Thursday, October 9, 2008

Our world collapses

The 8th of October 2008 had been a wonderful day. The kids were happy, the sun was shining and the comming summers warmth just made us feel good. It was a Thursday, so I decided that once the money had been transfered on Friday I'd transfer it in thirds to our two other accounts here that I'd setup to spread the load.

There had been ups and downs in the move to Australia, but that was all behind us and the future looked rosey indeed. I had 2 job interviews the following week to look forward to and other Agencies were started to ring with possible offers. It really was a fine day to be alive.

I will look back on the 8th as the last day we were a happy family with a good future, great kids and hard working sensible (but very slightly eccentric) parents. When life begins to go and I look back at a lifetime the 8th of October will be the peak of my life, with a sheer cliff plumet into oblivion.

At 9.14am on October the 9th 2008 I received an email from Ozforex saying that they still had not received the payment and that they would not release the Australian dollars until they had the Sterling. A little concerned, i went to the KSF website (as it would be late in the evening in the UK and therefore no point phoning); nothing to worry about there. I didnt try to login as i had not setup internet banking as the money would be in the account so short a time. A little puzzled, i did some Googling... And then, at 9.34am I stared for the first time at the depths of hell - there in black and white on the IOM Today website was the headline that KSF had been taken into administration.

I was trembling. Physically shaking. Mouth was dry and a slightly prickly feeling on my skin. Penny had taken the kids out to the park so I was on my own and very slightly panicking.

I made a cup of tea and and sat back at the computer. Dont be silly, there was nothing wrong with the bank so the headline must have been about something else. I read the full article. Oh my God!! It seems that on the 7th the UK Government had forced Kaupthing UK into liquidation using some emergency law they conjured up and that KSF had had £550Million in Kaupthing UK which because it was now under administration was not available and therefore KSF could no longer operate as a bank. This just couldnt be right surely!

As i read more articles and discovered the full story, which was much as IOM Today had written it, I started to worry. What about the £150K i owed Ozforex? This was terrible. I phoned Ozforex imediately and told them what had happened. The woman at Ozforex was very sympathetic and said that they would hold on until Tuesday the 14th of Octoer; if the funds had not arrrived by then then they would 'close out' whereby they bought back Sterling at the current exchange rate using the Dollars I had bought. I would be liable for any shortfall. This was a living nightmare.

At 10:47am Penny arrived back with the kids who just, still full of beans, went straight into the back garden. I was sat at the dining room table and she just said, "Whats wrong? Who's died?".

I couldnt lie - she see's straight through any fibs i try anyway - so i just said it straight, "Kaupthing has gone bust and we have lost everything.". I wasnt expecting the response i got as Penny just doubled up laughing.

"Now thats funny!" she said, "you actually had me going for a millionth of a second, how DO you keep such a straight face". Oh God, the cry wolf thing. I was always good at having laugh, parking the car run the corner and walking in saying that i couldnt remember where i'd left it etc..

"I'm sorry. It is actually true." I slid the laptop round so she could see the headline. I have never seen Penny go that white before! Years ago she had some of a Joint at a party and went white (before running to the loo and throwning up) but this was a different white, I could almost see the blood run from her face.

"What are we going to do?" she said. "Surely we cant just lose the money it must be somewhere". Then Ozforex hit her. "Christ, what about Ozforex?! What do we do about that? We havent got another £50 let alone £150,000!". I explained about the closing out and how we would be liable for any shortfall. "Fucking hell Jack...", I had only ever heard Penny swear once before when she caught her finger in a draw, "... what are we going to do? Please say you are joking and i'll only hurt you a little."

"I dont know" I replied. I know as much as you now.

At that point the kids came running for a drink of squash. "Mummy, whats happened?"
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I cant write what the next two hours brought as it is still too painful. We had always been honest and open with the kids but this was probably one of the hardest things we had even done. Kids being kids ask the worst, but spot on questions. Things like 'will we have to sell the car?', 'how will you pay the rent?', even 'will i have to stop going to school and go to work?'. I kept to the 'things will be all right' theme and just said that we would wait until next week to see what happened.

That afternoon i searched for more information and stumbled on a moneysupermarket post where someone was asking for help to setup a website for KSF depositors. At least it would take my mind off things and give me something to do. For the rest of the afternoon and evening I worked on the site. The original guy had started with forum site i didnt recognise so it was a quick learning curve but by midnight the site was functional and some folk had already posted comments!

I went to bed and just lay there. Penny couldn't sleep either and neither of us felt like the traditional way of getting to sleep. Thousands of questions just whirled round our heads; What would happen with Ozforex? Had we really just lost 150 thousand pounds? How would we pay the rent which was due in two weeks? Would we get thrown out of Australia as the visa depended on my assets!!!?