This is the day I've been waiting for three months! I got a letter from JobCentre Plus while I was preparing my lunch at home (grilled cheese and ham sandwich - which is by the way very popular lunch in here). The letter in a picture states that my application for National Insurance Number has been accepted and therefore I received personal and permanent number for work related things like paying taxes, receiving allowances... or having an own bank account.
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| A long awaited letter from the JobCentre Plus. |
Bank Account - Finally!
What I did next, after having few dance steps, was opening a Lloyds bank website and searching guide how to apply for the bank account. I found an online application and after entering few information about myself and my current bank affairs, they made a decision right away and opened a bank account for me! That's unbelievable after waiting this to happen for so long. The Visa Debit card should arrive in few days, so I can finally start making purchases and withdraw money without fear of having difficulties... Someone may now wonder what's this fuss about having a British Bank account and Bank card, isn't it the same if I used my Finnish one? Theoretically it has no big difference, but in reality the problems occur when you for example go to a web store and it asks your billing and delivery addresses... and because they don't match, the transaction won't go through. That happened the other day when I was reserving theatre tickets and trying to pay them with my Finnish Credit card. The service refused to deliver the tickets to a different address than my billing address was. So, in the worst scenario my tickets would have even been delivered to Finland... oh well. I can now take advantage of all the services which I've been paid already, including Sky box mobile. Their applications are available only in UK App Store, which I haven't been able to use until now.
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| Internet Bank application waiting for its eager user. |
Escaping Bad Weather
Weather here has turned into shit (read: English standard). There has been showers and rain one week on a row (except on last Saturday, when the temperature reached +28 C before nightly thunderstorm). So, we decided to search for a quick getaway to somewhere cheap, nice and warm place. This turned into a real challenge as next Monday is an official Bank holiday in UK. This means, that everyone else in the country is thinking to go abroad too, and the prices went ridiculously high in the most popular holiday destinations. We did hard job to find a decent holiday destination, which wouldn't ruin the budget or be too fully crowded with other British tourists. This time of the year the best European destinations are most likely close to the Mediterranean Sea, if you're looking for beach, sun and warm weather. So there we go: Medulin, Croatia. Flights are to Ljubjana, Slovenia, which means that I can start driving again on a right side of the road :) And because the flights are selected from the cheapest carriers available there's not much to pack either due to restrictions of allowed bag sizes. You really need to be clear with these rules, otherwise you pay for you mistakes and the illusion of cheap holiday is then gone.
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| Which weather forecast you prefer? I decided to go to see if 30 C is too much or not. |
Bank Holiday Advantages
Bank holidays are by the way great moments to get what you want. Travel agents do their best to get their revenue, everyone wants to take advantage of one free day from work. On the other hand some work unions (like public transportation in London) decide to take advantage in their own way. London Underground threatened to be on a strike for the whole week, which would mean that their workers could be on a holiday too and the effect of the strike would be greatest possible as the rest of the people struggle to get to the airports. A great way to get attention, ay it? Luckily they called off the strike as this would have been a real chaos in there.
Public Transportation Is Great - Most of the Time
There is one thing that I don't understand in London public traffic, especially in train services: There are several train stations in London which are located in rough circle around the city: Victoria, Waterloo, London Bridge, Charing Cross, Euston, Clapham Junction, St. Pancras, Paddington... you name it. And in many cases you have to travel through London to reach different destinations in England. Surprisingly, there is no train connection between railway stations. So, instead of using the train in your whole journey, you need to change into an underground or bus in the middle of busiest London area. In theory this is fine and very effective system, but in reality the trouble is that the whole traffic relies on the underground. And if you work there and you want more salary, just go into a strike and everything stops in the capital city. Motorways around the London area are mostly totally rammed with cars even without the strike, and overground public traffic can't bear the demand what happens when people want to reach their destinations in rush hours. I don't know if I'm moaning for nothing, but the tube strike (or at least fear of it) has hit me every time, when I rely on the public transportation in London.
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| London Tube zone 1, where most railway stations are. |
Driving Safely
Speaking of the driving in here, I'm started to feel more and more confident with left side traffic. Now I can already drive easily in Basingstoke without GPS or navigator. And several lanes in roundabouts don't make me nervous anymore. In the end of the day there is a clear logic how to use them. It's just different (like everything else in this country). Everything has been fine so far. In fact the only trouble on the road came the other week, when we were returning from the Staffordshire back to Basingstoke. We got a flat tyre and it needed quick replacement right away on the road. Luckily I managed to drive to the closest garage just before the tyre was completely empty. After searching the comparison chart between bars and PSI, I managed to change the tyre without any problems. I also noticed that the rest of the tyres were quite badly worn, so I decided to invest into new set of tyres on the next working day. That cost me totally £360 for changing all 4 tyres, but now I've got much content feeling to drive on rainy roads of England.
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| Not very fancy ones, but good enough for safe driving. |
