Weekend in the UK

RightyHo, lots of news , will try to make it as brief as possible. :)
We're staying in Norton on Tees (which I discovered meant there is a river somewhere near Norton called Tees...ahem...), with our friends. Before leaving South Africa, we expected the worst, with an exchange rate of 15 to 1.... we expected the food in the shops to 15 times as expensive....BUT.....we can safely tell you, that if you shop at Tescos, or the little supermarket places round the corner, far away from the hussle and bussle of London, that the UK is CHEAPER than SA.... I swear it's the truth....:) Marielle (the wife) and I are amazed. When we planned a motorhome holiday, we really thought we would have to bite the bullet, but to be honest, SA's prices have escalated to levels, where we now find almost no difference when buying milk, bread, pastas, pizzas, and the rest. We dont normally spend a fortune in SA, and we havent had to worry in the UK either...fair enough we have only been here 2 days, but the sun only sets at 11pm at night, so we feel like we've already been here a week!

Got to tell a funny story at this point. We went off to a mall yesterday, only to find that the malls were built in areas where there were already streets filled with shops, so when you ask someone in a mall where the electronics shop is, he tells you its outside the mall. (strange). I went into a cellphone shop and announced "I am from South Africa"so that we could get past the strange looks I got when trying to communicate with a slightly strange accent. I asked for a starter pack /SIM card for our cellphone, explaining that we just wanted to get SMSs from SA, and not really make any outgoing calls. Cost was 10pounds for the SIM and I bought 5pounds airtime just in case. Here comes the funny bit. I asked them to charge me on my South African Nedbank Credit Card,,,, right.....the one Nedbank had told me was a VISA card that would be accepted ANYWHERE in the UK and on the continent. The woman across the counter looks at me and says...."Its not a chip and pin." I looked back at her, thinking back to our friendly Chip n Dip (chips covered with sauce in a cardboard holder...back in good old RSA) . I said.. "What? What is Chip and PIN " The woman looked back at me (thinking to herself...idiotic person from Africa) . Chip and PIN sir. Your card doesnt have the PIN on it. I thought....ahhh she thinks it doesnt have a PIN. In SA before I left, I sat with NEDBANK enquiries, and I told them I needed a PIN for the card, so I could draw money from the ATM in the UK etc. So I said to the woman...There's no problem.....The card has been activated for PIN.....and I know my PIN for the card....just swipe it and I can punch in the PIN and it should work fine. " She looked at me again and said.... There's no Chip and PIN ON THE CARD SIR! " By now, I realised...there was something wierd going on...her eye was beginning to pop out of its socket... you see, the UK, has CHANGED IT'S SYSTEM.... their credit cards now have a gold shiny rectangle embedded in the card......as an extra security check. South Africa doesnt have this yet, so I was buggered. I couldnt use the SOUTH AFRICAN NEDBANK CREDIT CARD to buy someone at a vendor in the UK, because our cards in SA are BEHIND the security used in the UK...and to top it off, the UK have been using this system for 6months, and NEDBANK in SA, didnt even mention it to me. HA HA. I handed the woman 15pounds cash, smiled, and left. Tried the same thing at T-Mobile, 3 shops down...same story. It's official. No Chip and PIN, you cant use a South African credit card in the UK. All is not lost, I could still draw cash from the UK ATM machine, using the card, but that defeats the point. I want to earn Voyager Miles using the credit card for buying items, and food etc etc.

ok, before I leave this posting, what else can I say :) We're having a great time. Went and saw a bunch of old fire engines at an outdoor family day thingie...was lots of fun. It's 8:15pm at the moment, and that means 3 more hours of sun :)

Marielle is having a ball. Kids are loving it. 190 TV channels to choose from, but we pick up our camper in a weeks time, so that will be the end of that ;-) I still havent decided what Internet access to use while we are here. T-Mobile is the best in the UK pricewise...but will know next week when on the continent whether we have to go for the 2 way satellite option, or find a 3G solution to work with round Europe. I bought a wireless network finder yesterday, at Maplin (www.maplin.co.uk ). I might get lucky :)

This part of the UK is just below Newcastle on the map...on the east coast. The weather changes 5 times a day. We put on and remove our layers of jackets 5 times a day. Jesse picked up a Playstation2 game for 97pence yesterday. Thats about R15. He was just lucky though. It was the only one at that price. Havent seen any churches around. South Africa has churches on every street corner. I havent seen one. Really sad actually. A lot of the UK kids seem to be quite angry....I would be worried about parking a motorhome outside where we're staying, would be worried that a kid would break in for the sake of having something to do. Hopefully we'll be parking in small village roads away from built up areas, so will post more about that in time to come. :)

If you need to email us, post replies on this blog and we'll mail you :)

Chow all. Love and leave you.
Dean