Sunday 13^th September, 2020 1210

Since the last entry I have had both good luck and bad luck. First the good.

At the station on Friday I was fortunate to choose a cashier who spoke English. I had checked online and there were still five first class seats available on the train I wanted so for the sake of 93¥ I was quite prepared to simply buy a new ticket if the lost ticket problem couldn't be solved easily. It was, and I was issued a replacement one (a proper ticket, not a till receipt this time) free of charge.

Now the bad. Later that day I did my weekly BHG shop and in the early evening I received a phone call. The girl didn't speak English so I assumed it was a marketing call and terminated it. Minutes later Joanna phoned and asked me if I had received a call from Chizhou. I hadn't looked at the number so had no idea and explained why I had cut the girl off.

It was from the Grand New Century hotel, where we stayed three nights at the start of our holiday. They were chasing me to pay for the room!

Later after wracking my brain, I recalled checking in. Initially they couldn't find my reservation so I had to fire up the laptop and give them the reservation number sent to me by Hotels.com, who I had booked through. They found the booking and requested a 2,000¥ deposit which I assumed would cover the room cost of 1,404¥ in case I hadn't actually paid Hotels.com up front and the rest for incidentals. I had booked so many stays and flights I couldn't recall if I had or not.

When we checked out they gave me all my money back minus the charge for our buffet dinner on the last night, so I was quite happy at this seeming windfall – one more expense I never needed to bear. Now here we are a month later and they are chasing me for payment!

So I have checked my UK bank account and it would seem I have not in fact paid, despite receiving an email from Hotels.com which appears to state that I have.

I am actually getting irked. Of course I will pay because just as a supermarket checkout girl has to make good any mistakes she makes, as sure as eggs are omelettes someone who made the mistake will probably lose a fortnight's wages if I don't, not to mention if there is a dispute I would be prevented from leaving China in the future.

So I have now been bombarded with emails from Hotels.com demanding I contact the hotel immediately to make payment and the hotel indicating they don't have the facilities to debit my card! If they had done their job at the time they had the cash this would not have arisen and what's really annoying is that back then the exchange rate was 9.18¥ to the £ and since all the Brexit hoo-hah sterling has been in freefall and is now at 8.74, costing me more money unless I can find a way to get yuan to them. They have as yet not provided their IBAN and BIC numbers.

It's not MY fault!