Rabbit stew anyone?

It's like deja vu...last year I was away from Aric on my birthday, though had both boys with me in Denmark. This year only Hunter is here, hope it's not a pattern beginning to form!
In good style I invited 8 girlfriends over for a great dinner and I could not have picked better entertainment if I had hired a magician! The house I am borrowing, comes with a rabbit, who gets fed by the neighbors' Au pair. She comes in every other day with a carrot...I suppose even I can figure that out, but never mind, she enjoys it. I let the rabbit "Nuller" out every day and it roams around on the grass. The entire yard is fenced in so there is no danger it will escape. The owners, Soren and Tone, said it's OK to let it out to exercise; they normally leave it out all day.

The neighbors next door, Christian and Annette, whom I met the other night at the other neighbors' grill evening (...long story - but I know almost every couple on the street now, as I exchanged Sanibel for the house across the street here last year), anyway- they have two white labs; both are trained hunting dogs/retrievers, but as we learned yesterday, there are still a few lessons to be learned by the youngest lab. All instincts took over when they walked past the gate and the lab jumped over the fence and started to chase the poor rabbit!

Right in the middle of the wine and salad!! I ran one way and my friend Nete the other way around the house, chasing the rabbit - while Christian tried to tackle the dog twice. It was down to a hair, when the rabbit ran under a log and Christian finally jumped the dog. I got the rabbit out from hiding and held it, its heart was beating so fast I thought I was going to have to do mouth to snout resuscitation! What a tackle by the neighbor! He should be drafted by the Bears!

His wife Annette came over with a bottle of wine later, she was so upset. I'm not sure how I would have told Soren and Tone, that their family pet died on my watch.

Aside from that, it was a fantastic evening with all my best friends, except Josephine who sadly couldn't make it. Charlotte especially enjoyed the evening - Aidan's old nanny still parties hard!

Makes up for Aric not being here. Just one more week and we jet off to Mexico together, so I'm looking forward to that.

Old friends reunited across the miles

It's understandable why Aric doesn't always want to join me in Denmark - he loves my family (I think ;-) and certainly enjoys friendly get-togethers, but a full day with my friends, from when I was 14, may not always be his cup of tea.

Saturday I spent the day/evening with several great friends; we have all stayed in contact over the years even though we can't always get to eachother's country.

All of us have kids now and it was fun to meet Steen's son Victor, who is just home from Australia for 4 weeks, only to take off to Melbourne again Sunday, to continue his work there. As Aidan is out there alone, it is comforting to know that there are other Danes he can hook up with should it become necessary.

Jazzin' around the world

Never have the Ault members been as Nomadic, as this summer! Though Aric is still stuck in the sandbox, the rest of the klan is pretty much spread around the globe - with Aidan doing much of the 'jazzin round'.

The HSBC bank issues have now been resolved - could it be the two letters to the local newspapers?? In any event, a credit showed up a few days ago for the full fraud amount and we now have a new "Advanced Team Leader" representing us. Aric had a few meetings with some senior bank managers and from what he tells me, their mouth was hanging way open when Aric explained that our son, 7000 miles away, was starving to death because his card was blocked (another major issue, only this time it appears that Mrs Ault forgot to sign the payment check!! Hmmnn a senior moment??)

So to make a loooong story very short, Aidan can use his card and all was dandy until a mail this morning: "so....anyway mom, Australia is super expensive so I was at an ATM today and my card has been blocked again and I don't know for what reason, I don't think I've maxed it out, you know Australia is expensive, but not THAT expensive....So my maximum per month is 10000 dirhams instead of 10000 dollars?" (SIGH!! )

Lord almighty - is the kid taking Salsa lessons every night?? I knew I'd be in trouble when I told him "you spend, I get statement and pay"!!

What happened to "I can live on Raman Noodles" ??

So I've set up an Excel sheet with a budget for him so he can continue to list his expenses and see how fast money flies out...and he is looking for a job so fingers crossed, he will pick up something fun in Cairns. With the following opportunities available, it shouldn't be too difficult: How difficult can it be to scoop icecream??

