I got a call from a new number at 4 PM. I was at work, so I didn’t pick up. Then had another call, followed by another missed call. I had a very good idea who it was. I figured I’d call back after work and give those fuckers hell; no need to cause a scene at work.

As I crossed the main street to go towards Leather Lane, one of those charity fundraisers stopped me in my tracks. She was from The Red Cross and wanted money. They always want money.  Money, money, money. More, more, more. She did the usual sales pitch about people in crisis and refugees and hunger etc. I didn’t want to come across as a monster, so I signed up for a monthly direct debit donation. While she was talking I was thinking “Dude, I just want to go home, how much is this going to cost me….” I’m sure you can relate to that feeling. I’m going to cancel the direct debit. The whole exercise was a complete waste of time for all parties involved. Why do I care so much about whether a complete stranger on the streets of London thinks I’m a monster or not? I’ve been taught to lie and smile and pretend. Thank you society! Thank you for making me feel like a piece of shit.

After that obstacle I moved on to call the agency. Camilla picked up and asked me how I was. I told her “not good, not good at all” and continued to tell them what I thought about their “service” or to be more accurate lack of it. It actually felt really good.

A week before I met with a real estate agent to rent a room and gave him £200 as a holding deposit. He gave me a proper receipt and we parted our ways. Things got very quiet afterwards, I called/texted to check if all was OK to move in and asked about what times can we meet to sign the contract etc. All I got was a text saying something along the lines of “they will call you, all OK”. (BTW I’m moving out because my current landlord sold the flat I live in.) On the very day I was supposed to move in, that’s when Camilla tried calling me at work. I was quite unhappy with the poor communication and already decided that I don’t want anything to do with them. However, the moment she said the room was unavailable because of a “double-booking”, I got very angry with them. Such incompetence. I demanded a refund and she actually said that the holding deposit is non-refundable. I told her the very purpose of the holding deposit was to reserve the room for me which is exactly the opposite of what they did. This was ridiculous and I threatened them with legal action (this was an obvious bluff, solicitors are super expensive). After some arguing she said, they’ll refund it and I need to email them a copy of the receipt and  my bank details. I did that but haven’t received anything back yet. Not exactly holding my breath here either. I don’t think there’s anything else I can do here.

I know the police won’t do anything because almost two years ago I was in a very similar position and the pigs didn’t do anything back then except send me an email saying they’ll be monitoring the situation or something. Makes you think… crime does pay after all.

My complaint to the travel agency never got anywhere either (they cancelled one of my flights back in August and didn’t refund me). The agency never responded and since they weren’t part of a proper union/group or whatever you call it, there was no ombudsman to refer my complaint to. Legal action will cost me more than the claim/damage is worth.

So I gotta let it slide, again. Let it go and let the bastards win.

I’ve got about ten days to find a new home, I’m confident I’ll find something but all this is much more stressful than it needs to be.

Happy thanksgiving,

Ivar

‘I don’t like reds’ I told Katie and then had another sip of my fancy drink. The second time was no better.

I think it’s called the law of diminishing returns. It’s the idea that each added unit of a good will produce less utility than the previous one. In plain English it means that the first £100 are amazing and mean that you won’t starve today but if you’re raking in £100,000 then another £100 means nothing to you.

However, the opposite is true when it comes to alcohol. It gets better and better the more you consume it. That wasn’t the case with the reds. And I tried a couple of them. I went to Georgia, Turkey, Chili, New Zealand, Argentina etc. They were all awful.

At Vinopolis they have this app you can use to figure out what your taste profile is. The bro-science behind it suggests that my preference for flavors is “Rich and Rounded”. Naturally, I put that hypothesis to the test and quickly found myself in front of the rich and rounded wines.

Just like that hot blond girl taught us, I figured I need to do my wine-tasting properly. So I did the stirring, the smelling, the evil eye and the slurping. I think I was quite good at the evil eye – a natural one might say. For the ones who don’t know that’s when you look at the wine in the glass and pretend to look for a hidden treasure, once you find it, you do an “aha” face and drink that shiraz like a pro. It was quite entertaining really.

The thing I sucked at was slurping. Bits of wine managed to travel down my throat whilst I was looking stupid and then suppressing the cough-reflex. Not my cup of tea. It looks easy but it takes many years of practice to perfect.

Germany. I love Germany. The wines which used Gewürztraminer (Roter Traminer) grapes were amazing! This shouldn’t be a surprise though because the Germans know their beer. They also know how to make some proper wine. The game changer here was color as well. The whites were so much better.

Don’t get me wrong, some of the white wines were just as rubbish as the reds. My favourite is the Paulinshof, Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Kabinett 2014.

Clearly because 2014 was a good year and the vintage was wicked.

BroTip. They had a bunch of staff there as well who were keen to answer any questions and suggest wines for us to try. Every now and then they’d walk up to you with one or two wine bottles and ask you if you’ve tried these. You of course need to say ‘no, but I’d love to’, to maximize the amount of fancy wine per hour ratio. It was amazing!

The advisers were keen on popping some corks (there was five of us altogether). So we finished with the wines and decided to hit the champagne bar. We were a bit tipsy already and the champagne did its magic from zero to sixty in three point five. We had such a good time!

By the way Vinopolis is closing down some time in December this year. Rumor says they will have fancy wine at massive discounts towards the end of the year. Go check it out.