Friday

After dealing with First Trust yesterday I looked up ferry times to Stranraer (pronounced Stran-rar), and found that they were frequent and relatively cheap (about £20 for a return trip). The best bit, though, was that the RBS has a branch there. Just as well, because if I'd had to get to Dumfries or Glasgow by myself and back again I might not be writing this quite yet...

I made it to the 12:20pm sailing in a bit of a scramble (at 11:15am I was drying the dishes, and didn't know exactly where the ferry terminal was - I still haven't been to the waterfront), and arrived at Stranraer around 2pm. Oh my god - I think I've found the only town I can't get lost in! No matter that it's tiny, I even found the RBS all by myself. Once inside, I proceeded to spend a good two hours in there. I couldn't believe it.

So, I hope I've updated my signature on their file (Peter, who was helping me is lovely, but I don't think he'd ever had to deal with someone with so many problems), and changed my address. I also took out money for Luke-the-landlord (he'll be stoked: he's convinced I'm going to run off back to NZ, or Scotland, or Dublin, or something), and a bit for me, until I get my card. Peter then passed me over to Jennifer to explain what was going to happen with the cashflow card. Apparently they've ordered it (UK ones come with your name on them, they don't just give you the one on the top of the pile), and it will be sent to my branch in Stirling, who will post it to me, hopefully noting the new address. So far so good (although stupid). Jennifer thought this wouldn't be next week, but early the week after, so I went back to Peter and took out some more money.

Then I said that when I got a job, I would want a credit card, and what was the best way to go about that? Peter passed me a credit card form and said, "Get Jennifer to help you fill it out, and we'll post it to you."(!) I was surprised (how can getting a credit card be so much easier than getting a cashflow card??), because there's no money going in at the moment, just me taking it out, but apparently I have a good credit rating with them - must be all the time spent overseas...

So I went back to Jennifer, who said she wanted to see me again anyway, because apparently my last card was destroyed, so there's a high possibility that when they send the new one out, it won't be activated. To activate it, I'll need to send the activation slip back to the customer centre place, who will then send the new pin to my branch, who will send it on to me. Fantastic. We're looking at six weeks, I thought in a mixture of amusement and despair. I asked how long that was likely to take, and she thought something over two weeks, but suggested that I send the activation slip to her, and she would send the pin on to me. I decided that I should transfer some money to my AIB account, so I could take money from there when I needed it. I filled out a transfer form, but it turned out the Jennifer didn't realise that it was an account in the Republic which made it a "foreign transaction", costing £25. Gargh. We filled out the credit card form instead, and then I went back to Peter (who was starting to hide behind his desk at this point), and took out yet more money.

When I finally finished at the bank (and had topped up my phone - at 24p per sms, texting NZ is killing me) it was about half four, so I roamed the streets for a bit (without getting lost), then wandered into a pub. The entire place stopped and stared at me. Literally. It was like I was something from Dr. Who. But then the music started again, the bartender gave me a Tennants, and I slipped a babel fish in my ear (mixing my universes, but not my genres).

So here I am. No card. No likelihood of cashflow card for about three weeks. Credit card on the way. This can't be good...