MONDAY, SEPT. 4
In Vancouver, I tried, for over a month, to open an HSBC UK bank account. Presumably this should have been easy because I already have two HSBC accounts; one in the US, and one in Canada.
Haha.
My thinking was that over the course of a year, I would end up spending a lot of extra money in bank and/or credit card fees if I used my North American accounts.
I’d like to bill back companies that put me on hold, or answer questions the wrong way. In trying to set up this bank account, I made innumerable calls to HSBC international, talking to lots of people in India, visited my bank many times, and wasted days.
A month ago, I was promised it would take three days. Here we were in London, without an account.
Determined to solve the banking issue, we went to the Golders Green HSBC. Malina, a forthright, no nonsense, determined woman, helped us. Long story short, after four hours in the bank, a call to the International banking office (answered in India again), the account was set up and it was agreed the bank card and pin would be sent to the Golders Green branch for us to pick up when we returned to London. Of course, we were on our way to Ireland for six weeks, sort of defeating the purpose. But Malina very kindly offered to forward the card and pin to us in Ireland. Solved!
We returned to our Airbnb to eat leftovers from the night before. An hour later, at 6pm, we were on the Tube to London Tower.
OFF TO LONDON TOWER
Again it was rush hour. After weaving through dense crowds and pushing into cars, we took a few wrong trains. But we got close, emerging from the underground about a kilometer from the Tower Bridge. We had to pass the castle, Chloe’s first castle!, en route.
Shades of pink and purple covered the sky and reflected back in the Thames by the time we stood on the bridge. We crossed the bridge, then walked along the other side of the Thames, and back over the London Bridge. The sunset faded to black and blinking city lights lit the clear, crisp night. It was late when we caught the train back to Golders Green.
A ladybug crawled onto one of the metro benches. I carefully lifted it into my hand, and watched it walk from finger to finger for the next 30 minutes. Chloe thought I was crazy. On the Golders Green platform, I set it free. A good omen, I’m sure.
We packed for our departure to Ireland the next morning.
