Part 32 : Fathers Day Bike Ride

So after a 2 weeks of being a hermit I was a little over Iax''s apartment (really nice place fyi) and my computer and watching movies. I really needed to do stuff. I was stuck in the middle of not having work but having some stuff organised and locked in and kind of just waiting for it to happen.

Being poor (i hate being poor, mainly because I work hard and sacrifice on certain things in my life knowing that the money I earn allows me more freedom during other times when I can freely choose to indulge of embellish as I see fit. A good balance. being poor in this case is more to do with the fact I couldn't get my money rather then me not having money and missing out on stuff knowing I can afford it but not being able to access it pretty much sucks) and then finally getting access to my money again I really wanted to go buy something. I am extremely sick of all my clothes from traveling. I haven't felt the freedom to be able to just go out and spend a lot of cash on new clothes, and most of my clothes are summer stuff like singles and shorts etc. So I went out and after going to the bank I bought a jacket (FCUK). A nice overcoat thats really similar to my Politix jacket back home, not as good but still quite nice. Need to find a tailor to amend the arms and a few other things but quite nice.

Then I called around and eventually met up with ash (Phil's friend from work) and we caught up for a beer and a pizza in SOHO :) then the funny thing is Phil called. He had to go into work and so he decided to stop by and the 3 of us had a few beers around the corner at a place called 2nd floor ???. After a beer Iax called and he was passing by so he came in and had a beer to. Four boys all drinking some Brooklyn Lager in Soho on a friday. The funniest thing is I really started the day thinking I'm just going to the bank. So when I left in the morning I was wearing a singlet and my hoodie. Pretty bumish if you think about it but hey, I only have about 10 articles of clothing so bite me. :P Then eventually as it does it turned into a drinking session into the night till midnight, and there I was out in Soho in a single top :( shame on me. at the same time it didn' t really bother me, and I managed to sweet talk myself a free tequila shot from the bar chick. ching ching!

The next day however as seedy as we were, me and Iax both headed over to Beth and Allan's place for what was to be the monstrous "Casual" ride to Windsor a whopping 36miles!!! I have literally not ridden for a long time, not since I was teenager. A few minor occasions like in Laos and Laos and with Iax to Camden but nothing of the 36miles proportions. In the end it wasn't that bad. I do wish that my bike was a offroad bike because it was a bit rocky and my bum was a bit sore at the end but otherwise it was quite nice.

We stopped halfway after feeling ravenous and we got a hearty pub meal and a few pints. The service here was quite crappy and the food pretty average so if I had to I wouldnt recommend this place, somewhere in Shepperton. And it was quite expensive.

After the food and pints we were all pretty much nackered and the thought of riding the extra 15 miles was only really evident in the obsessed and keen. ie Iax and Beth. lol. Alan and myself were keen to get the fk back home and crashing on a couch watching movies or something. It was however Iax's 1st Fathers Day and his bubba is a long way away in Australia waiting on a visa back into the country so it was in the end quite a nice day to get out, go for a ride and check out more of the beautiful London landscapes while its still nice and sunny.

cheshmonkey

Part 31 : Dinner with Sissel and Iax

After a big weekend out drinking with Duncan and Iax a pub along the canal around Notting Hill and a night out at Fabric I soon came to the age old problem us Aussie travellers have and that is how the hell do I easily get money from my Aussie account (St George FYI). Now it is really easy to get money out of your account as long as you have a valid visa debit card / credit card and then you can simply go to any old ATM and get money out. This of course is quite costly because you pay the worst exchange rate and you also get fined on top of your fee and most likely from both banks.

There were a few that were suggested to me (1st contact, Paypal, western Union) the first I tried was Paypal because hey I already had a paypal account. So I checked to see that my HCBC account was active which it was, then I tried to send money to myself from my Paypal account, ie move money from my Aussie account to Paypal then move it to my English HSBC account.

Im sure as I interrupt myself that you must be thinking why in bloody hell doesn't he just net xfer his own money to himself. This would be possible if I had pre setup my account to be allowed to xfer to foreign bank accounts but I didn't, and then to change it all I need is to get the site to sms/txt me a code to my secure mobile phone number I have stored in my account settings. This is the same number of the same phone I lost in a taxi in Saigon on my first day in Vietnam. See previous blog entry :) and then to change my own account details to my new UK number I need to get a sms/txt me a code to my secure mobile phone number :( starting to not be a happy chappy at this point.

Fine ok back to Paypal. The upload/xfer to Paypal worked a treat, almost instantly my money was online. The problem here was getting that money to my account in the UK. You cannot add a UK bank account to a Australian Paypal account. So I setup a new Paypal acount, then I transferred money from my Aussie Payal account to my UK Paypal account. Hmm sounds simple right, this took 4 days. Then I wasnted to send it to my Uk account. What Paypal does is pre sends you 2 small amounts, something like 0.13c and 0.07c which you use to verify your account and that your a human and that money can arrive and all that. I do all that and it takes 7 days for the 2 transactions to work and another day to verify then once I had actually been able to send it took the standard 4 days for my money to arrive. This is a long time without cash.

