Another bunch of days without an entry - I'm getting so slack at this! Nowhere near as bad as Sarah though, she's got her new website address (http://sarahchats.com) and everything and she's not showing it off. Maybe I should get a new URL? tjharman is a bit of a boring name and not very web2.0. I wish I'd thought to register lots of cool domain names back when I first started out on the Internet (I think around 1996), but then so does everyone else.
It's the Waitangi Day celebration this weekend. Apparently, it's quite a big thing here in the UK. So's Australia Day, but we didn't actually do anything for that. Australia day is tiny compared to Waitangi day though, at least that's what everyone says. The TNT magazine (a free magazine printed once a week for us Aussies and Kiwis) has the uber guide for this weekends celebrations and also a what to take, what not to take survive guide. Serious stuff. I want to be part of it, but I also don't want to hang onto another country's celebrations for my own amusement. Apparently everyone else does though, so I think I'll get over it pretty quickly.
Last Saturday, Sarah and I got up way to early for a Saturday and caught the train out to somewhere that I forget. I'll have to update that bit later. We did so to meet up with the lady who had the last of John's personal items. She'd decided that it was to risky to send the items back with John's body so had collected them herself and said she'd bring them with her when next visited the UK. Why is this so amazing? Because she was the travel agent who'd organised John's travel for him. That's a pretty amazing extra length for her to go to, but she did. Her and her Husband were lovely people and we spent a couple of hours chatting to them, before jumping back on the train again and heading to Richmond for a bit of shopping in the sub-zero weather.
Saturday night Ruth and Mattie came over, because Anna was having a big party and kicked them out. We ordered Thai delivery man and watched an amusing but not so great movie about a bunch of old guys and their hobby soccer team. Sunday we did a bit of shopping down in Chiswick so Sarah could replace her TOOTIES! that she lost. TOOTIES! = Feather lined cotton booties.
Yesterday I finally manged to get our flights to Thailand sorted and paid for. When I went to pay for them orignally the week before, I used my Debit Card over the phone. I tell the man all the numbers and he can take money from it. However, because I didn't give the exact address we live at (I said 11D instead of Flat 4, Number 11) the card declined. No worries there, EXCEPT for the fact that the money goes into limbo for something like 5 days. We had the money showing in our account, but the available balance was minus the attempted payment. So we could attempt another payment (not enough available funds) nor could we do anything to speed up the return of the funds that left our account (but never made it to theirs because of the declined). How bloody stupid is that? We rang HSBC and they basically said "Sorry, you can't do anything". FlightCentre couldn't do anything (they kept asking could we get more money from somewhere else) and it all went around and around for 5 days until the money bounced back on Sunday sometime and our available balance went back up where it should have been. Honestly, the British Banking system is totally backwards and useless. No one was able to help. No one could tell me if FlightCentre were actually going to receive the money, if they had, or if we'd get it back. The best anyone could say was "You'll have to wait a few days". SO frustrating. I'm glad it's sorted now, but the amount of pain and phonecalls we had to go through, all to dead-end people who couldn't actually help us at all. It's such a scam, the money goes out STRAIGHT away but doesn't bounce back for 5 days? Arrgh it makes me so angry to keep talking about it, so I won't. The UK banking system is totally stupid.
In other news, the Tube Drivers and Bus Drivers are in cahoots against me. For the last 5 days running I've JUST managed to miss the bus once I've gotten off the tube. Yesterday I even rang for the bus but he saw me and drove off.
I have an number of theories and they are:
1) The tube people and bus people are communicating to annoy people who get off at Boston Manor tube station in the morning. Especially me.
2) Red lights hate me and see me coming. Only applies when driving though, green pedestrian crossings actually seem to like me.
3) It is possible to wait for any random length of time, walk out onto an empty street and then someone will step out of their house a bit further down the road and be exactly in time with you. So you're two people sharing a whole empty street, walking side by side. Both of you attempt to speed up and slow down, thus canceling each other out.
This rule/theory also applies to walking to end of our street where you then turn the corner onto the main street. I always time it so I meet someone crossing the road just as I round the corner.
4) If you are still reading this, you have an amazing attention span. (not an actual theory)
Tim
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