Unwanted neighbours..

So my friend Alex was so kind to come down and give me my camera last week. I am still trying to figure out how to use it properly but here is my first blog picture post using it:This is a hawk of some sorts that has decided to live under my eaves since last year after I installed a 2' florescent bulb to light up my parking area for better security at night after they stole my neighbours car. You can't see the light but its about 1' to the right. To install this light I had to carry a heavy wrought iron chair unto a ledge that is less than 2 feet wide to climb up and drill and install the fixture and I remember while I was up there looking at the top of that column noticing no signs of life.

The picture clearly(maybe not) shows droppings and urine(?) running down the walls. This indicates two things to me:

• The bird moved in after I installed the light
• The bird is a pest messing up my wall and needs to go

It would be cool if the bird ate the other pests around like the roaches, lizards, wasps or rats I see in the yard below, but I doubt it does this as I have seen no decline in the other pests. I have done my job on the other pests though, bug spray for them all. I see roaches fly in every now and then if I leave my windows open and the light on at night but I think my place is roach free for the most part as I tend to go for the broom and bug spray to kill them if they don't fly out instantly.

I don't really have a problem with lizards as they eat other bugs but the girls who visit me always seem to create a bit too much drama for me every time they see on here.. so they get the bug spray too. I always feel bad killing the lizards though, esp. the big ones like this one here. I snapped this picture last year April before I started the genocide. This one was a fat one, over 1" wide, and would croak so loudly that it would often wake me up at night. I sprayed him with bug spray and he jumped off, falling downstairs. I assumed the fall killed it but it came back two months later. We repeated and it hasn't showed up since, RIP lizzy.

blast from the past

I was cleaning out my old PC recently so I could sell it and I found a bunch of old(relatively) pictures on the hard drive, pictures I took when I used to live with my parents back in 2004. This first picture here is in my bedroom with my then girlfriend trying to hide from the camera. Can somebody explain to me the phenomena where people try to hide from the camera by hiding their face? The camera will still see the rest of them so the hiding face thing makes no sense, especially if your face is your best feature. Sorry if my room was messy, this is actually one of the better states one can find it in.

This next picture is of a stuffed animal a previous girl gave me on our 1 year anniversary. We like her, she holds the record of longest relationship in my books with a record breaking 1 year and 3 days together! I have gotten a bit of stuffed animals from girls but this is the only one I still keep around due to the strong sentimental value. Funny enough though girls who come around always run and pick up this bear and hug him and walk around with him until they ask and hear that it was from an x-girlfriend. One woman, 28, who I would assume is beyond such behaviours actually used to hit the bear every time she saw it to openly show me her hatred for it. Of course she was also one of them who ran and hugged it up as soon as she saw it too, go figure.

Life was simple back then, no bills to pay, my only responsibility was to get good grades at school and of course I went to school and wasted most of the time. Simple isn't always good though.. I had no money, mind you my parents had money but they ensured I didn't see a cent unless necessary. In fact I was looking at this month's pay slip and it covers completely all the money my parents gave me for the two years prior to me working, ie. 2002 to 2004. In fact this is exactly why I am tight with releasing funds, my pauper history doesn't allow it. They would give me money every 6 months and not a cent between. If I needed more money it was available through a loan and would be deducted out of the next payment. The budget was so tight that if I wanted to buy myself something such as a watch meant that I wouldn't be able to eat lunch cause the money couldn't do both... the bad ole' days

Birthday weekend, a new year.

Yesterday marked the first day of the year of the Boar and also my birthday. My parents took me out to lunch at the Terra Nova hotel for their famous (and now played) brunch. That place is so tired, they have the same items every Sunday and my family always insists on going there. Its sad I'd much rather have gone to dim sum at Dragon Court but not all of my family likes Chinese food.

Anyways my parents did surprise me this year with a gift, I wasn't expecting anything at all, they mentioned it as we sat down to eat that my gift was in their car and they would need to follow me back to my apartment to give it to me. ?! Of course I was confused and they explained it was about three feet wide and weighed about 80 pounds. I didn't give it much conscious thought after that but apparently my mind worked on it as I ate and the thought of a safe popped into my mind as I knocked down dessert.

Of course I was right as my parents are pretty predictable buying me gifts they think I need, I was just lucky this time that I also thought I needed a safe too, I love this gift. I have been contemplating buying one for a few months now to secure my documents and other things I wouldn't want to perish in fire.. sorry potential thieves I don't have anything of monetary value in my safe. I have even committed the long series of turns to get the combination lock open to memory already.

