It's pissing with rain today. Ahhh, lovely. :) Everything here is back to front! When it rains everyone say's it's nice weather, when it's sunny everyone says it's horrible and stays inside! The scary thing is, I'm starting to agree with them...

I've just been to the bank and got a bit of a shock. I've always tried to avoid thinking about "markets" and "currency depreciation" and all that nonsense, but now i've just realised why people DO pay attention to it. When I came here, the exchange rate was 2.5 singapore dollars to 1 uk pound, now it's 2.77 dollars to the pound. That's not much you may think, but actually it means that my final end of contract paycheck is going to be 1000 pounds less than I thought it would be!!! ONE GRAND!! All because of a lousy 27 cents change! :( Anyway, I won't bore you any more with my dull yet frustrating financial woes... :) I've managed to do a few things today. I've washed my sheets!... Not that I dont do it very often!... ahem... and I've made lots of frustrating calls to automated customer service numbers:

If you would like to change your billing address, press 1
If you would like to change your gender, press 2
If you would like to enquire about what i'm wearing, press 3
If you are unsure what a bill is, press 4
If you dont understand english. press 5
If you would like to speak to an operator, tough, cos they're all busy.
Your call is important to us. Almost as important as the dump I has this morning, but not quite.
Please hold, your call be answered in approximately...one...million...four...thouasnd...and...twenty...eight...seconds
Thankyou for holding. If this horrible piece of music doesn't scare you away, we will deal with your call as soon as we have eaten lunch..*beebee bee bip bip bee boo bee bip...*

and when they finally answer....

"hello, craptel cutomer billing hotline, sharon speaking, how can i help?"

"hi, I'd like to terminate my account"

"I'm sorry sir, you'll have to call billing enquiries for that"

"what's this that I've called"

"This is the billing hotline sir"

"Right, well can't you just put me through?"

"I'm sorry sir...."

"ok, what's the number"

"One moment sir... *shouts* Dawn! What's your number?*... It's 1376 sir, thankyou for calling craptel, have a nice day. *click*.

*dial 1376* ring ring. Welcome to Craptel's automated customer serivice hotline. For a nervous breakdown, press 1..........