Enter option 2. Western Union. Hmm do not believe the spin of advertisements because its all a load of crap. First thing is I try to send myself money online. Its easy they say, yeah its easy to sign up and hand over registration and personal details but there are a couple of things that they don't tell you.

1. you cannot easily go online and send money to someone instantly, you actually need to go into a office and see someone to verify that your not doing anything illegal like sending money to someone. This is a lie and it will not let you do it until you do see someone.

2. You cannot send money to yourself, I could actually send money to my cousin, she could then pick it up and then give me my own money but you cannot send money to yourself. :( what a fing stupid idea. Is this not a world without borders now. Whats the point of having online money xfer internationally if you cant send money to yourself!.

3. If you call Western Union from the Uk, say because your travelling and to send money to yourself, and you have a mobile but dont wanna fork out a million quid on phone calls calling Western Union because you know that the shitty ass answering machine is set to the slowest speed highest call cost mode, and decide to use something like Skype to call, as any modern day traveller with a computer does, they will not accept your request. Actually you cant even call from a mobile phone, To use the Western Union phone support service you need to have a registered phone line and then need to call on that phone line. WTF?

Ok so maybe im doing it the hard way. Why haven't I done something really simple like just go into Western Union here in the Uk and see a rep, because thats what they said I need to do on the phone but back in Aus. Hell that surely would be easier right. Wrong! If you go into a Western Union reputable agent here in the Uk they can do nothing for you. It seems like the agents are all 3rd party businesses that have and agreement with Western Union but are not actual agents. One place I went into was a carpet shop. You can hand over your money to these people quite easily. Funny that the whole giving money to Western Union is quite easy but the receiving is a bit harder. You cannot go to a WU agent in the Uk and send money from Aust, at all. I do feel a little hesitant to give money to a shop simple because they have a WU sticker on their window.

theres something else I'm forgetting about why WU are so sh!te but I cant remember right now

Enter the last option. 1st Contact. These guys have a website that seems extremely dodgy, and the system sounds really dodgy too. I simply !!! send money from my account (st george) to their account (ANZ) then they send money to me and only charge me $5. They offer a better exchange rate then the banks do and they also offer special deals where you can lock in a rate for x time if you like it. ??? I get that they make money because they trade the money at a better rate and hence make a certain profit off every transaction but in the end they were quite good. It sounds dodge to dump money in their account because then your just kinda hoping they actually send it, but eventually it took 3 days from me to them, and then 1 day from them to me(UK) and walla. I have money in my account.

So after going through 2 weeks with no cash and bumming it a little, the last couple of days were quite nice. Sissel who I met in Nha Trang Vietnam and also caught up with in Don Det (4000 islands) was stopping through to London on her way back home to Copenhagen. We had a nice day grabbing a coffee in Earling and picking up some groceries. I cooked some nice hearty Filo chicken and vegies soup, one of my favs that my mum always cooked for me (also very good if you are sick). We then proceeded to have a great night when Iax joined us after work and together we finished off a bottle of Vodka, the one I got from Istabul. Unfortunately Sissel had a early flight on RyanAir which left at 7am so she had to spend the night at the airport. Thanks Sissel for the great day. I will def have to come visit you in Copenhagen. Maybe before it gets too cold, -20 something for me just seems ridiculous. I've never been below 0. :)
peace

cheshmonkey

Part 30 : Cha Cha Moon

Since arriving here in London there has been 2 things that I seem to do a lot of. Drink pints because everyone drinks a lot of beer, as in way too much beer and do a Thursday dinner with the boys (Iax, Duncan and myself of course). Usually at Duncan's place and usually of very high quality food. Between the three of us we prepare a very nice meal.

The day after always ends up being drinks in Soho some where and this time we met up with Allan (of the Beth and Allan fame) and a few of there associated from the cafe. After a few drinks out in the street (because in the summer you drink is the basking rays of sunlight) we all needed some food to fill our bellies. The place to go apparently was Cha Cha moons asian fusion food. Funny eating highly priced asian food after spending soo much time in asia eating really cheap asian food. 1 meal here can feed you for a week in Vietnam. Curry was really nice and good after a pint.

What was meant to be a relatively quiet night of beer in Soho ended up being quite later then we though and we rushed to catch the last train back.

ooh mental note it I got lost trying to get to the pub :) was actually quite nice walking around Soho when its hot and bustling.

The Next day after this we met up with Darius and his Gf who were down from Manchester. We had a beer in the city then headed out to the famous Fabric. The four of us partied until 3am and I had a really good time while we were all together, but after a few hours dancing Darius and his chick headed back to their hotel and me and Iax partied on. Now I have heard a lot of good things about Fabric and I did enjoy myself alot but there were waaay too many guys there and the music was just a bit too repetitive a drum sound. After a while I was craving some tweaks and effects from the minimalist electro sounds of Sydney and thats saying something.

Good times and a great night. Stupidly got to the station after walking 6 blocks and then realised I left my camera in the cloak room (which is why there was no blog from Fabric). also had a go at the station while waiting for the train and I must have hit the record touch button on the lcd flip screen and hence turned the record off. Oops. sensitive little thing and such a shame because it was a nice record. oh well.