1. Had ten steres (cubic metres) of wood delivered this morning, ready chopped and ready split for use in the wood-burning stove this year. We are now ready for a Siberian winter, without being held hostage to oil prices.

Of course my opinion of a Siberian winter might be different to others – someone who stayed in the gite at the end of September made a comment in the guest book about how lovely and hot it had been, although they noted that the locals were all dressed as if it was mid-winter.

2. Had an appointment with the bank. The manager kept us waiting for more than 30 minutes so we announced that we were off and walked out of the door. That at least brought a response – profuse apologies and being chased down the street - and apparently also immediately resolved the important problems that had caused the delays.

I’m afraid we do both have a bad attitude about being kept waiting, especially when no word of explanation is offered, or even a hint as to how long the delay might be.

A mere hour of photocopying and signing numerous papers later and the apparently trivial activity of opening a bank account had made some progress. The process had been started, and we thought completed, some months ago, but there are always new bits of paper to photocopy.

3. Had confirmation from the UK that our company bank account there had been correctly seized by the Crown because we had closed the company. Apparently this happens in case a stream of disgruntled creditors emerge and demand money from us.

The company was never active, and the bank account only had in it the £500 which we had used to open the account. Well, actually it had less because Royal Bank of Scotland had deducted £75 account closing charge before handing the rest of the money to the Crown. Thumbs down to them.

The tax authorities and companies house both know the company never traded.

Seems that all I have to do to reclaim the money is to fly to the UK and employ a solicitor to act on my behalf in reclaiming the money. Which I guess will cost the remaining £425, so presumably I won’t bother.

So looks like the Crown can just keep the cash and I can’t do much about it. So thumbs down to them also.

I’m not quite sure who the Crown is (or are?) but I hope they spend their ill-gotten gains wisely.