Back to the hack

As you can see from the Google Latitude badge on the right, I am indeed back in Los Angeles. Flew in yesterday evening, Samantha picked me up at LAX. Had steak at The Galley in Santa Monica - oddly, I think I've gotten used to smaller portions in Vancouver, I managed to finish my usual 11oz fillet mignon, but barely got halfway through the fries and onion rings. It felt pretty heavy too - going to try some lighter sides next time, and perhaps (shock horror) a smaller steak.

Got myself a T-Mobile 3G sim (on contract) today. They use the same frequencies as my ADP1 - no more dealing with Rogers EDGE. Hurrah.

I'm rather happy to be back. Samantha picked an excellent apartment, close to work, large, decent aircon, hardwood floors, gated parking etc. She makes me very happy.

One of the two cats (Cleo) has taken a liking to me, but the other one (Stalin) avoids me most of the time. Oh well. First time living with cats. It's proving interesting.

My experiences trying to setup an xe.com FX account

So, I've been living pretty cheap up here in the frozen wastelands of the north, and have been saving as hard as I can. The up-shot of all this is I have more cash than the 10 grand limit customs allows you when entering the US. Go me.


So, I go through the hoop-jumping of setting up an xe.com/fx account:

• Send them a recent bank statement
• Take a long lunch, and walk up to a public notary to get a notarized copy of passport
• Sit through a phone interview

Then, I get the same automated email again, asking either to turn up at their North Vancouver office, or submit a notarized copy of my passport / drivers license.

I ring them up, explain that yes, right now I am a Canadian resident, despite having an Irish accent. I explain that my company has moved me around quite a bit, and no I haven't been a resident for the last 2 years.

The lady on the other end wants me to go to their office in North Van to submit to what I can only presume would be a vigorous cavity search. Given I'd already spent 25cad and half an afternoon getting the notarized passport copy, I was in no mood to undertake a 10km round-trip, either by public transport or taxi, either in terms of money or time spent.

So, xe.com have declined to do business with me, missing out on getting their percentage of the $bignum I'm moving to the states.


Fail.

It's a go

Went to the consulate this afternoon and got my hands on my visa.

Have to fill in a mountain of relocation docs, and the relo people are coming to my house to box up my stuff on the 21st - I expect I'll be on a flight to LA shortly afterwards.

My purgatory in the frozen wastelands of the north is coming to an end.

00 status confirmed

I ended up being awake all night thinking about the consulate interview.

I then went to the consulate this morning, waited for 3 hours and 58 minutes, and then had a 2 minute interview, at the end of which my visa was approved. I can pick up my passport on Thursday, and enter the US any point after Sept 15th.

I need to get the relocation people going on coming to my place and box up my stuff, and that's about it - then it's back to LA, moving in with Samantha and two cats.

Now, I'm drinking scotch, watching The Outer Limits, and chilling out.


I note Android finally finally has a Facebook app. Hurrah. I've also just found the joy of Android Widgets. Pretty cool.