Paying off your credit card in England
Now Playing: Of Montreal - Hissing fauna are you the destroyer?
Topic: Stephen Says
The Background: I intend to pay off the 480 pounds on my credit card at Barclays. After standing in line (And jostled by a bizarre German lady) for 5 minutes, I approach the teller:

Me: I'd like to pay off my Visa.
She: No you have any picture ID?
Me: No.
She: None at all?
Me: No. I don't have a drivers license.
She: Do you at least know your PIN number?
Me: Of course.
She: Then I recommend you withdraw the money from your account from a machine, queue up again and pay it off that way.
Me: (Confused look)
She: Without any picture ID I can't let you transfer that much money onto your credit card.
Me: Well how much can I tansfer?
She: Three hundred pounds.
Me: What's stopping me from getting back in line and then just paying off the rest?
She: I'm sorry sir but you can't do that.

And then I stormed off in a huff.
Only 2 more months of putting up with this kind of bullshit.

I also put in my resignation yesterday, which is singularly depressing.

Holy shit...
...At 8:45PM on Saturday the 9th of June, Stephen and Elisabeth will be living in Toronto.

Just a quickie...
Now Playing: Isis - Oceanic
Topic: Stephen Says
Just want to say what a lovely day E&I had with Stephen & Laura on their whirlwhind tour of Europe. We got down to Robertsbridge (The maternal home of the Westberg brood) and grabbed a quick pint, trekked through the backwoods of Sussex to Bodium Castle and then down to Rye for a chilly walk along the 'coast,' swanky meal and then back to Woking where they've now left us for Sweden.

It was great seeing Ye Olde England yesterday. Certainly creates a dichotomy between it and Woking; one of whose high streets is currently shut down by police cruisers because there's human blood all over the place.

(And I, being the brainiac that I am, walked through it and got shouted at.)

Blah
Topic: Stephen Says
Argh!

I really should have been following the elections in Quebec and now it's too damn late. My God, people are stupid.

BlahBlah
Now Playing: Isis - Oceanic
Topic: Stephen Says
As any long-time reader of this blog would know, our time in England hasn't all been shits and giggles. However, in the grand scheme of things, I don't regret anything that's happened, since we've always managed to recover and come out all the better for it.

Yesterday though, marks my biggest missed opportunity so far and I fear I'll live to regret it.

Woking, being the most environmentally friendly town in England is hosting a special re-release of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth in the cinema. It's being preceded by another envirnomentally-minded short film spearheaded by none other than old Big Ears himself, Bonny Prince Charlie, who was in town yesterday to open the event.

As it turns out, the manager at work got an invitation to attend this gala event but wasn't interested at first and then lost the invitation (That I was intending to steal or photocopy or whatever to try and get in.) In any case, I was lazy and didn't get around to thinking about it until one of our service users called us to say that she'd just met the Man Who Would be King, shook his hand and he made the astounding observation to her(As she emerged from the mall): "Been doing a little shopping?"

*Sigh* That could have been me. What will probably be my only opportunity to meet royalty was squandered because I chose to got to work and play boules in the basement hallway.

Friday, Yay!
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
Last night, after work, Stephen & I met at the pub, then went to eat at the best restaurant in Woking: L'Aroma. I learned that one reasons why northern Italians resent the southern Italians is that they see them as using a larger share of tax money, while contributing less into the coffers. It was presented to me that southern Italians like to enjoy life, the sun, the beech and food. They like a slower pace of life. And I was told that northern Italians are seen by southerners as being very much a part of the Europe machine...living their lives like clockwork, timed around making money and maximizing effiency. Personally, I hate the culture of money.

I thought this article on cbc.ca was interesting:

Jeremey Kinsman: opinion on Canada/Europe relationship

We're both hungover today (we went back to the pub after dinner...whoops)---Stephen's worse off as he has a 13 hour shift ahead of him, and oh yeah, he has to work with insane people!

This weekend we both have off, and my brother Stephen & his wife Laura will be visiting us on Sunday---hopefully we'll all drive down to Robertsbridge/Battle area of East Sussex to see where my mother's family originated.

And...it's spring! Officially! Although mother nature's reward was to have it snow yesterday...go figure.

Eyes Want to Shut
Mood:  lazy
Now Playing: Stan Tracy Trio
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries

I'm blogging, mostly out of guilt. Stephen's sleeping in at work tonight, so I'm left to entertain myself for a whole evening. What have I done so far? Well, I ate two portions of spaghetti & organic tomato sauce. I ate the leftover apple crumble. I've read some more of Michael Palin's Diaries, talked on the phone, and am trying to plan out my calander for the next couple of weeks.

Much is going on behind the scenese these days, with friends, family & work. It keeps us on our toes, and our heads on our pillows. All will be revealed in time I'm sure.

And did you know Stephen A's birthday is coming up on 6th April? He'll be 31. But DON'T! do anything...he doesn't like it ;)

Idle
Topic: Stephen Says
Elisabeth says she doesn't have time to blog any more. They're also predicting snow tomorrow. So I'm off to London to do things, namely meet up with a long lost friend as I'm trying to be less of an anti-social hermit these days but I'm going to try and buy some music that you can't buy in Woking (e.g., anything that doesn't feature Lily Allen) and ride the slides at the Tate Modern.

Red Nose Day was yesterday - one of the really, really good ideas that England has that deserves to make it overseas. Think: The Jerry Lewis Telethon except not dull,boring only on TV and generally crap. Rather, you gather your friends/ workforce, stick on a red nose and do stupid things so that people give you money. It satisfies all my baser insticts with a dash of good cause thrown in. Basically, a lemonade stand was set up outside work and we harassed passers by to buy our lemonade (Sprite with a bunch of lemons thrown in) for 10p a pop. We made over 80 pounds.

Enough of me, now. I've got to convince Elisabeth that it's time to watch Sopranos.

Oh, and by the way
Topic: Stephen Says
The drink of the moment is vermouth and lemonade served ice cold. It's the new black.

Not the wife
Now Playing: Elisabeth on the piano upstairs
Topic: Stephen Says
Elisabeth is being tedious and refusing to blog about things that are actually blog-worthy. She was interviewed by ITV news this evening about Woking's green initiatives. Don't know if she'll be featured but by the sounds of it, it was an embarassing enough experience that it probably will. Since we don't have a TV, please can someone let us know if & when it airs.

Her best quote: (After the interviewer points out that there seems to be a lot of ethnic diversity in Woking) "It's surprising how diverse a population Woking is for being such a crap town."

I'll get on with the Luxor diary at my leisure. Right now I'm immersed in an Andy McNab.