LATE(Life after travel etc)
Firstly I wonder if there are signs in life saying you're supposed to continue travel. I had my cash card swallowed on the last day in Argentina, I moved onto the spare, and the options were slightly different and managed to log in properly, but then proceed to change my pin number, following Spanish instructions, to something else. My final emergency card had been damaged from being hidden in a silly place and having the magnetic strip rubbed off. I had to borrow some money from Louis, a fellow English traveller, to pay for the bus to the airport and departure tax.
Arriving in England no one told me about what had happened on valentines day..... Chip and Blo*#@y PIN.
I arrived with a bounce in my step, finally being in my homeland, the taste of bitter almost on my lips, and soon to catch up with family and friends. What happens next is first the Tube is on rail replacement, so to the next station after Heathrow. I queue for a bit. Then ask for my ticket, and hand over my credit card, and told to type my PIN in, I say I don't know it, and am told 'Sir you cannot use a signature anymore', so I try my ruined card, as I know the PIN, sadly the machine says it's a swipe card, ahhhh. I offer my passport and try to explain I left in November and never had a PIN for the card and am told 'It's against the law sir to take signatures', as I am reaching the end of my tether a very nice lady, Jo, buys my £10.80 travelcard( I will be sending her the money). I was so grateful, and there's something great about being able to understand the language when things go wrong!!!.
My first day was really nice catching up with a few friends, then off home to Cambridge to see family.
Being home is very strange, things you start to accept, such us unlike Chile and Argentina, loo paper goes in the loo, not into the bin beside. Fruit doesn't taste quite as good. Having a room to myself, and realising how uncomfy the beds have been. Being in a quiet environment, rather than the slamming of doors, the rumble of traffic on the road next door. It's also funny having lots of people you've know for ages around, and how in some ways it doesn't feel like you've left, and also now trying to figure out how much you should talk about your travels, and what is a reasonable proportion of the 1800 photos you took.
Notes:
Be very careful before deleting photos from your digital camera, after backing up photos onto CD, I discovered that a shop had screwed up, and 100 of my photos were corrupted, which is a little depressing. I may be able to get them, but they are currently on a relatives computer with a CD burner!!!
If you're planning to get an eyecover to sleep with, the business class ones from BA are much nicer( you can usually grab a pack on the way out of the plane)
Arriving in England no one told me about what had happened on valentines day..... Chip and Blo*#@y PIN.
I arrived with a bounce in my step, finally being in my homeland, the taste of bitter almost on my lips, and soon to catch up with family and friends. What happens next is first the Tube is on rail replacement, so to the next station after Heathrow. I queue for a bit. Then ask for my ticket, and hand over my credit card, and told to type my PIN in, I say I don't know it, and am told 'Sir you cannot use a signature anymore', so I try my ruined card, as I know the PIN, sadly the machine says it's a swipe card, ahhhh. I offer my passport and try to explain I left in November and never had a PIN for the card and am told 'It's against the law sir to take signatures', as I am reaching the end of my tether a very nice lady, Jo, buys my £10.80 travelcard( I will be sending her the money). I was so grateful, and there's something great about being able to understand the language when things go wrong!!!.
My first day was really nice catching up with a few friends, then off home to Cambridge to see family.
Being home is very strange, things you start to accept, such us unlike Chile and Argentina, loo paper goes in the loo, not into the bin beside. Fruit doesn't taste quite as good. Having a room to myself, and realising how uncomfy the beds have been. Being in a quiet environment, rather than the slamming of doors, the rumble of traffic on the road next door. It's also funny having lots of people you've know for ages around, and how in some ways it doesn't feel like you've left, and also now trying to figure out how much you should talk about your travels, and what is a reasonable proportion of the 1800 photos you took.
Notes:
Be very careful before deleting photos from your digital camera, after backing up photos onto CD, I discovered that a shop had screwed up, and 100 of my photos were corrupted, which is a little depressing. I may be able to get them, but they are currently on a relatives computer with a CD burner!!!
If you're planning to get an eyecover to sleep with, the business class ones from BA are much nicer( you can usually grab a pack on the way out of the plane)
posted by Peter at 4:24 pm
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