You are the weakest link! Goodbye.

If you've been keeping up with my exploits in Scotland, you will be well aware of the hoops I've jumped through, and the red tape I've cut through, just to start existing here. And while I'm sure it's the same way for any international student or visitor coming to a new land, I am starting to get a severe case of the irrites with the whole thing.

Batreg broke the news to you yesterday about her lack of success in charming the bank staff sufficiently to issue her a bank account. Well I had no luck there either. Actually I was advised of my failure before her, but kept it quiet on the account of acute depression. I've been in such disbelief about the reluctance of Scotland's bureaucracy to welcome us, as fellow Commonwealth citizens, that I simply couldn't mention it.

Now I'm alternating between incredulity and insanity. One minute I'm shocked, the next I'm angry, the minute after that I'm (to steal and Aussie-ism from Kath & Kim), gropable.

And it's not like we're the first people from overseas to want UK bank accounts, so I was expecting some degree of rigmarole, but come on people! Cut us some slack. Either that, or help us out. But don't you dare just stand there on the other side of your bullet-proof (or tourist proof?) plexiglass screen and try and empathise with my situation. Because really, you have no idea how frustrating this is.