The following positions are frequently available in the Cairns hospitality industry:
•Food & Beverage Attendant (waiter or barman)
•Porter
•Cocktail flairist
•Barista
•Short order cook
•Kebab creationist
•Scoop technician (at an icecream store!)
•Customer service officer
•Tour guide (multi-lingual tour guides, especially Japanese and German, are particularly sought-after)
•Travel agent reservations
•Car rental reservations
•Resort/hotel management
•Hotel receptionist
•Dive instructor
•Dive boat crew
•Helicopter flight assistant
•Sales & marketing

________________

Here in Copenhagen, it's been Jazz Festival 2010! I've jazzed around with my girlfriend and my cousin, aunt, uncle and Mutti (mom) to some pretty good New orleans style sound. With lots of people / tourists and sun, blue skies, it is such an optimal time to be home. I've got a couple of hectic work weeks ahead of me before Cisco closes it's financial year July 31, and I have some projects that have tight deadlines, but this weekend I am going to see some old friends (like from when we were 14-15 years old!!) A BBQ is planned and it should be a fantastic day.

Hunter has turned Vampire - sleeping most of the day and gaming at night with his buddies. I've given up trying to get him out of bed before 2pm. At 16 it's his life he is wasting and not mine. In a few weeks he is headed to Norfolk England for summercamp and at that point will be forced to partake in outdoor adventures.

Aric has been sick with a stomach flu so I feel for him - but will soon see him when we meet in Frankfurt, on our way to Mexico for some well deserved R&R.

There will be goodies coming your way....

When you get a message that says - "I will be sending a package home to dubai some day when I get to Sydney, in that package there will be goodies for everyone back home." - from your son's blog (while he is in Thailand), should you worry?

I just saw a documentary about two girls traveling in Lima, who got taken for cocaine smuggling, someone had put in their suitcase...hopefully it will be a benign package of goodies headed our way!

Aidan is enjoying himself as far as we can read. He has messed about with his flights a bit - seems he is getting tired of Thailand and resting, which is fine by me - get out there and make some money, son!! So I've been playing travel agent to get his reservations changed, ensuring he can get to Sydney sooner.

Not sure about his money situation....got a mail from him last week that read: "I think I've overspent on the credit card, can you please top it up, mom?" OK, so we have a little ways to go before he fully grasps how a credit card works. I told him, son - you charge, I get the bill, I pay the bill, I deduct from your savings. After which I thought - Aidan will only get the "I charge, mom pays" bit!

Meanwhile, our other son is fully enjoying Denmark - that's another case of "I spend, mom pays", but I must say, he is loyally going to the gym with me every day, so at least I know he gets some exercise other than "hard core gaming" with his buddy Jonathan.

In between work and travel, there have been good moments with friends and family. Spent the Sunday with my girlfriend Phine and her miracle baby Oscar (25+ years or so in waiting) and had my oldest girlfriend from when I was 3, and her family, over for dinner last night.

I also got the delightful chance to see Josefine, my Goddaughter and niece, in her riding lesson - she was very proud because she feels I'm her idol when it comes to riding! She's a natural as far as I'm concerned.

So it's not "all work and no play" here in Denmark.

Your bank may charge a small fee for this transaction!

Time to write a letter! Normally I have to be pushed quite far before that happens; but alas, it is time to seek the Gulf News and various other high flying individuals' support.
Aric and I have been happy customers of our US banks for 12-14 years and we have never in that time had any fraud or invalid charges on our ever so secure cards.

Since arriving in Dubai and opening an account with the "World's Local Bank" HSBC, we have had seven cases of fraud on our credit cards and we are now on card number five, as the bank immediately cancels the card in question and issues a new one. The amount of pin codes we have gone through exceed that of Godel's mathmatical incomleteness theorem!

