Another mild day, with a temperature of 16C, sunshine veiled by high cloud. After breakfast I had a few emails to answer, and some other writing to do. Clare was in the loft painting the Velux window surround so the morning slipped by quickly without either of us noticing it was nearly lunchtime. I set to work on a lentil, veg and couscous dish at ten to one, and by ten past, was serving it up. Fresh fast food!
After we'd eaten, I went to to Coop for some fresh fruit and tried out my digital Coop membership card for the first time. Last Thursday, the little plastic key ring tag version of the card broke in two. Ordering a new one is a hassle, so I put the pieces together took a photograph, and imported it into app that would turn the bar code on the card into a QR code, and then added this to my Google Wallet app, used so far only for the car park ticket at the opera. I wasn't sure it would work, as the photo was of a bar code with a fine crack in it, but the outcome was a success. I did the same also with my Tesco clubcard.
On Saturday morning last a new Santander credit card arrived, following the debit card issue to go with the new Edge account a couple of weeks ago. The new generation of plastic relies on its embedded RFID data chip and the account details printed on the card, no longer in raised embossed letters, as the kind of mechanical card reading machines in use since the seventies has been phased out. I remember using one of early Access credit cards back in the late seventies, front loaded with sterling currency, and then using to withdraw French Francs when camping outside Annecy. I got a tiny amount of interest doing this, rather than paying interest. I don't think this anomaly lasted very long.
How the finance industry has changed since then! Now I can pay in euros with a Santander debit or credit card and not get charged exchange fees if a Santander ATM is used. The exchange rate won't be the best available, but it is valuable. I can load up a Post Office Money Card with any of a range of dozens of currencies bought here via my debit card, and then use it as a debit card, with the advantage of checking budget expenditure via a phone app, if needed. It's quite hand for me, as I won't have mobile banking on my phone, just in case ...
After shopping a walk in Pontcanna Fields, and after supper, reading my Spanish novel until bed time.
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