HSBC actually..
Yesterday I visited 1st Contact to finalise the details of my UK bank account with HSBC. Back home I’d paid $75 to 1st Contact to start the ball rolling. Yesterday, we filled out a bunch of details and listened to the 1st Contact staffer Sheila (not our Sheila, but Sheila!) talk about all the other things they do. NI numbers, temporary NI numbers, health insurance, tax returns, Limited Companies, blah, blah, blah.. on and on it went.. all the time I was thinking two things: 1) Damn I need a coffee! and 2) Let me the hell out of here so I can get to a phone!!!
After all that was sorted out (the bank account.. the call was a write-off.. sorry Tam) I had lunch in a nearby park. Oh, I was in Victoria, by the way, well hopped off at Victoria train station, not sure if the suburb is called Victoria? I hit Sainsbury’s up for some pre-packed Indian sandwiches (not bad), some iced coffee (appalling by Aussie standards!) and a choc muffin (nice).
Went home and did some cleaning and nerd stuff. I wasn’t in an explore mood.
Pizza for dinner (Aussie pizza is better, Italian pizza is better still) followed by a Mars bar icecream (YUM!!) consumed after a very long time spent in a Budgeons (like a 7-11) with Grant examining in minute detail all the beers and ciders! hehehe
Finally received the call I had been waiting for (did I mention Mars icecream is awesome? 😛 hehehe). $30 AUD gets (and I was counting) 84mins. I tried my (5 quid not 10 quid!) New Swifty phonecard with the local access number and it said I had 642 minutes call time!!! I will believe it when I tally it up!
This was after struggling to connect. I tried a few combos with no success. I ended up calling VirginMobile’s really cool ”789” helpline. You pay 10p and the operator answers any questions about the phone system. I asked how to dial Australian numbers and he said the ”+” in ”+61” is represented on a landline phone by ”00”. So, when I stopped dialing 0011 and just 00 in front of the number, it all worked! Yay! (27min and counting New Swifty..)
Sorry about not staying up for that first call but I was soooooo tired! And now you just tease me with more talk of ice cream, that’s hardly fair. I want a Swifty phone card! I want ice cream! I want…
have you never travelled OS before?? i thought you knew about the +61 gig!!
all vic no’s are +613 and all aus. mobiles (should be) +614!!!!!
BTW, where is my SMS???
Huh? I smessed you the other day..??
It wasn’t the +61 that was the trouble, it was the lack of a + key on the phone. I didn’t know I had to enter 00 instead of +.