Warnings would tell you that your repeated "my" masked a previous declaration. When you use "my", a new variable is created. If several of the same name are created in the same scope, only the last to be declared is accessible. Therefore, $me is "at work" if $v_place is "work" (simplified, I know), which it isn't. Therefore $me exists but has no value, which is what you are seeing.

Regards,

John Davies