Working On My Day Off

I had to work on my usual day off today because last week I took a three day weekend to visit Hangzhou. Although I wasn't looking forward to a longer week of work, today has been an OK way to start it.

Firstly, the amount of people at Web has significantly lowered. During the summer holiday we have had an influx of high school students whose parents didn't want them lying around doing nothing all day. This caused a huge number of uninterested students attending my classes, which was not my idea of fun. They all seem to be back at school now which is a relief for me and all of the other teachers.

In the afternoon I was asked by the sales department to chat to two young women from a local bank. They were both very nice and invited me to go horse riding and play golf sometime (!). I also asked them about my current financial problem to see if they could help. My problem is simple: I have saved up some RMB to pay off my credit cards; the exchange rate has been so bad in the UK that I thought I should make the most of it and convert my RMB to pounds; when I came to add these funds to one of my British bank accounts it was either impossible or ridiculously expensive (even HSBC, "The World's Local Bank" wouldn't do it). They made some calls and told me that I should be able to get a real Debit card (not just a cash card like I have now) which would make all of my problems disappear. Apparently they will be getting back to me soon with news of how I can open such an account. I can't relax knowing that I have so many pounds just hiding in a bulging envelope somewhere.

They gave me all £50 notes

* The picture on the top left was taken by a student through one of the glass walls at Web (without my consent).