I got up at the crack of dawn to go out shopping for a new ADSL converter box, in the hopes that it would fix our internet problems. For having to go into the office all of the time was pretty quickly driving me crazy.
It was kind of interesting to be out and about at that early hour, and also surprising to see how many shops were open. I was surprised when I had to go all of the way to Hammersmith to find the right thing, but eventually I got it, thank goodness!
This of course did not immediately fix all problems, so I had to buy a connection to a BT hotspot, but this is where living in a densely populated city comes in handy: There's always internet access somewhere nearby!
In the midst of all of my technical juggling, I was surprised to get a call from Neighbour Guy. I'd texted him whilst I was in Australia with the contact info of a friend who worked in CR consuling, at which point he told me that he was moving out and going to surf in Indonesia for a while. I'd texted him again when I got back from Australia, but didn't hear anything in reply, so I didn't think much of it.
Now, here was a call out of the blue to ask a favour: Apparently his flight to Indonesia was that afternoon, and he was packing up and moving out, and had forgotten to print his boardng pass. Could he come over and use my printer? Well sure, except that my printer only prints in red at the moment, I still need to buy some more ink. In the end, he called back to say he thought he could figure something else out, but I just had to laugh at the whole thing: He's really a nice chap, but boy does he need to get his head on straight! Still, I wish him well in Indonesia and hope he "finds himself" or whatever he's trying to do...
In the evening, I met up with ER at my club for dinner, which was nice just to get to my club and relax for a bit. Although I have to admit, although I'd only had a bit of salmon for lunch, I just wasn't hungry at all. So dinner was actually somewhat painful, as I sat through two courses of food I didn't really feel like eating. What a relief when ER said she'd like to pass on dessert!
Still, it was nice to catch up and chat, although much of the conversation was about her recent immigration troubles. She's now facing the prospect of potentially being kicked out of the UK over a minor paperwork error, but I guess it shows once again the importance of paying attention to these things. I've been reading so much about how women will bury their heads in the sand when it comes to their finances, hoping that their husbands (or someone else) will take care of it, and in this case it was a similar thing. She didn't pay attention, assuming her employers were handling it, and everything got screwed up. Made me think once again about what I will do about my own immigration status once my work permit expires...seems like I should be talking to a lawyer sooner rather than later, and burying my head in the sand is NOT an option. She seemed shaky at even discussing the prospect of having to leave the UK, and I have to admit that would make my stomach turn over too. The idea of being banned from the UK would just be too awful to contemplate.
We dashed through the library so I could pick up a book, and then eventually made our way out of the club. It was a lovely dinner and a lovely time, although my fingers are crossed that things work out well for her!
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