Life on the Road

Reality has hit now. I'm in full swing at work, and been given my own project to start on, which is good. I've forgotten what working is like, given my last 6 months in Australia were pretty much spent on my couch at home waiting for something to do, or getting coffee down Acland St (how much do I miss a good flat white  and Monday's sport section for the footy analysis) or even going to the gym.

The major consequence of doing my job in the UK is driving. And I mean lots of driving. Lots. Going up to the north of Wales is about 200 miles depending on the myriad of routes you can take inland, or over 240 miles if I go back into Lloegr (that's England for the non-Welsh speakers) and up the motorways. Don't ask me what that is in kilometers, all I know is that miles tick over very slowly.

A month ago I'd drive through a quaint little village and think "oh, that's quaint, I wonder if its full of quirky personalities like in the Vicar of Dibley?". Now they are just annoying. You have to slow down, or get stuck behind a truck (can't say lorry) as it tries to turn a corner. I'm sure the scenery is quite spectacular through the Welsh countryside, I don't notice it now, besides its always PDR.

I have seen some things though, usually during the week when it doesn't rain. There's an old walled town called Conwy near where I've had to go for work. There's a castle that's sort of cool (left) and the UK's smallest house (right) there. Glad they only charged a £1 to get in. It was small.


The motorways are good when there's no-one on them. People seem to drive at two distinct speeds - too slow or too fast. You have to keep the radio on for traffic reports, but once you're stuck in a traffic jam (or queue as they put it politely) you're stuck. I've been advised to keep food and water in the car as you can be stuck for several hours or more if you're unlucky.

My view for 2hrs on the M4

Last Monday was the August Bank Holiday, which is meant to be the best of summer. So I decided to take the whole day to drive up to North Wales up the coast and check out the beaches and towns before work on Tuesday. Torrential rain for the whole day, what else should I have expected? I got out of the car at Aberyswyth and my umbrella got turned inside out and broke. And I got completely soaked. I had to buy a new umbrella and a raincoat. And it took 8 hours to get there in thunderstorms and traffic. My best public holiday ever.


Rare day working from home today. Got Sky installed today. Already set up to record some of the weekend's AFL matches. Won't be able to watch them live because I'm going to London (yay) for the weekend to catch up with my mate Jason.
They only installed Sky TV though, broadband and phone are going to take another month. Why? Its just the way its done, I've given up questioning. Tonight I'm spending quality time getting to know 400 new channels.

British Summer

I'm back up in North Wales for work this week, staying in Llandudno again in the Empire Hotel where Fuji employees stay when we're up here. The Empire is one of those old fashioned hotels, lots of narrow hallways full of furniture, small rooms that are over decorated and terrible bathrooms. Most people staying here are on their summer holidays, and most of them are pensioners so you can't help dodging the walking frames and electric scooters. Everybody dresses for dinner in the dining room...except for me. After a day at work in a suit and tie I have to change into jeans and T shirt...and thongs (careful not to call them that here). Last night I was shown my table which was around a corner where all the dressed up people couldn't see me. At least the food is good.
They can't understand why I don't want a full fry up breakfast when I stay in hotels. Its odd that I just want cereal and toast. Breakfast is the best meal of the day here, and baked beans are a treat. Although last week at a hotel in Norfolk I had kippers for the first time. Too fishy and too salty for breakfast.

Summer in the UK has been all about the Olympics as you'd expect. Glad its over. The BBC coverage started off being fair and unbiased but as they started winning more gold it became unbearable. I even missed Eddie McGuire. Australians didn't get much coverage, except when GB beat us. The papers were worse than the TV. I did find this in the Times, though, a bit snarky I thought.

I did go to the Olympics - the bronze medal football game between S Korea (2) and Japan (0) at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Great stadium and fantastic atmosphere. We sat 10 rows behind the goals, not bad for the cheap tickets. The stadium is in the city centre so all the pubs are full before and after games. I'd driven back from Norwich (5 hours) that day and was starving by the time I got there. Food choices poor: I would have killed for a pie, all they sold was bacon sandwiches.

Barry Island glamour

I completely understand why millions of Brits fly to Spain and Greece for summer holidays. The weather here is crap, and its been an average summer. Its usually cloudy during the day, rain more often than not in Wales and because of daylight saving the warmest time of the day is about 7pm. And the beachside holiday towns I've seen are sort of tragic. I don't know if they've been neglected, or they have just given up. Case in point is Barry Island (of Gavin and Stacey fame) near Cardiff. They could really cash in on the G&S stuff but don't bother. Its just amusement arcades, fish and chips, soft serve icecream cones and bad pubs with beer in plastic glasses. The cafes all serve the same food, photos of eggs, chips and beans in their windows. If you were British, I'm sure you'd know what eggs, chips and beans look like, you've eaten enough of it in your lifetime.

