I am preoccupied with so many problems facing the world that I am prone to neglect my own. They are trivial by comparison, no doubt, but they are far from easy to resolve. At the moment, I am battling with no less than four such problems, all of which strike me as nearly intractable. First, I need to get a Slovene pension for four years of work there. I got a bunch of papers from the pension authorities in Slovenia, but I need to do something with them in Croatia, where I reside at the moment. As every contact with Croatian authorities is appalling to me, the Slovene pension is out of my reach at the moment. Second, I need to get one of my American pensions back to the account to which it was going until my ex-wife cleaned it up by mistake about a year ago. Having been stopped until the mystery was resolved, the payments need to continue going to the same account, but this double reversal is turning out to be very difficult with the pension authorities involved. Third, I need to get in touch with an American bank of mine to ensure that I receive regular statements about two accounts I have there, as well as a debit card I can use in Croatia. In addition, I need a personal contact with someone who could consult me about banking transactions from the two accounts. This requires a call or two, which proves to be most difficult from Croatia. Fourth, I need to get a personal contact with someone who could advise me about my banking transactions from two accounts with a British bank of mine. Several letters to the manager of my branch of the bank have remained unanswered, and so I have written to the chairman of the bank and pleaded for help. Again, a call or two may turn out to be required in this case. All in all, these four problems may indeed be trivial by comparison with the problems facing the world, but they still strike me as nigh unsurpassable. Whence my preoccupation with the problems facing the world, I guess. In addition, playing with words has always been quite a joy for me.