Wednesday 9th February

This blog tells mostly of me going to city and trying to buy some things, finding out why my swiping bank card confuses the sales people and getting frustrated with the train ticket collection but eventually getting it. Might not be that interesting, but I took some okay pictures.

I have no lessons on Wednesday so it was a chance to do some things. Unfortunately the night before we stayed out pretty late and so I slept in and didn't get out until about 1pm. I got my regular lunch from the Portland Building (pancake and pizza) and then walked toward the city.

Coming up very soon I have a very busy schedule. This was the last free day I had, so there was a bit that I needed to get done. I needed to get a ticket to a concert I'm going to with Matthias, waterproof walking shoes, food for rambling on the weekend, plus some other stuff.

I walked toward the city and along the way I walked next to the canal briefly.

Then headed roughly toward the city. I was trying to find a venue called the Glee Club. It's some kind of live comedy venue. I'm going to see someone called Andy McKee. Matthias found the concert. I don't know anything apart from what I read on wikipedia. He is some kind of accoustic guitar player. Apparently he's pretty good. Concert is 12 pounds. I think that's fairly cheap and it will be a fun experience.

The glee club is supposed to be somewhere near the castle. At this point I realised that I really should have printed a map, or looked at the google map image for longer than 3 seconds before deciding that I'd be able to find it. I couldn't find it.

(the whole next paragraph describes the frustrating process of getting my train tickets, including all the annoying details)

I also had to pick up train tickets from the train station for an upcoming trip to York. I had lots of trouble collecting the tickets. To collect the tickets I needed the card I bought them with and a reference number. I had both. I went to the machine, inserted my card as instructed, and then waited, also as told. After around 40 seconds of waiting, the machine said that my card couldn't be read. I tried it again. This time I inserted the card, then a few seconds later took it out (I wasn't told to do that bit). That got me one step closer. The machine said that I could now enter a reference number. I entered it and submitted. After a lot of time units I was told that the tickets couldn't be retreived, and that I should go to the office with my problem. I went to the office and told the guy. He said he couldn't do anything, but then changed his mind and said that he actually could. I gave him my card, and he said there were no tickets bought with that card, so I must not have bought them properly. Then he asked if I had a reference number. I gave it to him and he said that actually the tickets did exist, but that I must not have bought them with this card. (It's the only card I could have bought them with). He told me I'd have to call a number and get them to allow me to pick them up via some other identification like a passport etc. As I walked away I decided to try the machine one more time. I did all the things again including the trick with removing the card (which, after three attempts, I realised has to be slightly later than 4 seconds, but not too much later). On this attempt the machine found my tickets and gave me the option to print them. I did, and now I have the train tickets. I feel lucky that I didn't try all this on the morning my train was to leave.

I had the tickets now. I then headed to the shopping area where I wanted to find a spare SD card for my camera, waterproof shoes for rambling and Finland, and a phone.

I found an outdoor shop. They had some alright shoes except that they looked a bit like they were from the James Bond Moonraker movie. I wasn't really sure. I found a few phone stores. 9 pounds for the phone and then I recharge whenever I want. Except I wasn't really sure about that either. Found a tourist place. I got a city map finally. Hooray! Also got an SD card. 4gb, 8 pounds (I'm not sure if I'm meant to say pounds or 'quid'). Not bad with the SD card.

When I bought the SD card, the man seemed very frustrated that I had a swipe card, and not a chipped card. When I got home I decided to look up what the problem is. Apparently the UK has been converting over to solely chip cards since 2006, and finished doing that quite a while ago. Most of Europe apparently is the same. So it looks like only people from outside Europe are the ones carrying cards that need to be swiped. No wonder people are confused! I emailed my bank and they gave me some elaborate instructions on how I can get a new card, involving reverse calling them, which apparently they'll accept.

While I was walking through the shopping district I heard a kid's voice next to me "ooh there's Joel!". That was unusual. No one should know me. I looked at the kid and he was looking through me at someone else.

I was a bit disappointed with this day. I really need some waterproof shoes soon, except I don't like rushing into big purchases without considering a few alternatives, and I couldn't find the other outdoor shops.

The tourist person told me where the glee club is, that I was trying to find earlier. I found it, but they couldn't sell me the ticket. I had to buy it online. It was about 5:45 at this time and I was still about 4km from home. I usually meet the others at 6:00 to eat dinner, and they stop serving dinner a bit before 7:00. I was very hungry so I had to race home. I got there at about 6:20. An epic effort, I think.

Here are a few pictures that I took:

The canal!

Inside a fancy arcade thing. The roof is nice.

This is built in 1437! I find it amazing that they can just have a little "this is the oldest inn" painted on the front and not making any more of a deal about it than that.

Nice eating places along the canal.

Lots of water from the canal overflowing into some other place.