. Maybe the duck as well but the only thing I tasted was this chicken.

But I immediately felt better after that. So that was good.

Then it was an early wake up time for me because I had to go the embassy to sort out this passport nonsense. I had all of my documents and everything.

So I get there at like 7.30. The appointment is at 8.15. There's already a huge mass of people in the queue. I would say...maybe 200 people waiting.

There are just the huddled masses hoping for visas, though. There's a separate queue for citizens which only had about ten people in it.

So after about 20 minutes or so, I get through the first security process. Then it's on to the second. Then the third. Then the fourth. Then finally I'm at the window and telling the guy that I want the name on my passport changed. I give him all the documents. After he does some protocol checks he says that's fine and to move to the cashier.

I go to the cashier. Some British Indian ######. He says "yeah?" and doesn't look up. I didn't think he was talking to me because who behaves like this? So he said "yeah?" louder and looked up. I give him the bill. There was no chip and PIN device so I said, "Can't you pay by credit card?" and he says that you can. I guess there's no chip and PIN thing because American credit cards don't have that but...the main desk had them. It's weird. So you had to sign the slip.

He ends up not returning the debit card and I didn't notice this until I got home so I had to cancel it. Total asshole.

How these people are employed is beyond me. But it's all weird mind games at this place. There are people who are all jokey with you. They're trying to gauge reactions for some reason that I can't fathom. The second security guy is asking me if I know Moby. I couldn't hear what he said exactly. Either he thought that I looked like Moby or he thought that my surname was Moby.

Then the main decision-making guy is making jokes about how he made charges on my credit card and if I'm changing my name to Pedro. It's all totally bizarre. What are they gaining from this? Have they caught any terrorists with these jokey head games?

It's like in these WWII movies where there ask the German spy about baseball and whatnot. "Oh, he thinks that shortstop Arky Vaughan played right field. He's clearly a spy." Maybe he just doesn't follow baseball. Total waste of time.