London was a great time, but if you're unemployed like me, it could put you into heavy debt, the kind that leaves very little hope and a lot of helplessness.
The products and services in London aren't marked up; they aren't expensive. A 60 dollar sneaker here is a 50 pound sneaker there.
The problem lies in the exchange rate that punishes the weak Canadian dollar. A British pound is approximately worth 2.5 Canadian dollars.
At one point, my sister was compulsively buying 5 pound trinkets, a necklace here, and earring there. Five pound was the magical
buy me number, and the item was bought if it had an inkling of interest. But that 5 pound was really 12.50 dollars and buying 8 little trinkets added to 100 dollars.
I ended up buying 11 animal hand puppets in anticipation of a future job, 1 pair of sunglasses so I could stare at the British babes unabashedly and 1 pair of Puma sneakers. Doesn't sound like much, but those three purchases nearly set me back 300 dollars, and the puppets and sunglasses were the cheap kind.
There was one night I survived on chips (not the French Fries) and water, and the water was bought only after considerable deliberation. If only they, the hotel adminstration, hadn't caught us sneaking Tommy into our room. The extra charges could have gotten me a steak or a Foster's at their pub.
