Tales from the Thames

Saturday September 10th at 3pm...
I am sitting in my new back garden which is literally just on the river in the peace and sunshine of a brilliant day. Its 25 degrees (77 Fahrenheit) and I reading a book under a tree thinking how life literally could not get any better..........


This weekend's Thames Festival put on by the Major of London provided plenty of fun and excitement and for those lucky enough to live riverside the free entertainment came delivered!

I got a video of drummers on a boat but their were also bagpipers and a parade of different boats all along the Thames on Saturday and Sunday.


Then on Monday a man did a charity swim down the River Thames with people on every bridge cheering him along the way. He raised over a million pounds for Charity.
So between bagpipers on a boat and a charity race down the river the Thames is officially Brilliant! but then again with a view like this who would beg to differ!


This is my view every morning of the Thames under Putney Bridge.




Absolutely Breathtaking!

My bank account is so secure even I can't access it !

Dear Natwest,
For the past two weeks and counting that I have been trying to sort out an issue with a locked pin for my debit card held on my personal account at your fine banking establishment. Having been a customer at Natwest for the past 6 years now I have yet to encounter quite such difficulty ever accessing my own personal account. Having been away from the country for the past 2 years I feel justified in having forgotten my pin number having not used it once in 24mths time.
On August the 22nd I had ordered from a local branch of your fine banking establishment a copy of my own pin number to be sent to me and was told that it would take 2 to 3 working days.
Let me know count for you what exactly three working days are : Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
I then returned to your fine banking establishment on Friday only to be told that my pin had not yet arrived.
I then attempted to change my address to my new and current address in the UK. I also requested that my pin number be sent to that address to of course save me the added hassle of returning to the bank once more. I waited for another 6 working days until the next Thursday when I returned to your FINE BANKING ESTABLISHMENT! only to find that my pin had still not arrived and that my address had also not been changed. I apparently had not been clever enough to realized that the bank teller assisting me had actually done nothing to my account since apparently he was set down to be fired the very next day.
I then asking for assuring form the person serving me that they were in fact actually going remain working for Natwest at least within the next week requested that my pin be sent once more to the branch. I was assured that it would arrive this very morning Monday September the 5th and on arrival at the local branch of your fine banking establishment was told that my pin has YET TO ARRIVE!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been told that it will arrive tomorrow although I do have to be quite honest in expressing my lack of assurance and trust in the word of anyone sitting behind the counter of your fine banking establishment. IT HAS BEEN 14 DAYS I would like MY MONEY back.

Many Thanks,

Your most terribly unsatisfied customer

Okay so really that was just a bit of my venting but I thought it to funny not to post. Just for all my American readers to know this is the way things are traditionally done in the UK no one screams in a loud and angry Yankee accent over the phone about how stupid the company policy is they just write rather controlled angry letters. It's actually quite humorous how much you have to run around in circles to get anything done in this country sometimes. You think this story about my bank is bad try talking on the phone with BT (British Telecom) or British Gas or Transport for London..... the list could go on!
All in all I have learned from this experience one thing that I can use to turn into a positive and that is... My bank is an impenetrable fortress so secure that even I myself cannot access it!

I feel much better now :)

600 Days of Summer

I said goodbye to the Sun when I left Texas. Today for the first time in perhaps all my years of living in London I found myself wishing I'd brought shorts with me. 26 Degrees Celsius is apparently only 79 Fahrenheit which is probably colder than it ever gets in the Philippines, but today I was honestly HOT!
The funniest thing was watching people. I do this a lot but today I noticed more than I usually do what every one was wearing. It was like some people had not gotten the memo. I saw a girl about my age wearing a VERY thick wool Jumper and long black leggings with a denim skirt over them. Just looking at her made me boil! Then again a select few of the British population seemed to have taken the cue and used the opportunity of a sunny day to walk around half naked whilst still managing to look like they were sweating up a storm.
The title of this post I should perhaps explain...

the thing is that I spent 18 months living in a Topical country (Philippines) only to come home to a record breaking heat wave of a summer in Texas. I've sort of forgot what the sensation of being cold feels like. I'm more than certain though that with the London winter coming up I'll soon be dreaming of the days that I used to sweat out liters of water walking through rice fields!

Sooooo ya I think I can Blog? ! I've never really tried. My mother kept a blog about my mission but this is my first real attempt. I'm thinking this will mainly be full of my ramblings about school and publishing.. Perhaps random things I see in the Park... I think this is mainly a cry for attention from my journal I think, little did it know its was on a suicide mission as it beckoned to me earlier saying' You've not written in me more than three times all summer!'
Assumed contents of the blog:
A lot about Publishing
Dogs (I am a live in dog walker that's right I walk a persons walk dogs in exchange for rent!)
London: The love of my live! sorry chocolate
Religion ( I am a Return Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints)
The Philippines (where I served as a missionary!)
Books I am reading at the moment
And any of the other things I've listed in on my profile basically