The Most Interesting Time

I was in London last night, and had the best time! Well, I guess the most interesting time.... My friend Ian and I nearly got caught in a riot/protest about the war in Palestine! We wanted to walk down Piccadilly Street, but saw literally hundreds of police arriving in vans, bikes, cars... We had no idea what was going on, but then a regular dude stopped us, and warned us not to keep going the way we were headed. He'd just been caught in the crowd, and said they were "really aggressive". Given the British tendency toward understatement (and 500 police massed nearby), it seemed that it must be pretty bad.
It's funny, usually when things are going down like that, there's a real sense of trouble. You can feel it in the air. But except for what we could see, we had no sense that there was anything bad going on. So we kept wanting to head over to check out the excitement, but then telling ourselves that would be REALLY stupid. To think of all the dangerous places I've travelled, but then I could find the most trouble in London???
So instead, we headed for Covent Garden and a drink. I chose this restaurant that looked really old and cool.... We had the MOST expensive cocktails I've ever had (10 pounds 50 pence plus 12% service charge = $22 CAD), but WOW, totally worth the huge cash.

Finished with dinner in the Admiral's local curry restaurant (incidentally, curry plus rice plus glass of wine cost less than the above cocktail!), and a long and pleasant chat with my mom.

FRAUD!

I generally have a terrible attitude toward my banking affairs..... My bank drives me nuts, as they seem to leave messages for me at my aunt's house all the time. And this leads her to assume I am a moron, who never pays bills.
As well, because I travel so much, the fraud department for my credit card makes me crazy, as they try to reach me in Canada, to let me know that someone (ME!) is using my card outside Canada, when I am far, far away. The result while I was in Jamaica was that I got cut off, and would have been totally destitute except that my UK card still worked.
Anyway, I got another message from my bank to call the fraud department... I was on hold for ages, thoroughly annoyed, also I could have sworn I told them I was in UK at present, so obviously I'd be using my card outside Canada....grrr.
I spoke with the World's Smarmiest Man (call Guinness, as he was truly awful), and he asked if I'd used my card at a Target store in the States in the last couple days? Of course not! YIKES! Since I had that card here with me, Smarmy Man said obviously a criminal had counterfeited my card, and was trying to use it.
That card got blocked immediately, I will not be held responsible for the $80 purchase that went through (they already blocked a $1100 purchase, yay), I'll have to sign a fraud report when I get home, and I'll get a new card with new PIN.
The only real downside is that I'll have to go through all my boring, annoying bank mail when I get home. (But I'll write if the fraud report doesn't result in the $80 charge being reversed. Oh boy, there will be some shouting and jumping up and down if there is a problem....)

Pictures Posted!

I've posted pics from my trip.
Follow this link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/teleduc101/JamaicaHIghlights08?authkey=HcEXv5Kk4MI&feat=directlink