Registrars

(Warning: I slightly touch on some macabre things in this post.  If you don't like reading about mortality, perhaps it might be worth skipping today's post)

We had to pop in to see a registrar today.

For those perhaps not in the UK (I don't know if the term registrar is commonly used globally - the font of all knowledge, Wikipedia, seems to indicate that it isn't) I'm talking about a government official who records, for us, births, deaths, and marriages.  Let me say first that the appointment went fine, the registrar was very nice, all is fine, but I did start to think - births, marriages, and deaths (or as they are also known - hatch, match, and dispatch) are all events, and events that society have declared require to be registered - all this is fine.  But how do they decide who does what?

We all know what workplaces are like - some are great, some are... not as great.  Do you get registrars who really enjoy doing funerals?  Or do senior registrars make the deputy ones do all the deaths so they can enjoy the weddings?

Or is it vice versa - marriages are (mostly) always at weekends, so do registrars try to avoid marriages because you have to work a weekend, do they prefer doing births because they can do them Monday to Friday?  What about when you have a wedding at a hotel, is that annoying because they've got to travel out somewhere, they don't know what facilities are going to be available and they're going to have to rely on hotel staff doing things for them?

Don't get me wrong, every time I've had occasion to deal with a registrar I have found them to be nothing but professional, helpful, and friendly individuals (albeit with really weird pens that are hard to write with).  But they are human, and some of them must surely make mistakes, or have biases that they possibly give in to?

Don't be silent, let me know in the comments your experiences of registrars!

In other news, Eurovision is coming up fast - as I type this one of the semi-finals is taking place, with the final contest on Saturday night.  I made this video last year as an potential entry, but for some reason they've gone with a different artist... :)

Finally, as I get closer to my wedding next month I will be depending on the pile of guest posts I've collated (thanks everyone!) to keep the blog populated.  We've got some great bloggers so look out for them, and if you would like to do a guest post yourself, let me know!