Wednesday, June 03, 2015

tourist filth

hi there

i am laying down a bit of groundwork to go on some travels. no bizarre great trek as such, look you see, just a bit of a journey. one that is, perhaps if not definitively, overdue. never mind that quandary, however, for surely all that truly matters is that the journey shall now take place.

a brief insight was given a while ago (sorry, i can't be bothered to search for the specific link) when i presented the baffling number of tickets i was forwarded for a simple journey. travels when i reach the destination should, at the least, be easy, or easier, thanks to my investment in this.



in great fairness, as in before i go on to any grumbles and gripes (so you have been warned), they do seem to be pretty decent towards the more tourist like visitor to their curious city. costs of travel on their so-called public transport is capped when one uses this variant of card, so in theory i will not incur all that much of a great expense as and when i roam the desolate wastelands of the capital.

slightly less in fairness is the cost of obtaining, or if you like procuring this card. despite it being very rudimentary, possibly Chinese bulk manufactured and having all the aged hallmarks of maybe being second hand or recycled (it seems somewhat aged), the fee to own this card, with no travel value, is £3 alone. if, ladies and gentlemen, your bank, or your supermarket with their so-called loyalty schemes, offered to charge you anything, let alone £3, so that you may spend further money with them, what would your response to that request for payment be?

in reference to the second hand nature of the card, well, it looks sort of aged, an off-white shade as it were, on the back. i dare not show a picture of the back, lest it reveal my card number. not that one can use the number off of it; i have discovered that i am unable to check the balance online.

perhaps it was a card that was previously used by a Brazilian who also visited the city, which brings us on rather nicely indeed to this item you can see here; the least Brazilian looking backpack i could find within the moderate budget i set aside for luggage.

i was delighted to, at last, be able to conduct business with a shop in town called Trespass, whose branding you can sort of make out at one point on this backpack, or if you like rucksack. my first efforts to conduct business with them ended in, through no fault of their own.

they opened their store for the first time in the latter stages of last year. always eager to support a new business venture, and in need of a large jacket to ward off the coming winter season, i visited them and enquired if they did by chance have a jacket suited to the more bigger size of bastard, such as i am.the staff were most diligent in their efforts to find for me such a coat, but alas they had nothing in stock that was of the size requirements needed to be of use to me.

this journey, or these travels if you like, of mine have thus far cost north of £150, not including lack of income due to taking leave, and i have not yet even left the provincial dialling code of where i live. they are not kidding when they refer to London as the most expensive place in the world, like totes ever.

but hey, back to moans and groans about this fancy card thingie.



if the £3 just to have the base card is excessive, what of the £2.95 (give or take) that i had to pay to have it delivered to me? fine, if the delivery was to be something special, but as you can work out it wasn't really.

the more observant of you that have, for some reason, wasted time reading all of this will have noted that actual postage cost was 48p. what was the remainder of monies paid over swallowed up by? some sort of crappy brown envelope, apparently. and no documentation of any use with it either, so i am not 100% sure how i use this card.

also, as you can further observe, they have used that ghastly, vile and downright hideous recycled paper to send it to me in. i would have thought, due to the prestige of London and the money i paid, they could have, at the least, slaughtered a brand new tree to craft me an envelope from.

more updates to follow, for no special reason. undoubtedly i will need to get a few more items ahead of my travels, in particular of a toiletry nature. an excursion to the pound shop, then, sounds in order.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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