A recent UK survey for the Department for Education found that of over 1,000 adults found 30% felt unable to compare rates in exchange bureaux. A similar proportion said they were not comfortable converting foreign currency into sterling. Over a fifth of those surveyed admitted they had wrongly calculated how much they spent on holiday, with 12% saying they had run out of money.

The Globetrotters Club has just teamed up with Oanda.com to provide people with information about currency conversions and cheat sheets. To translate currency or make a cheat sheet, visit:

The Globetrotters Currency Converter — get the exchange rates for 164 currencies
The Globetrotters Currency Cheat Sheet — create and print a currency converter table for your next trip.

You would have to be living in a world with no access to the radio, newspapersor tv not to hear about the recent bombing in Bali. News reports say that around 75 percent of those who died (around 200) in the blasts were Australian nationals.

But let's not forget the local people of Bali and other nationals too, who lost their lives in Bali. A further 300 people were injured in the attack. As investigations start into Saturday's nightclub bombings on Bali, Australian airline Qantas is laying on extra flights to bring tourists and injured victims back from the Indonesian island. Singapore Airlines has also been carrying additional passengers.

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation and Australian police and intelligence services are helping in thesearch for the bombers.

The governments of Australia and the United States are advising against travel to Indonesia and the US State Department has asked all American citizens to leave the country. All US government personnel, apart from those in key positions, are being withdrawn.

The UK has also issued a travel warning, advising the cancellation of non-essential visits to Indonesia.

Despite some expected cancellations, Singapore Airlines says it is continuing to operate four daily flights to the area.

The airlines say they will not impose penalty charges on passengers who change or cancel their flight reservations. Those without tickets wishing to leave Bali are being offered discounted fares.

The US carrier Horizon Air, based in Seattle, is set to equip its entire fleet of 60 regional aircraft with defibrillators and medical kits to deal with in-flight heart attack emergencies.

Horizon is making the move two years ahead of a US Federal Aviation Administration deadline requiring any US commercial plane of at least 7,500 pounds and carrying at least one flight attendant to install the life-saving equipment.

There are three galleries offering a change of photographic exhibitions from photographers around the world.

Admission is free and the small gallery can be found at 5&8 Great Newport Street WC2H, tel: 020 7831 1772, website: www.photonet.org.uk From 4^th October to 16^th November, there is a great exhibition called Brixton Studio which looks at local photographer Harry Jacobs and four other contemporary artists. There's a great bookshop too.

The nearest tube is Leicester Square, so you could combine this with a visit to the great National Portrait Gallery that is close by, followed by a Chinese dinner in China Town, or a film in Leicester Square.

Yes, it's almost that time of year again. The annual Regent Street Christmas lights will be turned on Wednesday 13 November and will remain lit until 6 January 2003.

Here's a little Beetle quiz based on airport codes. See how many you get right! Go on, have a guess!

Which cities are served by airports with the following codes:

1. AMS
2. MCO
3. CDG
4. YYZ
5. HND

For the answers, see at the end of the e-newsletter.

A Beverly Hills scuba diving store has resisted a federal grand jury subpoena demanding that they identify everyone who had taken, but not finished, recreational dive classes over the last three years.

The subpoena was based upon far-fetched fears that an underwater terrorist attack could be accomplished by partially-trained divers. Apparently the FBI has already obtained information about every certified diver in the United States through the certification organisations PADI, NAUI, and SSI.

Ken Kurtis, co-owner of Reef Seekers, stated: “The scenario the FBI was painting–of divers swimming into a harbor with explosives to blow up ships–is extremely difficult and far-fetched for even the most skilled and experienced diver, and would be next-to-impossible for a newly certified diver, let alone one who had dropped out of a class and never completed training.”