A New Hampshire, United States resident was shocked to find that he had been charged $23,148,855,308,184,500 (that’s 23 quadrillion US dollars or 14 quadrillion British pounds) for a packet of 20 cigarettes at his local gas station. Josh Muszynski checked his balance online expecting to see that he was a couple of hundred dollars in the black only to see he was 23 quadrillion in the red. Obviously this was a clerical error but it gave Josh a mighty fright as the debt could never be paid off as the amount is several times the US national debt. He commented that even his children and grandchildren would be in debt. His bank eventually corrected the problem and even waived the $15 overdraft fee although I doubt that Mr. Muszynski was worried about losing $15 after being 23 quadrillion in debt temporarily. One thing is for sure; if cigarettes were really that price, it’d give the world a great incentive to give up smoking!
So yesterday I went to the job fair after exchanging the shirts for something smaller (see previous entry for more info) and I was distinctly unimpressed. Not many companies were actually hiring; it was more a public relations and promotional exercise in my opinion. Although I did get a lead on a job at local ISP Cox Communications as customer service/technical support person, they are taking on in the next couple of weeks and as I have worked in technical support before. I have also applied to Walmart and Dillons; not that I really want to work in non-technical retail but a job is a job in these tough financial times. Erin keeps on pushing me towards going back to school to get a degree but as we plan to move back to the UK within a number of years I believe it to be pointless as the US 2 year degree isn’t relevant back home!
More big news from back home; hot on the heels of the announcement that my home football team Plymouth Argyle have been taken over comes the news of an excellent new signing. Paul Sturrock has signed Bradley Wright-Phillips, a former premiership player with Manchester City and son of England legend Ian Wright. The striker was signed from Southampton after falling out of favour and is a great signing for Argyle as he is a natural goal scorer which is something that has been lacking in recent seasons at Home Park. Listening to Wright-Phillips talk on the BBC website I was very impressed with his attitude, I really hope that translates onto the field!
Not such good news from other English sports as the national cricket team finished the first day of the second Ashes test 364 runs for 6 wickets. The day started well with Andrew Strauss and Alistair Cook adding 196 before Cook was caught lbw just before the half way point. The next five wickets fell for a total of 79 even the wicket of Mr. dependable Paul Collingwood fell cheaply. Strauss ended the day on 161 not out with Stuart Broad on 6 not out having just replaced Andrew Flintoff (who in my opinion needs to be dropped). Let’s hope that Broad can put in one of his excellent batting performances alongside Strauss to help England post a respectable total as I full expect the Aussies to post a first innings score of 500+ based on the first test performance!