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

Still, people still flock to the seaside, usually fully dressed. I haven't seen anyone swim yet. I hope it does warm up, there are some beaches in the west of Wales that look really beautiful - sand dunes, blue water and waves. But I think if I'm still here next summer, I'm going to Spain.

All OK now

My furniture arrived on Friday. All brand new, not to my taste but who's complaining...its all here. Its that glass and chrome look that's popular here, I think its a bit "60 Minute Makeover". I suppose you could call it "Designer Warehouse Chic".

I caught up with Ann & Raj at Charmaine & Ian's dream home in Hampshire last week. Ann offloaded a doona cover on me (I refuse to say "duvet" or "garridge" for garage, which is a petrol station, or "hoover" for vacuum) and some other handy stuff.




I'm watching the Olympics, so over team GB, but must admit their cycling team are good. The response from most locals I get when I open my mouth is "So, how many gold medals have the Australians won?" They know its only one and are loving beating us. So they should, all the lottery money going in to sport, buying the best coaches from all over the world, hometown advantage and all that.

I went into Cardiff city centre today, there's a little train that leaves from a station about 200m from home. It takes about 3 minutes from the Bay to then City. PDR all day and bucketing now. City is full of people going to GB v S Korea Olympic football tonight, there are a lot of pubs, bars and restaurants and Millennium Stadium is right in the city. I'm going there next Friday night for the bronze medal football game. I hope GB win tonight to get to semi final but lose semi because they will play for bronze then.

Shopping again tomorrow for household essentials. Luckily Cardiff is a city of superstores and retail parks so I can pick up everything cheap. I'm a Tesco fan now. Supermarkets are a lot better here than home, but as expected fruit & veg is not that fresh. The locals love superstores.

Big two weeks of travel and work coming up. I'm going to change work cars, the big diesel VW Passat they gave me is a beast to drive, and not very practical in cities or driving country roads, and I can hardly get it into my parking space.

OK, it's time for a rant.

I've been here 3 weeks now and should be settled in, but does anything go right in this country? Does anything work?
First, the banks: you can't get a bank account without an address, you can't get an address without a bank account. I managed to get an account for ex-pats, but have to pay for it and can't get a credit card for 6 months. The bank won't send out a debit card or the PIN until you have an address, so you can't have access to your money unless you go to the branch you opened the account at with your passport. I got the card, but the PIN has been delivered to my Australian address. Why? Because the bank's system recognises  the first address of the account, not any updates. WTF???
Next, I've been living in hotels and serviced apartments, lugging around lots of bags, getting them wet in the rain, not unpacking anything. Yesterday I rocked up at the agent's at 9am (agreed time) to pick up the keys to my flat...finally. The agent looked at me "we have a slight problem" the flat has no furniture. "What??" None. At all.
When you sign a lease for a furnished flat, you expect some furniture, a bed, a sofa, a table at least. But the previous tenant took everything with her. Even the bathroom mirror. "its not my fault, we didn't find out about this until Monday" is the agent's excuse. "if you knew then, why didn't you tell me and I would have stayed at the serviced flat". "Oh, we thought we'd have it sorted"
Story is the developer of the building managed it originally, the last and only tenant wanted an empty flat so they spread the owner's £2000 worth of furniture around lots of other flats, all this was ignored when the current agent took over the building. The owner is furious, he's lost out, the previous management have absolved all responsibility and I have an empty flat. I'm refusing to pay rent until this is fixed.
I had to buy a blow up mattress to sleep on and a folding chair.

Home sweet home

No furniture arrived today as promised. I have been calm about this, but sick of excuses, so I stormed into the agent's office down the street and went off. With an office full of customers. And I get called "aggressive"...again. (They think Ian Thorpe is being aggressive on the BBC Olympic coverage because he says "Look..." before he makes a statement).

Nice view, though

When I got home there was a sheepish phone call from the agent saying that stuff will be delivered tomorrow morning, they'll pay for it and work out who owes what later.
Great, another night on the air bed, but out of all this I get brand new furniture!
At least I have a TV. $400 for a 40 inch LCD at Tesco. Bargain.