ioet

Sunday, December 4. 2011

Mobile Phone Providers in the UK: giffgaff

When I moved to London I was clueless as to which provider I should go with. I'm a heavy iPhone user so my main priority was data. Now I am using giffgaff, and quite enjoying it. At first I used O2, but I had chosen that based on brand recognition alone and had a really bad experience - the tariff was explained poorly to me and I ended up spending far more than I had to.

I would prefer O2 if I was planning on using them for broadband at home as well; but since I'm not (I found a better deal with Plusnet), it was cheaper to go with giffgaff, which is pretty awesome because for £10/month you get:

-250 minutes
-Unlimited texts
-Unlimited data

They've got other plans too depending on your needs. The cheapest at £5.

Giffgaff is basically community-run: that's why it's so cheap. They don't have a customer service line you can call up; it's all via the web. I personally don't think this is a problem, and believe me, I've already tested them -- I had issues porting my old number over and didn't have a signal for a 24 hours when I just started, nor did I have 3G until 4 days later. They compensated me for it (£3) and were quick to answer my queries.

BUT, I would still recommend them, because it's just so cheap and once you're set up you really are good-to-go. When you register you will get a free SIM card in the mail (mine came in 2 days) and a free £5 top-up comes with it.

For us foreigners, payment can be a little tricky because to do it online you need a UK bank account or credit card. However, if you don't have one you can easily go to any convenience store and ask for a giffgaff voucher (£10), which you then input into their system when activating your SIM.

So while it might be a bit of a hassle to set up, it's cheaper than other mobile providers (Three's comparative plan is £15; O2's is £16), and you get more for your money - unlimited data and texts. That's the big plus for me!

Plus you have the chance of earning credit by participating in the community, answers questions and referring people. I've already earned £10 after posting on the forum a few times and I'm not even sure how! So if you apply then please do use my giffgaff referral link, you'll also receive £5 and it will make it cheaper for all of us!

Saturday, October 15. 2011

Day Trip from London: 1.5 Hours in Stonehenge & 5 Hours in Bath

Today was an awesome day and it is only because I was very lucky to meet some cool people! I had to put myself out there and actually introduce myself, because most people seemed to know each other, also a lot of them were actually undergrads, which is fine, but I'd rather meet postgrads like myself who are going through the same experience as me!

So I was a little iffy about going on this trip - someone on Facebook was giving up her ticket so I offered to buy it from her because 1) going to these places was something I knew I wanted to do eventually; and 2) I wanted to meet more people, do something outside the LSE norm, don't want to box myself in. Because the truth is I haven't quite formed a social group yet - orientation has barely just ended.

I paid only £20 for a school-organized event to Stonehenge and Bath. It was bare bones and we had free time all day at each place. I was very lucky to have sat down next to a really interesting guy from Ecuador, he's doing his masters in Theoretical Physics (wow) at Imperial College. It's really refreshing to meet someone not doing typical social sciences (which is all LSE is, haha) and outside of LSE, it feels like I'm expanding my horizons more.



We did 2.5 laps around Stonehenge (since there's really nothing to do there except see the rocks and then turn around and see the sheep) and then wandered around Bath, which is such a cute, pleasant, lovely city! We actually spent most of the time debating if we (actually him, not me) should rush up and try to touch Stonehenge. You can't even get close. But it was great, because we got in free by mistake. It usually costs £7.50 for students but we accidentally wandered into a big group tour without paying, haha! That really made our day, we were super proud of ourselves…

Then the bus took us to Bath. There were two buses and the one in front broke down midway through - and we just left them there! It must be awful for the people who were in that… But our trip went fine, and we really hardly did anything at all in Bath but wander around. Had lunch at a place I found through TripAdvisor, The Fine Cheese Co., a very cute shop with not-so-cute sandwiches, they were just OK. I think I get depressed when I venture into eating something with gluten in it and it ends up being only so-so, it should be amazing for the trouble it's going to cause me after I eat it! Good cheese, though!

Then we did the Roman Baths: had to wait in line for 30 minutes, so I'd recommend buying tickets online beforehand. It was really nice. The most interesting part was walking into what used to be a whole courtyard of a temple to Minerva in an old Roman city - but it's now underground, covered up, and impossible to imagine. I think I prefer St Albans though when it comes to Roman Britain ruins - that place was more like a gem in the rough, whereas Bath was teeming with people.

Then we went to the Jane Austen Centre, where I bought some sheet music for piano, but didn't join the tour - seemed like a waste of money. So I guess that was kind of pointless. I liked the shop though! Just walking around the streets was probably the best thing about Bath. We went and got burritos for takeaway (yep, I had gluten twice in one day), saw a lovely park (that was closed), crossed over the river and walked through a random residential area, saw many nice shops, and in general lots of scenery like this:


See the hot air balloons in the distance?

And on our way back I went up to a guy on our tour who looked distinctly Japanese. Turns out he's a postgrad here on exchange. Once again I shocked someone with my Japanese… first introducing myself and then saying "髪型を見て日本人かなと思って・・・" I saw your hair style and thought you might be Japanese, so… Maybe that's a really awful way to introduce oneself!? Oh well, it worked, because I've invited him and the other person to go to the wine and cheese festival in London tomorrow! Yay for making friends in the middle of a huge city.

Overall a great day, I am surprised I had so much fun, but it's just because I was able to socialize and get out of my comfort zone a little more that I think it ended up being a success. Once again I'm having a jam-packed weekend in London with no time to do my seminar reading!