G'day, Bruce. Say, G'day to Bruce, Bruce.
Well, here I am...and it's not been a particularly auspicious start to my antipodean adventure so far, although that is not really the fault of the locals. Travelling from London with Singapore Airlines was almost a pleasure, if it weren't for the 23-hour journey time (just about one of the fastest though, with a 1 hour turnaround at Changi airport), I could almost definitely say I enjoyed it. The service was brilliant (after the 2nd one, they regularly came up and asked me if I wanted another vodka tonic!); the in-flight entertainment was high-quality (finally got round to watching Django) and the seats & legroom were both excellent. The first leg from London was on the Airbus A380 - my first chance to fly on one of those bad boys - and it was cavernous with plenty of room for trolleys and passengers to cross in the aisle. Sitting on my backside is not something I'm renowned for but I managed it pretty well. Of course, eating of your lap provides special challenges for the likes of me and my first meal put a nice stain on my t-shirt and a less-visible one on my shorts. Needless to say, when I arrived at Adelaide, I needed a shower and a bed asap.
After watching Border Patrol far too often back in the days of having cable tv, I was fully prepared to be thoroughly worked over by Customs and Quarantine officers on arrival. I declared medicines (asthma steroids and cold&flu remedies) just to be on the safe side and had actually spent 10 minutes in the plane toilets cleaning the soles of my walking boots with my free Singapore Airlines toothbrush (I did use it to brush my teeth first!), having seen many a poor punter having their shoes carted away for radiation, due to possible contaminants.
This part of the journey was over in minutes with very little fuss and suddenly I was in a new country and on the loose. After losing my wallet in Ibiza last week(!) I had had to get creative with the emergency money procedures. The Travelex Cash Passport seemed like the perfect solution - a Mastercard with a PIN number but without my name on the front, which could be used to make electronic payments and withdraw cash in up to 7 different currencies. Having had a very poor customer service experience on Saturday (the day I bought it), spending over 2 hours on hold on the 'Customer Service'(!) line, I thought I would check to see if it worked okay. Without any problems, I was able to withdraw 100 Aussie dollars and, satisfied, called the shuttle bus to take me to the Adelaide Airport Motel.
Unfortunately, this was where the trouble started. I tried to pay for my room but the card was declined. The desk staff pointed out a petrol station about 400m away which had a cash machine, so I duly walked over there to get cash. Declined again, twice! I could see that I wasn't that far from the airport (about half a mile) so I decided to walk back there and try the ATM that had given me my original 100 dollars. When I tried to withdraw 250 dollars (to pay for the room and post the 200 dollar bond), my transaction was again declined. A little tired, a little smelly and a little fed-up by this point I decided to go to the Travelex shop in the airport...and was told that I couldn't withdraw cash from their counter! This seemed a little ridiculous and I was getting more than a little annoyed by this point...but I decided to go and try my luck with the Travelex ATM in the departures hall. Again (twice!) no luck!
Back at the Travelex shop the embarrassed cashier offered me their phone to call the customer service number in Australia...only, when I got through, I found that it was the same automated voice and the same (fucking irritating) piece of classical music that I'd had to listen to repeatedly on Saturday, as I was left on hold yet again. It wouldn't surprise me if the 'call-centre' is a Welsh sheep farmer, in the back of a shed, somewhere in Snowdonia, trying to diversify his chatline business or something. Lo and behold though, after only 20 minutes waiting, I actually got through to a real person...and they weren't Welsh...and they seemed really nice...which was a shame, because all I wanted to do was unload! She had the good sense to pass me on to a manager, who received an ear-warming burst of frustration and who, quite honestly, was a bit useless ("You can write to our complaints department to make a claim for compensation... - "Yes, but that's not much use to me when I'm in Australia with no money. Is it?!"). He claimed that there was nothing wrong with the account or the card and suggested that I try the ATM again and, much to my relief (and a bit of irritation), I was able to withdraw 600 dollars to tide me over. The problem is temporarily solved...but I would expect to hear more about this in the not too distant future...
Got back to the motel, Skyped my Mum, showered and went to bed. Let's hope today goes a little smoother :-)
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