252 COUNTING THE COST, AGAIN AND AGAIN...

As mentioned in my last update, I have post-rally blues, a situation not helped by the rally bills now trickling in. My phone provider delighted me by letting me know my latest bill is available and will be sent out this week - thanks. Then I got a message in French from Bip&Go to say they wanted some coin off me, but not all of it - let me explain.

The whole Bip&Go setup is confusing to me; the website asks questions in the wrong order (nationality > postcode > street name > house number, etc.). They only accept funds via the IBS system, which I understand, but it isn't normal for a Brit used to credit card numbers, Apple Pay, etc.

When it comes to billing, I was expecting some quirks, and they didn't disappoint. My bill is in...for France alone. I need to wait for the bills from Italy and Spain, which will arrive 'in the future', apparently, but they cannot be more specific than that.

The bill for France came in at €96, which was probably more than I expected, so I did some digging.

The cheapest journey cost just €1.80, which was what I was told would be the ballpark, but when I scanned the bill, I found that the journey from Sète to Toulouse cost a whopping €24, which takes the piss, I reckon.

God only knows what the prices will be in Italy; they seem to make things up as they go along, so it could be anything from €0.50 to €500. Genuinely don't know what to expect from Spain; thankfully, we only used a couple of tolls in the Basque Country.

Back to phone use charges, I wasn't expecting much, since I had International Roaming, meaning all my minutes, texts, and data were available wherever we were along the route, which was a good thing since we used Google Maps and Spotify on my phone for every mile we covered.

I found that my bill was £32 more than usual, which was puzzling. Doing some digging, I found it was because every time I jumped between countries, EE charged me £2.75 to access my UK plan allowances. EE are charging me a handling fee to use EE abroad. Seems like a scam to me. In contrast, Lisa is on O2, and her bill was just £2 more than normal.

One positive thing is that since arriving home, I haven't had to put more than £1's worth of petrol into the car. In your face, oil sheikhs! That said, my fuel warning light has just come on...DAMN YOUR EYES!!!