365 Days — 2007

This is what it looks like when the financial rug is unexpectedly pulled out from under you. I’d just found out about the overdraft I never knew I had, and in the process, I discovered that my true financial position had been kept hidden from me for a long time. Apparently, there’s nothing like getting a divorce to bring your financial circumstances into focus.

I drew some money from the bank and something caught my eye as I collected the receipt. It didn’t fully register until I got outside and checked the mini statement again; I was significantly overdrawn on an account that should have had plenty of money in it. I coped with discovering that the credit cards, which I had been assured were cleared, had not been paid off and had been allowed to max out. This, however, was the final straw. The grand total of our hidden debt is now tens of thousands of pounds.

It is a nightmare, and shouting at Elaine on the ‘phone didn’t make me feel any better.

I’d already taken my 365 days picture for the day – or so I thought, but this one taken in the car just after I visited the bank was the one I went with. Afterward, I visited one of my favorite ‘spaces’ to try and get some perspective. Then it was just a matter of trying to get back to normal – having something to eat and returning to my temporary digs near to work in Southampton.

This was my planed 365 days photograph for June 26. Copyright © 2007 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

Gary and a bush. Virginia Creeper by the look of it. Copyright © 2007 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

Eastney Point, Langstone Harbour, is one of my ‘thin spaces’. Copyright © 2007 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

Burger King for dinner. One of my first forays into the realm of fast foods. Copyright © 2007 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

Update: I subsequently uncovered further financial irregularities, and it took our combined savings, shares, and the sale of the family home a couple of years later to finally clear all the debt off.