Double bank let-down

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Wednesday - day 21

Today was more of the same same. I went to the centre, walked more dogs, took more videos (the right way up and in 'widescreen' format this time), ate lunch with my hands and left with Denis to go to Anjuna market for the last time via the petrol station and the bank. After the petrol station, I arrived at the ATM i usually use at the Corporation bank on the road between Anjuna and Vagator. I put my card in, asked for the maximum amount of 10,000 rs (around £150) and recoiled in horror as the machine told me my card had been 'blocked'. What was going on???

This is the way the day went for me after that point.

I texted my Mum to ask if she'd tried to use my replacement card (which she has in her possession) and she said no. I went to another three ATMs, all of which declined my transaction, so my only other choice was to ring Barclays. After finding out that my Indian sim card was also not working (SOD'S LAW), I had no choice but to go to a payphone. All of the above and everything to follow was undertaken with lots of tears and a stressy mind. I got through to Barclays, managed to figure out everything was their mistake but then that they wouldn't do anything to put it right apart from re-instate my card for 14 days. I was LIVID! Absolutely fuming. I'd gone to great lengths before I left England to make sure this sort of thing wouldn't happen... and lo and behold... The branch manager at Great Shelford in Cambridge had misinformed me of what would happen if I ordered a replacement card before I was due one. She failed to tell me that my current card would be cancelled after 28 days of receiving the new one. Thanks!
When I get back to England I'm going to close my account with them.

Luckily, my Mum had received my text in time before leaving the house to go to work and had just enough time to stick the card in special delivery postage to Wilski who was coming out to India next week. The bank would not accept any liability for the problem at all. Beware of Barclays!

Once I'd gotten into bank mode, I also rang up Nationwide building society who hold ALL of my savings. All my money for my trip. Before I left, I also had to deal with their inadequacies and order myself a new card so my Mum could hold it and transfer money into my Barclays current account as I needed it. The card had not turned up, so with no money in my current account, I would soon be homeless. Nationwide said they had sent the card out, but my Mum had not received it. On the phone, I managed to order another one which they assured me would definitely turn up within 10 working days. Bad timing - all of this money rubbish happening over Christmas and New Year when everything in the UK stops. I hoped that I would be OK and cursed both of my banks out loud, vowing to never bank with wither of them again once I had the chance to close my accounts. Proper let down, even after 28 years of being a customer. Cheers!!!

Imagine sitting in a hot phone box for two hours, withtraffic noisuly passing every second, people listening in to your crying and panic, money in the phone going up and up, phones being disconnected, people not understanding or trying to understand what you're on about, feeling that at any point, I could be left stranded in India with no money... that was me. I was pissed off, stressed and so, so upset. None of this was my fault.

I left the phone box needing a tissue and one was kindly given to me by the people who owned the phone - they listened to my story in horror and were really sympathetic, which was nice.
Denis waited for me the whole time and then lent me the money to pay for the calls. I went to the cash point straight away to get money out on the card that had been re-instated for 14 days. Tomorrow I would have to do the same until all my money was out, just in case the card Will was bringing didn't work or something. I had to max my account.
It didn't help that I was owed £100 by an apparent good friend back in England who still hadn't paid it back after 7 months! I was getting desperate now.

So, the day had been spoiled a bit, but we decided to go to the market anyway... not that I could buy anything now anyway, as I had to be careful with my money. We arrived at the IAR stall and remembered that they were making quite a big thing of today as it was the Wednesday before Christmas. We'd seen a massive home-made Santa Claus in the bar we went into with Rob last night... and here he was. A ten foot Father Christmas made of bamboo, gaffa tape and paint which could also apparently walk and that had to be transported by truck because it was so massive! In the middle of the market surounded by IAR volunteers collecting money (altogether 7000 rs was raised... not bad). I felt a bit bad that I hadn't realised what they were doing and that I could've got there earlier to help. I sat with Jan, Nigel and JP for a little while, explained my money situation and quickly forgot about it as JP made us laugh just by being French - teehee.

I left the stall and took a calming stroll around the market whilst snacking on a piece of pizza and a piece of walnut strudel. Some cool music resonated around the stalls from a bar nearby so i went to have a look. As I was standing there, I became very conscious that the bar men might ask me if i wanted to buy anything (which at the time, I didn't), so I pretended I was looking for someone. As I scanned the room to make it more realistic, I spotted kelly! What a co-incidence! She was with Rob and a couple of volunteers from IAR, who I later found out were in this bar to perform in a band later on. I went and sat with them, we watched the sun go down and drank some rum, which made me feel quite drunk in the end! We stayed for the band... they were AMAZING! A fusion of reggae, tabla and digeridoo, slightly psychedelic and very talented.

Rob gave me more reason to think he was slightly arrogant, as he told me he thought I was over-reacting about the money situation. Perhaps I had over-reacted in his eyes, but not in mine. I had gone over the top in trying to stop this from happening... it was my first trip abroad alone as a single female... I had minimal money anyway... I wasn't going to let him make me feel silly.

After scootering home and eating copius amounts of cereal and toast, I tried to find Kelly and JP (as they had arranged to meet up). I found Kelly with Rob (no JP to be seen) in Mango Tree drinking Mohitos, so I left them to it as I couldn't be bothered with Rob's smug comments about how much money he had and how I'd over-reacted.

More random updates...

My skin is a lot better than it was when I first arrived here. I think I'm getting used to the climate and I don't feel as hot and sticky as i did at first. Perhaps the weather's changing...

The mosquito bites are descreasing, which is good. I use Odomos repellant which is quite a lot weaker than the repellant I have with me from England, but Denis told me to save the strong one for Thailand where the mozzies are mental. The only times I get got are when I miss a spot.

I have noticed recently that people don't really want to listen as much as you first think. People seem interested in the general story, but don't then spend the time talking things through with you like friends at home would. I miss my friends at home for this reason, although I have to remember that everyone has their own issues and actually, people only really give a shit about themselves... in the nicest possible way ;-)

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