I hate red tape

It is said that the English are masters of queueing. No matter what the service, or the line-up involved, you will find Poms patiently waiting in line to access it. It's an endearing national trait, and a visible demonstration of their unerring patience.

Not so endearing is their ability to fuck you around mindlessly, in blind obedience to bureaucratic red tape, as opposed to anything approaching common sense. I'm referring to my struggle to obtain a British bank account. In retrospect, I should have done what I did today, and sign up with an agency called 1stContact, that do a lot of this for you. Unfortunately, now that I'm working full-time I can't make a meeting until Saturday 2nd September. So, another 3-4 weeks or so of frugality awaits - harboring my money against the vicious exchange rate until I get paid in pounds. Still, on the bright side - by the time I actually get paid, which can't happen till I get a bank account, it's going to be a doozy.

At this stage I'm not doing much outside of work - I'm content to remain at the backpacker's I'm at for the time being, and hopefully get a house in the next week or two. The job has been interesting - certainly different, and yet similar to what I was doing previously.

What else is news?

Well, the Premier League kicked off this week, with Liverpool dumping Chelsea 2-1 in the opening match. This prompted Jose Morinho, Chelsea Manager, and perhaps the most miserable bastard ever to grace England (which is saying a LOT, from the country that produced Ozzy Osborne) to slag off Liverpool's stamina for a long season. It's finally started resembling what I thought of as British weather over here - rain and cold, grey skies. It's actually been quite pleasant. I don't mind the cold, although no doubt I'll be eating my words come December. The airports over here are still an absolute shambles, flights being cancelled left right and centre. The rate they're going, soon they'll be worrying about letting anyone at all on the plane. Perhaps a giant catapult in Cornwall, and a large landing pad on Long Island will be the way travel is done in the future. It'd probably be safer, judging from recent events.

God I'm talking bollocks.

So yeah, on the whole it's been a mixed bag here in England - happy to be here, but a bit stressed, caused by unnecessary fretting that could've been sorted if I'd realised in advance what a bastard it was to try and obtain a bank account here.

Oh yeah, and the Wests Tigers missed out on the finals. That pissed me off. Big time.

Ah well...there's always next season. At least I'll be there to watch it.