I’m over here doing my usual Mandy thing, which means job searching/freelancing. And getting involved in various activities, one of which is rejoining the Monarchist League over in England. This is something that has many important people in its midst. Patrons include the Earl of Shannon, and the chairman is Lord Sudeley. Their events, held in Britain and in Europe, have members of royal families in attendance.
So as you can imagine, I’m in.
I thought, why didn’t I stick with this before? I was actually a member a few years ago, and did some editing for their publication, but then my year long contract ran out and I never renewed. Stupid, yes?
But at that time, when I had to send money overseas to join – which was a fee of £20 (pounds) – I got an international money order to send converted currency. Easy. This time, it was not so easy. I am guessing that it is because of the Patriot Act. It was a pain.
I went to my bank yesterday to get said money order, in British Pounds. They don’t do it. Ok, well, where can I do it? Bank of America, they said. So I go across the road to BoA, and I have to sit and wait about 10 minutes for a customer service person. I get in there, and she acts like I’m from Eastern Rumelia for all the trouble this takes. She had to find the form, fill out the form with all my info, call an exchange rate guy, and then go process it. I was on the phone with my friend most of the time, who repeatedly asked, “Are you still at the bank!?” ha!
Finally, it was a done deal. However, it had to be sent to me. They couldn’t just give it to me right there. It will arrive in three days. Um…….. sure.
Then I get home, and I look at my copy of the form. Under the “Type of Currency” that I was sending, which was BRITISH pounds, the lady had written “Predish Pounds.” What? Now, she was hispanic, and maybe to the hispanic ear, “British” sounds like “Predish”, although if we know ANY geography we would know that pounds are found in Britain. England. United Kingdom.
So, my mother looks at it, and gives me a weird look and says, “You’d better check on that, in case there actually is a Predish out there somewhere.” I said mom, really, where is there a Predish, honestly? I can guarantee you, I’m fine. So then for a laugh, we looked it up online. One version is that it’s apparently a food dish. Safe. But then we saw a link about territories in Montenegro (Yugoslavia), one of which is – you guessed it – Predish.
So if I get an international money order for some place other than Britain, you’ll know why. Hopefully the “pounds” will tip off whoever processes the order. God only knows what they have for currency in this “Predish”….. like rocks or gazpacho soup.
Who knows! So that’s my story of the week!
