I do not recommend...

...blithely spending all your cash on books when your bank card doesn't work, in a city far from home, leaving yourself without even enough for your return bus ticket, let alone the next few days.

After a stressful hour wandering about looking for a long-distance calling place that I had enough cash to call my bank from, contemplating having to call my parents and wake them in the middle of the night, hungry but not daring to buy food, I have discovered that my bank has finally noticed (after a couple of years) that I should no longer have a student overdraft. I made a lot of phone calls at one stage - I even took the drastic step of actually going into the branch - trying to draw this fact to their attention and organise having a proper grown-up account, but eventually I gave up. And, moving into a new apartment, paying some rents in advance, and forgetting that I'm now getting half my salary in cash and therefore to pick it up have finally pushed me over the edge.

On the plus side, I spoke to a nice lady who sounded just like Victoria Wood and only cried a bit, and I now have an overdraft. And so I can go and get some dinner...

(This post has no point. I was just scared and sad for a while, and needed to share.)