Back in the UK

London, UK

10th August 2002

Wednesday morning I arrived at Gatwick at 4:30am. I got my bags and headed for the trains. I put my HSBC debit card into a cash point and it withheld my card and told me to contact the issuer. I put in my Bank of Montreal card in and it said that it wasn"t recognized. I tried my Bank of Montreal Mastercard and it said that the PIN I was using was invalid. If I didn"t have $100 Canadian in my back pocket I would of been screwed. I took the $100 and converted it into British Pounds. It came to £40. I bought my ticket to Victoria Tube for £8.20. When I got to Victoria I got a week tube pass £19.30 which I was able to put on my Mastercard but I had to buy a photo for the pass and that was £3.50 in cash.

I got to my hostel and they charged my Mastercard for my month stay and asked for £10 deposit in cash for the bed sheets. I dropped my stuff off and headed to the bank to find out what the hell was going on with my bank accounts. The bank wasn"t open so I walked to Regents Park and sat around for 90 minutes until the bank opened. The bank told me that they had mail bounce back from my address in Exeter and as an anti-fraud measure they froze my accounts (this is the second time they"ve froozed my accounts). They said they would re-issue a new card and send it to my home branch in Exeter. I told them I didn"t have £40 to take the train down to Exeter to pick it up. They said they could switch my home branch to the Camden Town branch and it would take an extra day to get the card there. So I"ll be waiting until next Thursday until I get my UK accounts back up.

Afterward I headed to Car Phone Wearhouse to get a power adaptor for my mobile phone. They said they didn"t have them and that I would need a new phone all together. So I decided to put it on a plan so that I would get the phone for free and get a really cheap call rate in exchange for going on a year contract. The girl working there knew I didn"t have the proper credit qualifications so she ended up bluffing all the details on the credit report. I got my phone and my plan without having to pay any money, she said it would be activiated within 24 hours. 2 days later the phone wasn"t working so I went back with the phone. The manager checked to see why it wasn"t working, he talked to someone at Orange (my mobile provider) and they told him I had been declinded after a further credit check. He grabbed the phone from my hand and demanded that I get the box and accessories and bring them back immidiately. He told me that I had put that I had been in the UK for 3 years and that I had worked at eclipse for a year. I told him I didn"t put any of those details down, I filled out my paperwork properly and it was his staff that altered all the details so that they could get their commission. I ended up having to buy a phone for £90 and going on pre-paid plan so I won"t get cheap/free calls like I would of on the original plan. So at the end of it all I"m £115 poorer getting a phone.

Afterward I went and got some food for the week which cost me £11 and I got the photos of my last night in Canada developed for £2.99.

Right now I"m staying in a mixed-sex dormatory. I"m sharing my room with Ina (25 from Heighlberg), Inita (22 from Munich), Toni (18 from Olsa, Norway) and Ingrid (18 from Olsa, Norway). They"re all really nice, friendly and good looking.

I talked to my head hunters yesterday afternoon. They said that there were some companies that were interested but (1) Their on tight budgets at the moment (2) On Holidays (3) It"s quite now and that there might be something at the end of the month. So I"m probably going to have to get some restaurant/pub work or manual labour until something comes up.

I"m determined to become a computer programmer here in London, I"m going to do what ever it takes to get someone to pay me to sit in front of Visual C++ and write code!!!! If I got paid less to work as a programmer than a street cleaner I would still do it, it"s something I really enjoy and want to spend my life doing.

Last night Ina and I went out for some fish and chips. Afterward we went to Regents Park and ate them whilst talking about Germany (Jobs, Culture, AutoBan, ect...). Then we went down to Westminster and walked by Big Ben, the London Eye and up to Buckingham Palace. After that we came back to Camden Town and went out for a few pints (I"m limiting myself to 2 pints when I got out, that way it only costs £5). When I got back I talked to the Norweigen girls for a bit and then I went downstairs to the TV/Pool Room.

There was a drunken English guy who must of been close to 40 stumbling around and making a fool of himself, most people were laughing or pretending to ignore him. He came up to me and put his hands on my shoulders and said "I love you fucking Americans". I grabbed his arms, twisted them and told him I wasn"t American and not to fucking touch me or I"d break him. He said "I hate you fucking New Zealander"s" and fucked off. Later I was sitting by the pool table talking to 2 American girls, he came in and passed out right on the pool table. People just ignored him until he started drooling, making noises, grabbing himself and eventually started taking his clothes off. Eventually there was a drunken POHM passed out completely naked on the pool table. The American girls were trying to divert their eyes with their hands but it became to much to ignore. There were a load of Italian, Polish and Russian guys laughing and taking photos. Eventually one of the American girls rolled him on to his stomach so that he wouldn"t swallow his tounge.

I got up and left at that point. I went back up to my room and tried to get some sleep. Only 30 minutes had passed and I could hear someone singing from the window. The same drunken POHM was at the basement window without any clothes on singing to people as they walked by. There eventually was a little crowd outside our hostel. The police were down the street with there siren on but they ended up not doing anything (typical English cops).

This morning I woke up and had breakfast with Inita and later Ina woke up and joined us. They laughed when I told them the story. After breakfast I talk to the two Norweigen girls. Were all going to get together tonight and head out to a pub.