Taking back control

I had a mini meltdown this morning.  I went to pay my water bill at the 7/11  as usual yesterday and was told since I was 1 day overdue they cannot accept payment and I have to go to the Pattaya Water Authority.  This happened once before and the nice people at the office of our village took care of it for me so today I dropped into the office again on my way home from yoga to see what I could do and the conversation got so confusing I struggled to keep my temper.  They said OK to paying it for me but then in the next breath they said they needed 300baht extra as it was overdue.  Now I know that this was a load of crap because I have had an overdue bill before and there were no extra charges.  I got that yucky feeling that they were trying to screw me out of money, it went from 400baht for the actual water bill, plus 300baht as a fee then a mention of 1000baht to have the water meter replaced as the water meter man was going to come and take it away.  Now 6 months ago I would have been so flustered that I would have handed over any amount they wanted just to be rid of the problem but not today, I was not in the mood to be screwed around.  I ended up taking my money and the bill off the counter and telling them to forget about it.  I was so angry, not so much at them but at the way Thailand tries to screw the westerner out of every penny like we are millionaires or something.  They assume that since we are here working our company picks up the tab for everything, but our company does the bare minimum so alot of the expense of living over here comes out of our personal money so I take it very personally when they try to screw me.  I stormed home and by the time I unlocked the front door I was in tears, then Marcus rang from Bangkok needing me to transfer money to his account and I just felt so overwhelmed and lost and foreign that I could barely speak to him without sobbing.  It took me about an hour to calm down, shower and ask around for help but in the end I called the man at the office again and asked him to draw me a map so I could find the water office myself.  If I was in Australia and I had a overdue bill I wouldn't expect some random person to drop what he was doing and run off to pay it for me so I thought why should I expect it here?  It turned out that I have driven past this water authority building a hundred times and it was really close, as I drove in I noticed a sign saying Express Payment for Water Usage and I drove up to this little booth with a man inside and handed him my bill and he asked for the exact amount that was owed, gave me a receipt and off I went back home.  So it turned out that the girl at the office was trying to screw me, I didn't owe any extra for being late.  As I drove home I felt such a sense of triumph and achievement, it is funny but living overseas in a non English speaking country accomplishing the smallest things like paying a bill feels amazing and gives me back that sense of freedom and control that I took for granted living in Australia.  I almost feel like I did when I first moved out of home when I was 17 and I had to learn how to fend for myself but at least back then I could ask any stranger for directions or help but here the chances of finding someone who speaks fluent enough English to understand me are slim and makes it all the more challenging and stressful.  But I did it today and I now know where to go and what to do should it happen again in the future and I can stand on my own 2 feet and not let people take advantage of me just because I look like a stupid lost 'Farrang'.