It has been long since I visited my blog, and the reason for that is - I have been in the UK (primarily London) for the past few months.
My stay has been very pleasurable to say the least. However, I did miss writing. Or Did I?
Well, here’s a compilation of the emails written to my family where I have tried to capture some of my most cherished experiences during my first ever visit to a foreign country.
2 of 4 - Southampton: Friday , 26th August 2011
Hey there,
Hope you are all doing well. It’s been quite some time since I wrote. Although I have been writing/video chatting with Kavita, Meeta, Neetu & Purba individually – but again it is always nice to have everyone in the same email. It feels like a get together!!
It’s going to be a month soon since the time I landed here and I am glad that the time spent here, even though it hasn’t been favourable all the while, has gotten me pretty much comfortable; Especially with travelling by myself.
The underground railway is very convenient and is just a sophisticated version (in look and feel) of Mumbai railways. I guess my three month stay in Mumbai was a good training ground for me to pick up the ‘tricks of train travel’.
Also another development is that I have started to cook now – In other words, I was getting tired eating out every day and it also implies that I have gradually gotten used to operating the dishwasher and the cooking range :P
So in continuation to the story after I returned from Manchester, I went to Birmingham for a three day training workshop. And you won’t believe my luck - I missed the train again!! But this time around it was not because I reached late – rather I did not have the tickets with me. Actually I had gotten my tickets booked online using a colleague’s card because I didn’t have a UK bank account, and was supposed to collect the tickets at the station. So I went to the station , well before time on this occasion, with a print out of my ticket confirmation number (just like my visit to Manchester) hoping that I would be asked to swipe just about any card and enter the authorization code to collect my tickets.
But the kiosk refused my ticket when I swiped one of my cards saying that it is not the same card with which the tickets were booked. I rushed to the manned ticket counter but they said they couldn’t help me unless they had the card with which the tickets were booked. I immediately called up my colleague to cancel the tickets booked online if he could. But he was not able to cancel the onward journey tickets however for the return journey – he was informed that he would be entitled to a certain sum after some deductions.
I bought a fresh ticket with a racing heart again and paid £74.50 one way!! To give you an indication for my shocked reaction - I had paid £70 for a round trip to Birmingham online :P
So I said bye to all my colleagues and took the next train to Birmingham. And all of this action was experienced at 6.30 in the morning- cause we were supposed to be in Birmingham by 9.30 to attend the three day workshop. Going back to the ticket drama, I figured later that in the UK they have this concept of Off peak tickets, Open tickets and Advance tickets.
Off peak tickets are supposed to cost less compared to normal ticket prices cause they are in off peak hours; the only flip side to it is the time of travel. Open Tickets are like passes to a specific route which is valid for any train up to a given time slot (say, any train up to 3.00 in the afternoon) the same day or valid for a given number of days for any train travelling that route. And finally they have another category called Advance ticket; these are for a fixed train at a given time (like reserved tickets). So if you miss an advance ticket train you gotta buy a new ticket.
Advance tickets tend to cost lesser than open tickets because of the validity. And once you have decided on the type of ticket, i.e. only if your head has not fallen off your shoulders after that spin, and class (Standard/First) you need to make sure whether the tickets are going to be a third party collection or otherwise. If it is a third party collection then the kiosk does not ask for the same card which was used to book the tickets. The collector can use any card that has a magnetic strip in order to get to the screen which asks for the authorization code. Once that is entered the tickets are issued without any charge to the card that was swiped. But to enable this option you need to put a tick somewhere while booking your tickets online.
So the moral of the story is that I missed my train to Manchester because it was an advance ticket and missed the one to Birmingham because I hadn’t put a tick against third party collection while booking online :P
Thankfully I have a bank account now, but tragedy of all tragedies I am yet to receive my debit card and chequebook with my name correctly spelt on them. The first ones that I received had my name spelt as ‘Burba Roy’ :P I really couldn’t help laughing out loud when I read Natwest’s apologetic email even before I could receive the details.
Not to mention the innumerable versions of the way my name is pronounced when I am referred to. They seem to get only the ‘Roy’ part correct and look/sound rather confused when they find a girl, instead of a boy, turning up for a meeting /answering the phone :P Anyways, I have changed my signature to just ‘Roy’ in order to provide some respite to my shocked ears, I can deal with the confused looks/voices for now.
Anyway, I have found my Bengali connection in my room mates’ mum. Yes, she is in London too. In fact her entire family is in London (two sisters, father and mother) cause my roommate’s elder sister is based out of London. Her mum is a Tamilian but was raised in Kolkata so she speaks Bengali very well and has a fetish for Bengali saris and sweets. I already had my share of rossogollas that she had got!
Also, there seems to be a huge sea food market (run and managed by Bangladeshis – that wasn’t so hard to guess, was it?) near Canary Wharf. So I might just get some fish to cook at home this weekend. This is supposed to be long weekend for me, Monday being a bank holiday. So I am planning to visit all the places that need to be visited in London before summer ends. It has already started to rain here but the days are still long. So I better hurry and catch up on the city.
I was supposed to visit Prashant and Gayathri as well, but am gonna give it a pass this weekend. They are all geared up for the arrival of the baby; will see them in September sometime.
Alrighty then, that’s all from me- wish you all a very happy weekend!! Take care and see ya all soonJ
Lots of love and regards
Burba..er..I mean Durba J
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