so different, yet the same

So rather than read a local newspaper like the Times, or something distinctly London based, I read the Age online. And this morning, an article made me realise that while it's so different, it's still all the same.

I quote for you:

Spring has sprung...

It's kind of cool. When we first got here, not only was it absolutely freezing, grey overcast and depressing, but the trees out the back were stunted, grey, brown, boring tree trunks with branches.

Voting differences...

So we're in the middle of an election campaign here. Actually, today is election day. Yes, it's Thursday. There's at least a few schools closed of that we know of, to act as polling places. Out for a jog this morning, I saw at least 2 others, along with a number of things that really pushed home to me the differences between elections here, and back home

It's been a while...

Since we were last in Australia, and to be fair, around other Australians. Sure, there's at least 2 others in our unit complex, but we don't socialise with them much. But we woke up the other morning to mysteriously find a copy of the new Underbelly episodes sitting on my desktop. No idea how that happened.

The TV Man...

Came to the front door of our complex today, and rang the buzzer. Me being me, had to go down and see the guy....

As you may, or may not be aware, it's law in the UK that you pay for a TV licence. IE, if you own a tv, they assume you watch what they call "terrestrial" TV. It should be noted that you require a license no matter what tv you watch - sky, hd, cable, terrestrial, even live streaming Tv on a computer.

Doctors and nurses...

Once again, we're discovering how different things like GPs and the medical system are over here. I've already posted about the need for an NI number here. We received an NI number each - Rhiannon on Friday, and mine on Saturday (Yes, mail gets delivered on Saturday!) so in my absence of any work, and Rhiannon having a free day, we thought we'd go down to the local surgery, as we need some scripts re-issued for the UK chemists...

An NI number...

Is one of the essential things you need to work (legally) here in the UK. It's kind of a cross between our Medicare and Tax File numbers back at home, except, it's both.
NI stands for National Insurance...

To keep money...

One must have a bank account. Getting a bank account in the UK is notoriously difficult. There's also quite a number of differences, and gotchas, particularly with Australian bank cards, which I'll explain below.
You should also bear in mind the difficulties involved in communicating with banks when you're in a different time zone, and that you can't go into a branch to sort things out. Changing institutions is going to be very difficult, unless you're created a power of attorney (which we discussed, but did not do. Damnit.)

Ok, I admit it.

I'm kind of addicted to the supermarkets here. They just have so much cool shit, like the ready meals. Or, stuff like single-serve shepards pies for 90p, 3 for 2 pound, stuff like that.
The meat prices are pretty crap, which is basically in line with most of the meat quality, but oh well.

One thing that we haven't been able to find though: Chicken Salt. And, Pasta Salad! i don't know if creamy pasta salad even exists here !


Also, differences:
Chip packet colourings. Blue is plain, green is chicken, purple is salt and vinegar, right?
Oh no.... no.. blue is Cheese and Onion. Orangey-red is original (or, lightly salted). Green is Salt and Vinegar. I haven't really noticed a chicken, or bbq flavour yet. Prawn cocktail flavour is pink though. At least that colour makes sense.

Of cards and stores...

So before we left, we changed our account type with NAB from a basic type, to a Gold - basically, we pay 10$ a month, and get no atm fees or anything like that, and it's linked to the visa plus network, so it's all good to go, no problems, etc etc. At this point, I should mention, it was NOT a visa debit. We don't have a visa debit.
Combine this above, with our afore-mentioned VISA problem. So here we are, in London, with no credit card, and a Plus debit card.

So first time we were at the store, we tried to use the debit card, thinkin "well, this is how we always do it, it's a global network, should be fine"
nuh uh, no way, not no how. Our debit card does not work at stores, or anywhere except ATMs. this is no major deal, except we're used to living off cards, one way or another.


WE had to go into a bank here yesterday anyways, to create accounts, so we figured we'd ask about thiss... turns out every single card here, has a chip on it, similar to our visa card. So we now have a UK bank card, (but no PINs) with a chip on it. And they are going to issue us a visa debit card.
We spoke to NAB, they are also going to issue us a visa debit card, since it seems our current debit card is, more or less, fucking useless.