Pre-Departure Planning and My Sex Change Op

Side-effects include: A ringing or buzzing noise in the ear!

Planing is the part I don't particularly enjoy doing, filling in forms, red tape, ringing call centres and generally organising mundane things.

I've moved out of my old rented house in St Albans and have moved back north for a couple of months. My landlord wants to sell the house I was living in as soon as possible.

Last week I went to the local doctors to chat about what type of vaccinations I'll be having before leaving, I wasn't expecting to have any there and then I was under the impression that I was having a consultation.

Suddenly like a rat up a drainpipe the nurse zipped towards the fridge type thing in the corner muttering something about two vaccinations. She had a face like thunder and really wasn't succumbing to my cheerful demeanor but still I thought it was best to keep on her good side since she'd be sticking needles in me for the next few weeks.

I've had a sex change... apparently.

One Vaccine was for Typhoid and the other for Hep A or B I don't recall which one it was. Neither hurt at all at the time but she demanded that I stay lying down for about twenty minutes incase I decided to faint on her.

After leaving with two sore arms and with my wallet £17 lighter I had a read of the malaria leaflet just to cheer me up. The number of side effects listed from taking anti-malaria tablets is frightening! Hair loss? Depression? Suicidal tendencies? Oh well, I'm sure I'll be fine.

With my head spinning full of vaccine information I wandered across to the chemist with two slips of paper the nurse had given me, one for the rabies vaccine and one for Japanese Encephalitis. Each costing around about 100 pounds. What is even more annoying than having to pay for having a needle stuck in your arm is the fact that in some places in the UK you don't have to pay for the injectionsat all, post code lottery National Health Service. Anyhow, I took the two pieces of paper to the chemist like the nurse advised me to and they didn't seem to know what to do with them. Do they not have other people asking for these things? Maybe I should have just gone to Boots or something? I suggested to the chemist that he ring me when they get the vaccines in, he agreed this was a good idea. It wasn't filling me with confidence when he brought over the slip of paper for the Japanese Encephalitis vaccine and asked "what's this one for?".

Still, quite a few more sore arms to go yet! The injections themselves weren't too bad, the sore arm after was like someone had been repeatedly hitting it with a large stick. The other arm was fine and the pain has now subsided.

A pain that has resurfaced is my Nationwide Account. I'm trying to sort out a new account and credit card for my trip and Nationwide is the best account. So I filled in the online form, right at the end I noticed that one tiny detail was in fact incorrect. At this point the web site wouldn't let me correct the error and my only option was to click "finish". The error was my title, I am now officially a "Miss" instead of a "Mr" .Yes, this was all very amusing at first, but the joke soon began to fade.

Instead of just changing this on a printed form and sending it back I thought it would wise for me to ring them up and ask them what the correct course of action would be. So they told me to simply correct it and send the form in. The next thing I know I receiving post for "Miss" and even better, a credit card and current account card with the title "Miss" on. I rang Nationwide again and they said they would sort the problem out. Then three days later they rang me back to say I'd have to go into a branch to sort the issue out. In the meantime I'm receiving post from Nationwide as a "Miss" as well as a checkbook. It'd probably just be easier and quicker if I just went in for a sex change op!