London

Phew, finally I find a minute to write a short update!
So, arrived in London this weekend, started work on Monday,
and all is going real well- workwise...
when it comes to phonelines or mobilephones or internet,
or anything else that has to do with pretty basic services
you need to set up for your comfy life abroad,
it has been a total disaster!

Phoneline BT:
should have been reconnected on Tuesday morning,
but nada, no signal, no nothing, not even a buzz!
After struggling with the helpline and spending
literally HOURS on hold, I finally get through to someone
that can check the line only to get the information
that it is not working (!!??) which... well...
I kinda aleady knew.
Anyhow they'll be checking on it next weekend,
if you can trust their promises (am becoming very sceptic
at this point due to all the other things going wrong).

Mobilephone:
Ah- the carphone warehouse!
Knowing that Gabe's sister works at this europeanwide
company I think, -eh gotta be good, will go there
to get contract and new fancy phone-
so in I stroll all happy and excited,
again it takes HOURS until everything gets sorted,
I walk out thinking, -wohoo! New phone, new contract,
fabulouso!- But... next evening I notice that
I cannot send text messages, any call I try to make
just ends in some mysterous beeps until it dies,
it's freakin' useless!

Back to carphone warehouse I go -me phone no worky!-
and they tell me to contact my provider, as it cannot
be their fault if phone no worky... sigh.
Disgruntled I phone up yet another speedy UK helpline
where I spend the best part of the morning on hold
until a lady with a very thick irish accent
(which did not make things easier as you can imagine)
explained to me that I have SEVERAL contracts pending,
and so my request has been blocked!
Man... could they not notify me about this?
Aaaanyway, she tells me go back to carphone warehouse
(scream!) and to let them sort it out as fast as possible,
because they may need to cancel the whole thing and give
a totally new package from scratch!

Breathe in, breathe out, count to ten...

Apart from that the flatshare I am in is great so far,
and it only takes me max. 30 mins to get to work
in the morning.
And it's great being back and meeting people
I haven't seen in 2 years and catching up!
Framestore now employs 650 people (!!!),
so I hardly know anyone on the Desperaux team,
but that doesn't bother me at all, just makes it
more exciting :)

Well, that's it for now, will be heading off
on my quest to get the mobile phone working!
I miss you guys from Amsterdam,
but this weekend we might get a chance to hook up-
am back to pick some stuff up that I forgot.