21 December 2005 (Wednesday) – Work

There was nothing for me to do and I spent the whole morning and early afternoon finishing my online course on money laundering, which every staff is required to do. And then I spent the whole late afternoon reading Matt’s (my colleague who is ultra helpful) notes from his tax course.

Matt is from Australia…not sure if he also came over on a working holiday visa. But now, he is married to an English gal and staying put in England.

I went to the bank during lunch to open my bank account. The letter that I got my company to write me didn’t really confirm my address because they can’t do that, from risk management point of view and so the letter is worded as “as far as they know”. I then tried to explain my situation to the lady, Bahar, who understood my situation cos she currently leases one of the rooms at her house to a lady and she had the same problems with me as well – do not have any documents showing proof of address.

Bahar then went out to consult someone more senior who then came into the room and said there’s no way they could do it…I again repeated my situation to her and she tried to think of ways to help me and in the end, she said we could try zapping a copy of my Singapore bank statement and fax it over to the relevant department for their approval…basically trying my luck. But at least, they are willing to try to help and think of solutions for me.