Saturday, May 31, 2008

Explanation

I seem to have scared you all away with my meltdown… I thought I’d best explain myself.

Ages ago I lost my bank book – I’ve put it somewhere ‘safe’ and I keep expecting to chance upon it but I haven’t. (I put my Granny’s ring somewhere safe once, when we were moving and I didn’t see it again for seven years. And yes, I have checked the button box for my bank book. It’s not there.)

I’ve managed fine with my cashpoint/debit card. Until my cashpoint card’s electronic strip started playing up … I could get cash from certain machines so of course I ignored it. But it got worse and worse, so eventually I went into my bank branch at Emporium and said ‘the electronic strip is failing’ and after consulting many colleagues, someone told me if I came back with my passport and my bank book, pay them 300 baht, they would supply a new one.

Ahh, fine, except bank book hadn’t turned up and is still residing in its safe place. I did all the filing, searched high and low (in the button box) and couldn’t find it. I returned to the bank to tell them I couldn’t find my bank book and they told me it needed to be reported missing to the police. They need the police report in order to issue a new bank book.

In the meantime Husband said he couldn’t find his bank book either so he got his secretary to put into motion the process for lost bank books for both us. Then he, the klutz, on looking for a third time, found his book in a drawer at work. (Oh if only my safe place were as obvious as that. Just in case, I did check the button box again.)

Doing anything official or paperworky is very hard here. I could probably work out how to do it all, but if you have the offer of help, you’d be mad to reject it. For weeks, it seemed, Husband’s secretary very kindly too-ed and fro-ed to the bank/police etc collecting stuff, which she issued to Husband who strode back and forth with bits of paper for me to sign or fill in etc. a copy of my passport, which I countersigned, that came back with some Thai writing on it which I had to sign again, and then she needed a power of attorney letter. Bear in mind that all this is in a foreign language which I cannot understand but am nonetheless being asked to put my signature against. While all this was happening I had to keep asking him for money despite the fact that I actually had money, I couldn’t get to.

Eventually all the correct bits of paper had been accumulated in triplicate, countersigned photocopies, affidavits, power of attorney letters etc and all I had to do was go to the bank and present them, pay for the lost book and replacement card and bingo. I went on Thursday and the police had got the branch name of my bank incorrect so the bank wouldn’t accept the paper work.

Well, I lost the plot. Not there and then in the bank, thankfully, but outside. I really don’t know what happened. I behaved quite out of character. There were one or two things on my mind (why can’t I get on and write? Are we really staying here? If it’s only one year what will happen to Son’s two years of GCSEs? Will Husband be made redundant? Will Daughter want to go to boarding school in England?) so maybe it was partly those things too, but I sat outside Emporium Suites, sobbing and swearing, alternately, down the phone. WTF?

Anyway I felt terrible; I behaved horribly and I’m utterly ashamed of myself.

I thought you should know what kind of a person’s blog you visit.

16 comments:

Yvonne said...

I have to confess that I have lost the plot for much, much less than that. I cannot believe the amount of red tape that is needed to get a bank book - how is anything ever done there? If it makes you feel better I've had a few paperwork meltdowns, there's something it that make me feel so frustrated and out of control. The fact that you feel so bad about it proves that you are a good person that was just having a bad day. Hope you're feeling better. xxx

uphilldowndale said...

Whoaaaa, you've got an awful lot of 'stuff' going on there, sounds like the bank incident just 'knocked the valve off the pressure cooker.' and you let off a head of steam that had been brewing.
The lost bank book I can identify with, my missing glasses turned up in the fridge, in a bag with a pound of bacon, I waste so much time looking for the lost and misplaced.

Mel said...

Poor bloss! Life can be overwhelming here.. there's no direct route to doing anything in this country and can drive you around the bend. Considering how long you've been here, I think you're doing superbly and it's more then ok to have manic breakdowns every now and then..trust me, I know the manic breakdown scenario well! ;-)

CL Taylor said...

I'm not surprised you lost the plot. I would have burst into tears (something I tend to do when I'm angry!)

Rachel Green said...

Holy Stuffings! I'd have gone postal, so I'm impressed you just had a bit of a meltdown,

Marcie Steele said...

Oh, I love you anyway you are honey. And me, I'm the Queen of Impatience so I'm sure I would have said something I regretted! xx

Karen said...

I think you were entitled under the circumstances...I felt like crying for you! Hopefully things can only get better :o)

Fiona Mackenzie. Writer said...

I think I'm visiting the blog of a person like me. No further comment except to say that I sympathise with you being a bit like me. I lose everything, all the time.

My mother, brought up by nuns, like Lane, says you have to pray to St Jude or is it St Anthony? One is the patron saint of lost things and the other, of lost causes. I pray to both of them. Frequently. Generally they're pretty obliging. Good luck.

Carol said...

Told you that no-one was scared away!! The bankbook was definately the straw that broke the camels back....look what you've been dealing with....those are not small worries!!

We all love you just the way you are...meltdowns and all!!

C xxxxx

Flowerpot said...

I think you were very entitled to go into meltdown with all that on your mind. Take care and hope things improve and that you get a few answers soon.

Sue Guiney said...

Seems to me you have had every reason to lose it. And anyway, it takes a lot more than a hissy fit to scare me off!

Jenny Beattie said...

Thank you all for your lovely words. I'm glad you weren't permanantly scared away. Carol said if you'd all survived after my g-string comment, she thought you'd all be back after my explosion.

I think I'm back to normal now.

JJx

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Blimey, I'm not surprised you lost the plot, poor thing. I would have lost it far sooner.

Remember, it's good to let off steam sometimes, so don't feel bad about it. I'm sure we all have our moments, I certainly do.

Dx

laurie said...

ah, i'm so sorry.
i would have cried too.

i dont know the phrase "lost the plot," but i can figure it out. i don't blame you a bit.

modern life=too much stress. way way way too much stress.

Jenny Beattie said...

Debs, thank you. I think I'm recovered now.

Laurie, thank you too. I was a bit stunned to hear you say you didn't know the phrase 'lost the plot' ... so I had to go away and look it up. Yes, it's a British and Australian idiom to mean to go crazy! Well, there's something new.

Liane Spicer said...

You had a bad day. The stresses piled up and then the dam broke. Maybe it's a lot better than my method of coping with insane red tape, which is to throw my hands up and give up. All I wanted was to revert to my maiden name. The divorce is ancient history, so why drag the man's name around forever like toilet paper on my shoe?

I got so many run arounds and conflicting instructions and requests for stamped copies of whatnots that I gave up. What I now have is a pile of IDs and a passport that have all expired and which need each other for renewal of any.

Would have been better if I'd had a simple meltdown outside the Town Hall and then gotten over it and got on with the business.

Chin up.