This is a panorama shot, four pictures stitched together in photoshop, of Devil's Dyke. I had posted it to my facebook account, but facebook downsized it. So I'm hoping that posting it here will offer a better viewing experience.

In order to see the high resolution view there are a couple things you can do. You can right-click and choose to save or download the picture, or you can hold ctrl (on the pc, or command on the mac) and click the picture, which will open it in a new tab (as long as you are using Firefox or IE or a similar browser that supports tabbed browsing).

It's been an interesting week. I have to go to my assessment day and final interview for Lloyds TSB on Wednesday, but to make a little extra cash in the meantime I did some temp work this week. Officially I was a 'post room operative', but it was basically eight straight hours of opening returned bank mail and sorting it into piles. Funnily enough, the post room was in charge of sorting the mail for Lloyds, which was pure coincidence.

Before working there I hadn't given much thought to identity theft or how it could really happen, other than people rooting through your rubbish. I got to see how mail rooms are a HUGE security hole and could provide identity thieves with many opportunities for raw material. I was opening thousands of letters a day and had access to names, dates, account numbers and other sensitive data. There was a camera up in the corner, but as far as I could tell that was the extent of the surveillance in the room. I also had access to pens and paper and could have written down any of the data I saw. Nobody checked my bags or pockets at the doors; in fact, the security was frighteningly lax. I was issued a security card to gain entrance into the building, but that was the extent of it. Just so we're clear: I didn't do anything I shouldn't have done, nor was I tempted. I was just shocked at how relaxed everyone was about such sensitive data in the hands of average joe workers.

The post room job was technically straight forward and should have been really boring, but it was really interesting and I actually learned some things. First, I'm not nearly as far in debt as I could be. Second, all those scary letters people get from the bank are computer generated and shouldn't be taken personally. Third, if you ever have accounts in arrears and they threaten to take legal action, they do! I opened so many letters that had to do with collections and courts and legal fees, etc; I was quite taken aback by how much court time must be taken up with collections alone.

FYI: don't EVER send cash in the mail. It can and does easily slip through the cracks and is totally untraceable. You've been warned. No, I didn't see any nefarious behaviour, but like I said before, the security was very lax and nobody was watching the cash handlers that I could see. And honestly, how dumb are you if you have to send cash to pay your bills? Who doesn't have a legitimate bank account these days?

We had a lovely day yesterday in the sunshine, which was a real treat after a week of perpetual gray, and took a bus out of the city to an area called Devil's Dyke. Basically it's a pub surrounded by farms and a sharp valley, with hiking trails and forests scattered about. We both had a lot of fun and got very sun burnt. I'm writing this from my laptop, so I won't be able to post any of the pictures. If you want to see them I'll be posting them on my facebook account in the next few days.

It turns out the sun was visiting just for the weekend, and it's back to the gloomy wetness that England is so famous for. We definitely didn't move here for the weather!