Cause I had a bad day...

For easier reading, the "badness'es" of my day will be summarised below in comprehensible dot points.

• My Chinese teacher kindly informed us that they had changed the curriculum for this year (due to an apparent "lack of funding" *grumbles* pffft! As if!) so that instead of going into a Chinese class with other fellow 2nd year students, we have been upgraded to being merged with a 4th year class! I knew something was fishy when she told us to write a letter "roughly 300~400 characters in length" in the remaining 8 minutes of our lesson. I don't even think I know 300~400 characters.

• Leading on from the Bad Point above, I went to see the Chairperson of Chinese studies to plead my case as an innocent victim of the Chinese department's dodgy grading system. (For those who haven't heard me gripe about this, basically you sit down for a placement interview with the Chinese department in which they get to narrow their eyes in suspicion at you and if your hair is dyed enough, your clothes FOB'by enough, your surname monosyllabic enough, you'll be shoved into either an intermediate or native class before you can utter so much as a "Ni Hao!") Chairperson decided we were stupid and paranoid and told us that she's had many years of teaching and in all her experiences (ha! A Blanket Statement!) students are always wrong and she's always right. Helen Dunstan: 1, Crappy Chinese students: 0

• I forgot to ring up payroll (again!) to give them my payment details.

• The all-important-mid-toe-strap on my left thong broke halfway through Railway Square tunnel. I ended up hobbling along through ticket barriers, station platforms and all with only the one good shoe on whilst being painfully aware of what a spectacle I must have been. State transit officers found me somewhat suspicious and gave me the "I think you're a terrorist (or even worse, fair-evader!), is that a bomb in your hand?" look but quickly backed off when I glared at them and muttered "bad day" through gritted teeth whilst waving my broken thong in a midly aggressive manner in their direction to make sure they got the idea that I wasn't in the mood for fishing out my student card.

To those (yes, plural!) who have stepped on my thong from behind, I curse you.

Not bad for HK$30 (approx. AU$5) pair of thongs from the Lok Fu markets in Hong Kong. They've lasted a whole 2 years.