Friday, May 30, 2008

Treasures from the library discard

I'm going back to work in South Africa this Sunday. I went to the library today to return most of what I had borrowed (I'll return the rest on my way to the airport) and to buy something from the discard to take with me on the plane. I was thinking of something easy to read which would bring no regrets if left behind by mistake. I was planning on buying a murder mystery but somebody must have just donated some books to the library because I found a collection of twelve books, all published by Vintage International, which were in good state and looked really like a good read. Some of them I would not have picked on their own but I thought that in a way it was great way to try new authors. It is as if an unknown person chose for me a collection of twelve books to read.
My attention was originally drawn by a book by Camara Laye and one by Doris Lessing.
Here is what I bought for 50 cents each:

Camara Laye "The radiance of The King" (Guinea/Senegal)
Par Lagerkvist "Barabbas" (Sweden)
Caryl Phillips "Cambridge" (England)
Doris Lessing "The fifth Child" (South Africa)
Tatyana Tolstaya "Sleepwalker in a fog" (Russia)
Julian Barnes "Talking it Over" (England)
Mario Vargas Llosa "The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta" (Peru)
Leonardo Sciascia "Open Doors, and three novellas" (Italy)
Robert Stone "Children of Light" (USA)
Kobo Abe "The Woman in the Dunes" (Japan)
Yukio Mishima "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion" (Japan
Junichiro Tanizaki "Diary of a Mad Old Man" (Japan)


Also for 50 cents I bought the last book of the Harry Potter collection which was so far the only one I did not have.

I feel pretty lucky!

the never ending bank saga

Sometimes I surprise myself by being totally optimistic. I went to the bank and the document I had to sign had nothing to do with what I was told. It listed as what would be reimbursed to me only some of the transactions which we had been agreed on the phone. The difference between what I was told I would be reimbursed and what actually was listed amounted to just under a thousand dollar...a significant amount of money! So back to the phone and talking and explaining and asking.
Finally the list I had to sign on was complete and I did signed.

This time I will wait until I am actually reimbursed to say that the all story is over.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

The end of the bank story...sort of

Well after several very frustrating phone calls with the bank during which I was treated with a mixture of fake politeness and suspicion the story came to an end last night.
The bank will reimburse me for the money stolen.
To be fair I have to say that in the end, regardless of how the process went, the result was fair.
I guess I will never know if the fact that in the phone call prior to that I ended up saying that I was starting to think that I should get a lawyer had any impact in the way they dealt with it. I can see their point that they have to make sure that I am not the one stealing the money, but I certainly felt that the process was very weird. Of course they record all phone conversation, everything that I say is taken as a legal statement and NONE of what they say can be use as such. I tell you it is not a pleasant process.

My final question to them was: "how can I protect myself from having my ATM card copied at a bank machine?" and the answer was: "There is nothing you can do. This is done by organized crime. It is their job and they are good at it. Bank card theft has been around for a long time but they have just become a lot more aggressive."

So here you are. Good luck to all of us with all this.

Tomorrow I have to go to the bank, sign an affidavit (which I will read very very carefully) and they will reimburse me the money they recognize as stolen.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Cleaned out

I guess after everything my first blog should really be about Ben's wedding (which went very well, I thought, and was gorgeous but for which I have absolutely no photos), my trip to Kruger Park (where I saw lions), why it is that I am not in Dubai where I am supposed to be (what's the point of cursing the travel agent once again); or I should talk about the Zimbabwe elections (going to the run off with the leader of the opposition not daring -so far- to re-enter Zimbabwe), or maybe I should talk about the violence in townships around Johannesburg against foreigners and particularly people from Zimbabwe...or I could even just describe my very short observations on the townships and shanty towns of South Africa because they are something quite particular to that part of the world (I've seen townships in Namibia too); but my head is not in it.
I just had trouble with my bank card and when I tried to figure out what was going on I found that somebody has cleaned my chequing account from "international withdrawal"...I would guess South Africa since I did not use my card anywhere in Asia. Now I have to wait till the end of the long week end and see what and if I can sort out with the bank.
On the plus side I am home so it should make dealing with all this a little easier...not to mention that if I was on the road this would be a much bigger problem....Things can always get worse.

You hear people say that things are "as bad as they get", then they should be happy for any change that bounds to happen soon because "if it can't get worse" it can only get better. But generally from my experience people who say this type of thing say it with gloom and little hope, in fact they usually expect things to get way worse.

Saturday, May 03, 2008

May 4th

Once again I am in the Singapore airport after a work rotation in Johannesburg during which I did not blog.
The elections in Zimbabwe, as you must know, are far from over. They will have to go to a run off...and after all the violence against Mugabe's opposition it is hard to imagine that there are enough people left to vote against Mugabe....Anyway, presumably if it was of interest to you you followed the progress about it all....including the chinese ship full of weapons ..... *shrug*

I am just transfering in Singapore, on my way to Phuket to Ben's wedding.