Decorations...

I had to go into work early this morning. The upside was I was able to get away just before lunch. When I got home I had some calls to make and some banking to do.

Some I managed to to online but the most important bit involving, for me, a huge sum of money, I couldn't manage. The system wouldn't let me saying I would have to wait three days when it needed to be done today, before midnight. So I had to call the bank.

That involved talking to someone in a call centre in goodness knows where who passed me onto someone else who promptly cut me off! I started the whole process off again and this time got through to someone who had a frozen computer that wouldn't let him access my account. I said pass me onto someone with a working computer. He said he couldn't because I'd not passed verification. Well, verify me I said. And he said he couldn't because his computer had frozen. So I said I was going nowhere until I'd got an answer that didn't involve me being dropped into a black hole and I wasn't going through the process a third time.

At that point his screen unfroze but while we had been having our standoff I'd been playing with the online banking thing and had moved the transaction to next week so I then was able to change it because it was more than the three days the computer needed! I actually managed to outfox a computer.

I needed a treat after all that so I settled down to watch last nights episode of the BBCs winter treat for us, 'War and Peace.' If you haven't seen this go on catchup and watch, it's wonderful. If you're not in the UK, find your way to BBC online or whatever. The BBC have managed to film a lot of it in St Petersburg itself and the imperial palaces there. It is beautiful to look at, well written and exceptionally acted. It's a bit 'Downton Abbey' with a spot of incest and a big dollop of Fabergé bling.

Which brings me to the point. As I settled down I noticed this star, from the Christmas decorations, was still up well after Twelth Night. It supposed to be unlucky to have any decorations up after that day. I suppose this would account for the fun on the phone with the bank.