Mark's Travels

10 years of travel blogging from 35+ countries around the world

Unpaid house bills, froozen bank accounts and payment demands 16th August 2002 in London, United Kingdom


Yesterday I met up with one of my ex-flatmate"s sister Signe to discuss unpaid house bills. Turns out 2 bills came after we all left and my share was £34. I only had £25 in cash left so I gave that to her and I went to a bank machine with my new British bank card to get another £10 out. The machine ate my card. I couldn"t believe this has happened twice. I told Signe I would have to bring her the money tomorrow. I went to my bank to find out what had happened. They said that my account was overdrafted and that they had closed my accounts and made a demand for £247 immediately. I told them I had arranged an overdraft with them 3 months ago. The man said that he had no record of that and wanted the money right away. I told him I didn"t have the money and he told me to go over to the customer service phone and to call my branch.

So I went over and called them up. I asked them why my overdraft wasn"t setup when they told me it was. They said they didn"t know and didn"t care, they wanted the £247 immediately. I told them I was unemployeed and I only had enough cash for rent and food. The woman on the phone then put me through to their lending department. They told me that they never had any record of an overdraft either but they gave me until September 9th to bring a repayment proposal to them. I can"t fucking believe this. I have to find a job today or I"m fucked. I"m going to every shop I can find with an ad for a position, if it gets really bad they need street cleaners in Camden. I can"t believe the fucking bank gives me 2 weeks to come up $600. I"m going to try to propose that I only pay a portion of it on September 9th.

After all that I headed back to the hostel, as I walked out of Camden Tube I saw a great big yellow sign that said: "Request for wittnesses", it said there was a murder on Camden High Street and that they were looking for anyone who might of seen it. I was shocked because the High Street is right behind our hostel. When I got back to the hostel I was talking to an Australian girl about it and she said she used to live up in Willesden Green and those signs are up all the time. I didn"t feel so bad after that.

My head hunters have become awfuly quite. All the ad"s say they want 18 months experience. Out of 100"s of job applicatons, 3 potention, nothing has come up. Looks like the hopes of becoming a programmer have gone up in smoke. This is why I hate teachers and head hunters, they get your hopes up and then when you"ve put your ass on the line it turns out to be all smoke and mirrors. I can"t count how many people told me I would be rich because I knew how to program a computer. Right now it seems all the employees/drug addicts at Moxies have a brighter future, at least they"ve been working as a cook for 5 years+, I don"t even have that. I"m going to get a job in a store or restaurant today. I really need to get a job so that I can get HSBC off my back and so I can move to a safer neighborhood, not that I"m sure if one exists in London. Hopefully I"ll have a happier blogg tomorrow.


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