Should a charge be in question in the US, the bank promptly issues a credit, investigates and if invalid posts the charge again or leaves as a credit - God Bless The US Banking System!
In Dubai, the charge stands, and stands, and stands - in this case apparently until some banking employee can process the documentation and investigate the case. Most of our seven fraudulent charges were reversed and credited within a month. Unfortunately three slipped through the cracks. Charges for AirArabia.com and RyanAir.com, totalling 5680 dirhams / $1200 approx.
We sent the dispute forms to our bank rep immediately,as usual, but after 6 months with no action or resolution, I got a little impatient.
We then had meetings and calls and emails between us for the next month. Our bank rep escalated it, as nobody is empowered to make any decision here in Dubai.

Six weeks ago we received a mail from HSBC dispute department:

Dear Mr Ault,

Card Number 5409 xxxx xxxx 8069
Dispute Amount AED 5649.72

Thank you for your recent enquiry pertaining to the above mentioned transaction.

Please note that we do not have any rights to recover your money from the merchant’s bank. As per the dispute resolution process, which is governed by the rules laid down by Visa/MasterCard International, the transaction is out of time frame to raise a dispute.

If you need further clarification on the above, please do not hesitate to revert on e-mail ID: hbmedisputes@hsbc.co.in.

Assuring you of our best services as a valued customer of the HSBC Group.

Sincerely,

HSBC Bank Middle East
Dispute Resolution Unit
__________________
So it seems that the time to resolve was over the deadline! What a fantastic way to settle customer issues. Just let time go by and eventually the rules will kick in automatically that time is expired.

Off to the bank again where this time, the conversation with our bank rep was a little louder!
He escalated again, this time to Fatma - a very incompetent local Emirati who works from 11am to 2pm, during which time she is on her mobile phone making appointments for manicures and facials and chats to other local Emirati women who sit in other jobs doing the same.
After two weeks of non-communication from her, we drove out to the branch in Jebel Ali, to see her. She calmly received us with one cool "hello Sir" (I'm persona non-grata in business dealings here in the Gulf - I may as well stay home as I don't count) - and then proceeded to take us to her manager: Mr. Ahmad Jaber, Acting Premier Center Manager (oohh a higher upper person).

Now of course Mr. Jabber-face had no prior knowledge about this case! He would indeed need a week to investigate - the previous 7 months were not enough I guess... And then he would ask a team memebr to reply back to us, because that way he would not be the bearer of news, nor would he have to accpet responsibility. This is a game of hot potato and how far can you pass it...

Aric told Jabber face that he expected full resolution immediately, including a full credit to our account. "Well, Mr. Aric this is not possible until we have investigated" - OK, but you can give me an update in two days on the progress, and that should come from you. "Well Mr Aric, I cannot promise that we will have an answer in a week, in fact it may be one and a half week". I had until now held my tongue albeit with great difficulty, as I really wanted to wipe off Jabber's smirk with my fist!

After a serious set of loud arguments, Jabber face copied all my documents - again - and said he would email us in two days with an update. Still smirking, I looked at him and said I had no faith in him - to which he smartly replied, "Sorry Madam but this is all I can do" - so I asked for his managers name and number. "He is busy" - OK but what is his name and contact details? "He cannot meet with customers" - GIVE ME HIS FRIGGIN NAME AND CONTACT NOW! (Less the "friggin" in the sentence). He wrote down the email address only. I told Jabber face I would write a letter to the Middle East Bank President about this, and he didn't seem to care. I then told him that he made us feel like poop under his shoe...as you can't swear I had to use baby language, it just doesn't have the same effect!! He still had this odd smirk, so we finally just left - better than being arrested for assault on a bank employee I guess.

Two weeks later and Aric is still following up with him on the progress, only to get an out-of-office reply, that he is on leave until August 1. Several mails to the elusive manager who doesn't meet with customers....no reply. I've sent off a long letter of complaint to the Gulf Newsaper since I have previously seen such issues highlighted and at minimum you can make the managers lose face in public - the worst thing they know in this culture. We will see where this takes us. My letter to the President of HSBC is pending, as I have to go to the gym!