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Published: September 29th 2006
This week I finally realised how much money I DON’T have. The first half of Monday I drafted up a budget to work out just how much longer I could live on what I’ve got.
The conclusion was: I’m allowed to spend ₤5 on food this week, and I’m going to need a job as soon as I get back from Germany. Hmmm.
I also needed to sell Brendan’s ticket for Oktoberfest, as at the last minute he had to pull out and jump aboard a ship in Wales. I gave Topdeck and e-mail to see what refund they could give me.
I got an e-mail a few days later to find they would only refund 20% of the ticket (which is nothing! - but I guess that’s what happens with short notice).
After a bit of begging and pleading I managed convince them to let me change the name on the ticket. However, that was on Thursday evening, and we leave next Wednesday!
I needed to sell the ticket fast! … Good old Gumtree.com to the rescue.
Or so I thought.
I spent half of Tuesday sorting out mine and Brendan’s claim for British Airways, following the
Paris bag loss plus ruining clothes drama. (hmm I’m starting to think I’m Brendan’s PA!)
Due to lake of money and the whole ‘needing a job thing’ I decided I’d better update my CV to the ‘UK format’, which turned out to be a bit harder and more tedious that I had planned.
Over the next few days I managed to sort through a mountain of photos and random files on my computer, burn some back up CDs and re-organise my entire MP3 collection. However, only minimal progress on the CV front.
Tuesday night, in a moment of spontaneity, Helen and I booked flights to Berlin to join Beth, Nick and Jacqui in November! Awesome!
Then had an interesting time trying to convince Brad (Helen and Beth’s flatmate) to got to bed instead of sleeping on the sofa, so that I could go to bed! Fun times for dossers 😊
While I was cooking dinner on Wednesday, I went to pick some bread out of the oven, and touched the element with the back of my hand, it gave me such a fright I jumped and touched it with my knuckle too! - What a muppet!
The girls went out to meet some people at the local pub, but I decided to stay at home and work on my CV since I have already used almost ₤2 of my ₤5 food allowance for the week on some fruit.
After they got back in the rain, Helen and I stayed up talking for a while. The rain started to get heavier, and I think this is my first official thunder storm in London!
I decided this is a good time to go to bed.
Thursday was a big day. I ventured on a bus by myself to Hammersmith!
I needed to get HSBC to request a bank reference from ASB in New Zealand for my new flat (what an ordeal!). But turns out the lady at HSBC said she has no idea on how they would go about doing that, and sent me back out the door no better off.
I caught the bus back to Shepherd’s Bush and got most of the way home before being almost run over on the foot path by a guy with a large dead cow over his shoulder.
It reminded me of a time back
in New Zealand when I was taken out for dinner at a nice restaurant on Ponsonby Road. We were about mid way through our meal when a guy wearing white overalls with red paint all over them walked into the shop next door, which I soon realised to be a butchery. Yep that wasn’t red paint, and I got to see the almost never-ending heard of cows that made those red marks.
Needless to say dessert went down a lot easier that what I was ‘trying’ to eat that the time.
The afternoon was spent updating my CV, catching up on e-mails and getting travel insurance for my Germany trip next week. Beth and Helen came home shortly later and we had dinner. Helen and I had a mega chat session and just after Helen went to bed Brad came home, so I ended up talking to him till about 2.30am.
Friday was much of the same, us girls decided to have a quiet night in (which suited my ₤5 budget). We watched some DVDs: The Transporter and Transporter 2.
Saturday morning we watched the very first episode of Superman, from the old school series! Helen and
I met Beth and Claire at Portobello Markets in Notting Hill and had a good look around at all the stands for the afternoon.
That evening Helen and I met Grant, Matt and Heloise at Leicester Square and had dinner at a random Indian restaurant that couldn’t tell the difference between 4 and 5 people. Never mind, the food seemed to be ok, even if the service wasn’t all that great.
After dinner we went on a mission to find a café with decent service. ‘Flat White’, the New Zealand café, was the first on our list. However, after a long walk through Soho we found it was closed. We finally found a café that would accept our custom and enjoyed some hot chocolate and the majority of Matt’s ice-cream which he couldn’t finish.
We got home about midnight and Helen and I chatted for quite a while; brad came home from work and talked for even longer. I managed to get to bed about 4.30am.
On Sunday, I got up early and caught the bus to High Street Kensington. I meet my cousin Garry and Aunty Dianne at 12pm, and went for nice lunch at
Funny Times
Heloise & Granta local pub, compliments of Garry.
After lunch we went for a walk through Kensington Gardens, past Kensington Palace and fed the squirrels. They were very cute and rather tame. The squirrel was running all over us and would probably eat right out of out hands if we wanted it to!
We walked through Hyde Park and had a look at the Princess Dianna Memorial Fountain. Then along to Selfridges on Oxford Street and said goodbye to Garry. Aunty Dianne bought me afternoon tea at one of the café’s in Selfridges and we had a nice long chat.
I caught the tube home and watched a tribute show to Steve Irwin on TV with Beth.
I called a few people to see if they knew if anyone who might want a ticket to Oktoberfest, unfortunately not takers, as it is all too short notice… so might have to settle for the amazing ‘20%’ refund.
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Haemoglobin
non-member comment
I've actually wondered how you have spent *this* long without a job spending british pounds!