So...I ran out of money in December. No great surprise--in fact, I'm amazed it lasted that long, considering how expensive London is and how bad the exchange rate was when I moved here. The only thing (literally) that I got out of the divorce was one investment account, but for tax purposes I didn't want to touch it until 2009, leaving me about a month where I had literally no cash, but I still had to pay rent for January.
I considered several options--borrowing, stealing, sleeping on the street--and decided to take a cash advance against one of my credit cards, and pay it back next month with the distribution from the investment account. I have two UK cards and two US cards, so getting the money was not going to be a problem...I thought. I needed a PIN from Citibank so I requested it in November, but for some reason they wouldn't mail it outside the US, so I had it sent to my mom's. I was going to be there in December, so I figured I could pick it up then, but of course it didn't arrive until after I left, and then my mom (bless her) took a month to send it to me.
I wasn't worried because I had three other cards. I went to use my American Express, but could only get £200. I called to raise the limit, and they told me not only could they not raise the limit, but the limit was £200 per week. At that rate, I wouldn't be able to pay my rent until February!
So now I was down to 2 cards, one of which would have taken me over the limit, and the other which I'd managed to transpose two digits of the PIN, and locked the card. So I was screwed, and the rent was already two days late. I finally asked my mom to just open my mail and read me the Citibank PIN, but she had finally sent the mail...the day before. So my mom offered to loan me the money, but her bank wouldn't do an international wire transfer. In the end, she wired it to my Wells Fargo account, and I was able to withdraw it in cash at the ATM outside the branch, then walk inside and deposit it. The whole situation was beyond ridiculous, but then so is my life.
At the same time, the UK had one of its worst cold snaps in years, with temperatures in London down to -3°C. Now, that's only 27°F -- 10 degrees warmer than the average temperature in Chicago in January, and even Pennsylvania is colder -- but I can't think in Celsius, so when I hear -3° I imagine frostbite, gangrene, and eating other people just to stay alive. To entertain myself, I watched the water birds skidding on the frozen lakes. How cruel is that?
To deal with the cold, I've focused on three dates, two of which have already passed:
- December 21 -- The winter solstice, or shortest day of the year, when London had less than 8 hours of daylight. (Los Angeles, by comparison, had almost 10 hours.) After this date, the days (slowly) start getting longer.
- January 19 -- Calculated as the most depressing day of the year in the UK. (I have also learned that most suicides occur on Monday, and most suicides on the Underground occur around 11am. Try not to read into this.)
- March 20 -- The first day of Spring. In my head, that means long days and warm temperatures. In reality, that means average temperatures of 6°C (43°F) and average sunlight of 4 hours per day.
You'll notice I differentiated between "daylight" (when the sun is up) and "sunlight" (when you can actually see it). In Los Angeles, those are generally the same, but in England January may have 8 hours of daylight, but average sunlight of only 1 hour per day! (Now you see why January 19 is so depressing.)
I should mention that Jessica and I were invited to Egypt for New Years, which was 24°C (75°F). However, the invitation was made on December 30, and while Jess can travel with no notice (she works for British Air), it would have cost me a small fortune, so we stayed home and watched fireworks on TV. We are going to Israel in early March, however, and I'm not about to let a little thing like not having any money get in my way...
P.S. Look, I cut my hair!
