Rudders at Home

I really like The Proclaimers. And I personally feel it is my duty to to spread the word about them. They make me smile, and that’s what I need today. That’s why I’m posting this video.

I found out today that the bank has a two week back log and it will be at least two weeks before we see our money back. If we get our money back – that still seems to be up in the air, but the signs look good. When you only get paid once a month (seriously, what’s that all about, anyway?), it’s a pretty big deal. I guess we’ll just have to dip into the caribou hunt fund… (shock, horror!!)

To make matters worse, I heard my voice on the “answerphone” (that’s the answering machine, mom and dad) yesterday. And I’m afraid I’ve heard it with my own ears now – I AM starting to lose my accent. To quote the song… I’ve been so sad, since I said my accent was bad!! 😥

So here’s The Proclaimers. They’re not for everyone, but they do make me smile.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=066oSmDRKPA

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Someone in France is living off of my salary right now. I checked my bank statement online today and spotted that two withdrawals have been made – in FRANCE. They had taken out what appeared to be the maximum amount two days in a row. Now, we’re not in France this week, so this is quite unexpected. Not only that, but when we do travel, we don’t normally clean out our bank account in quite the same way. And with that, the bank we call.

With a phone call to the bank, we discover that someone has been taking money out on us all weekend. It just hasn’t registered on our online statement yet. I actually am quite glad it hasn’t, as I think I would have been even more upset. Seeing the two withdrawals was bad enough, to have seen four or five would have been heartbreaking for me.

What is the bank going to do, you wonder. Well, I wonder that too. First off, they’ve cancelled my debit card. Apparently, it was my card that has been stolen. Somehow, someone was able to get a hold of my card information AND my PIN number. Everything’s all fine and dandy with Paul’s card on the joint account.

So, the first step, cancel the card and send me a new one – to do what with, I don’t know. We haven’t got any money left in the account at all. The second step, the bank says it will investigate. They gave us a number to ring back in a couple of days, and all we’re left to do is wait.

I can’t stand waiting. The bank did say once it was investigated we would most likely get our money back, so if that’s the end result, I suppose I can be patient enough. I’m just irritated that this has happened at all. It irks me that someone has stolen my card, when my card is the least used card in the house.

I’m angry. I’m irritated and angrier than I can even express. And I absolutely cannot believe that we’re paying someone else’s way through life at the moment. I hope they get caught. I hope they get a surprise when they try to make their daily withdrawal tomorrow. I imagine though that they’ll just pull another card out of their pocket. This sucker’s finally caught on.

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Addressing the drinking problem in England is a popular thing for politics at the moment. It’s right up there with being green. In light of this, one of the first things London’s new mayor Boris Johnson did was ban drinking on public transportation. You can read about it here.

Yesterday, was the last day people were allowed to drink alcohol on the Tube. And on the last night of drinking on the Tube, a big party was thrown. According to the BBC, it caused mayhem. And it certainly looks like I would agree with the sentiment. These pictures make the crowds look worse than my daily commute. With the stink of booze and other people, I’m sure it was ten times worse.

I’m so glad I decided to stay in last night.

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As stated, I want to live here. Doesn’t that look like a nice, peaceful place to be? I wonder if we could get a good deal on it.

Probably not. But I suppose that’s ok – I don’t think I’d like to see this place in winter. Plus there would probably be some sheep thrown in with the bargain and I don’t think I’d like the responsibility of looking after the furry things.

This is a photo I took in Glen Coe last year when my parents were over visiting. We spent a good amount of their holiday enjoying the lovely sites that Scotland offers up, and both my dad and I were camera crazy.

This specifically is one of the Three Sisters in the range there. I don’t know the technicalities of it all. I just like how that tiny house makes the background look so striking and massive.

More pictures from our holiday North (notice the capital “N”) can be here, in the Gallery.

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Earlier this week, I went with a couple girls to a cheese tasting. It was a tutored tasting, which Neal’s Yard Dairy do near their shop there in Borough Market. A tutored tasting is where they give you a number of cheeses to taste, and they walk you through tasting them. At this one, they gave us an overview of where the cheese comes from, explained the process of making the cheese, and why the cheese you’re eating now tastes different from the cheese you ate before – among other things. I would hate to spoil the surprise if you were to go on your own!

It was a brilliant night. It’s not cheap, but it was pretty good value for money. We had ten good sized pieces of cheeses to try, plus red and white wine, artisanal bread, and other munchies which they were not stingy about at all. The picture below should give you an idea on portion size – that’s a fairly normal sized plate they’re on.

This tasting focused on mountain cheese. Going clockwise from 12 o’clock: Reblochon, St. Nectaire, Stillsitzer Steinsalz, Ossau-Iraty, Gruyere, Comte, Grand Jura, Kirkham’s Lancashire, Salers de Buron, Lincolnshire Poacher

Because I forgot my camera (yes, again, I know!), photo courtesy of Ruth, one of the nice girls I went with.

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