http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4748292.stm

The above news story on the BBC has suddenly become one of the most re-posted news stories..
I read it what, 3 months ago, and considering there are soooo many more important stories about, and have been since it was first posted in Feb, then people should be focussing on more important issues…

Now one thing was bugging me today… I was getting my mum to take money out of my building society where she lives near London (and would you believe, there are only 3 branches in the whole of Scotland: Glasgow (6 hours round trip away), Edinburgh (same as Glasgow, possibly more), and Aberdeen (what’s that? Like, 50 hours?), so before I moved, I asked them what I should do to which they replied “write a letter saying you authorise your mum to take money out, keep a copy for yourself, give one to her, and give us one”. To which I thought, fair enough, and away we went.

Now that was fine until, Oct. last year, when they said the letter was dated 2003 and that although they’d give my mum the money this time, she should get a new (updated) letter, so I did one for her and signed it, and that was fine until last week…

In my mum went as usual, only to be told by some completely retarded cow, that she would accept the letter just this once, but it would reflect badly on her as an employee, and that the letter should never have been accepted.. My mum pointed out that it had been accepted before, and had to get very stroppy in order to get any money out.

So, lacking the finer details of the exchange, I phoned my building society and ended up speaking to the woman who dealt with my mum, only to be told that it was due to the fact the letter was dated 2004 and was too old, and also, that anyone could have picked it up and bought it in…
Feeling slightly deflated (as I was all geared up to ranting at her,) I phoned my mum, who said the letter was dated Oct 2005 (thats 11 months ago) and she had ID to prove she was the person who’s name was specified on the letter… Now, that pissed me off… That cow lied to me, acting like my mum had been completely unreasonable in getting stroppy, and made up reasons for why she was supposedly entitled to refuse the letter?!

Anyways, I ended up withdrawing most of the money (with a new letter that was as specific as I could do it, and dated 3 days ago) and getting an account elsewhere, thanks to that woman.

And talking of banks, HBOS (Halifax/Bank of Scotland) are just dodgy… They merged a while ago, and my Halifax account (which I’ve had for yeeeears) takes 7 working days to clear… Everyone (including HBOS employees!) refuses to believe that it takes that long, so I tried to get a current account with the Bank of Scotland in order to have cheques clear in 3 working days, like every other bank on the planet. “Oh no sorry, you don’t have an income, so we won’t give you one” said numerous BOS people, so I got an appointment, demanded one, and voila, I have a BOS current account

When my mum withdrew the afformentioned money from the afformentioned crappy building society, she went to Halifax to put the cheque into my BOS account, only to be told it wouldn’t work and that they could put it in my Halifax account (so it would clear in a week and 2 days) or she could go to London to find a BOS and deposit it there….
She left the queue and phoned me asking what to do, and after I told her to just put it in my Halifax, she ended up speaking to a different cashier, who managed to put it in my BOS account fine…

Is the whole world going mad, or is everything just trying its best to annoy me?!

Luckily it all worked out, which means I’ll be able to order a new bed on Friday as my current one… How shall I put it… Collapses, and has so many nails holding it together, I don’t think I can call it a wooden bed anymore…

Kingsize four-poster with little curtain thingies (and a new mattress) here I come!
http://www.argos.co.uk/webap……33172&go.x=11&go.y=12