The birthday weekend was just like any other weekend for me but it brought misfortune to a few other people. On Saturday I was driving on some roads behind Eastwood park and noticed a large column of smoke some distance away. As I got closer I noticed a car in a big blaze also spreading fire to the building it was parked under. I also briefly saw a girl with the skin from the whole of her right arm seared off, exposing a white underneath with streams of red blood. I was about to drive off as my friend in the car asked me to stay longer as she recognized the girl with the burns from high school. I looked closer and I knew her too, it was one of my neighbours from my old apartment a girl I affectionately called Supple. I was stunned a bit when I realized it was her but she, amazingly, stopped and waved back at me as she was entering some guys van who offered to take her to the hospital. My take on the situation is that the car caught on fire and she tried to reach in to save her purse or something and BAM, no more skin on right arm. I tried calling her today but no answer, if my theory is right her phone would have burned in the car too, maybe I'll go look for her tomorrow.

On Sunday morning now at about 1am I heard tires screeching then a loud crash somewhere up the road, I was a bit busy to go investigate immediately but about 30 minutes later my friend insisted on looking so we jumped in my car and went for a short drive. I saw nothing but she claimed to see where the car knocked down a sign. That accident apparently was minor or I drove on the wrong road. Later on during the afternoon while accepting the birthday phone calls I heard another big accident down the road and I could tell this one was big(I counted hearing the car roll three times). I told my friend I had to jet and took a stroll down the road to see a burgundy lancer upside down on the sidewalk with the young female driver standing behind the car on her phone explaining to somebody the grave situation. She is a lucky girl, only walking away with a few scratches and bruises, the car looks like its heading to the scrap yard.

As long as all that bad luck stays away from me I am cool, this new year looks like its shaping up to be a good one for me. *keeping my fingers crossed that it stays good until my leave starts next week*

Valentine's Day.. the irony

Like everybody else (from what I've seen) in blogsphere I too refused to take part in any form of Valentine's Day traditions and live it like any other day. What I didn't calculate was for my friend to not be on the same page as me and she was in somewhat of a bad mood the whole time(disappointed I guess). So I ended up getting no naany when on any other day I would have gotten a healthy share of poontang pie.. plus seconds.

I also sent some v-day calls and sms messages to the usual suspects and funny enough two girls who know and hate each other, who also share the same name, wanted me to stop by after work. I like to call them Original and Barbeque, it makes discussing them with my friend more entertaining and easier as she always had problems telling them apart until I named them after different flavors of chicken at KFC.

I have always had a liking for Barbeque and I suspect the feelings were mutual. I like to admire from far though when the girl has a boyfriend and this one had a really old Chinese man for a boyfriend, something I will never understand. I lost most of the feeling I had for her though one day when she tried to fool around with me before the man came home and at that point in time I was thoroughly disgusted with cheating girls as I just resigned my position of boytoy under Original's administration. That story is a long one and I'm sure I'll write about it someday..

My first barbeque

A few weeks ago the wingman suggested we hold a barbecue to celebrate his return and somehow convinced me that it will be a joint party for my upcoming b-day. Ignore the fact that I hate birthdays and that he suggested a date a few weeks from my actual birthday and it would be perfect. I felt guilty for all the previous times I've flopped his flex so I agreed to go along with his plan this time(even though it was so obviously a ploy to acquire a partner to help fund the venture and seek one of my female friends).

He then instructed me to invite my friends and gave me a list of female friends who needs to be there. I'm not sure which world he lives in but he really couldn't expect me to invite all of my X's along with other girls I've fooled around with, so after filtering his list and going through my other friends in my phone I came up with a pool of 4 girls who I figured could get along. I have never been able to get the girls I know to get along without confrontation. The wars seem to start after one girl calls and another girl answers my phone or I maybe walking on the road with a friend and another girl sees her and the rude exchange of words/threats start. It doesn't matter if the girls are wifey, matey or just platonic friends they almost always hate each other and I can't do anything with them collectively.

Anyways I invited the 4 girls I deemed fit to be in close proximity to each other and was proud until Jason with his nuff self saw one of my friends encouraged her to come and pop my bubble of peace. I invited her before but she declined as she assumed my other friends would be there and has it in her mind that she will get beat up by them(I don't blame her as the messages passed to her was something along the lines of "tell her seh mi a go tump her inna her face"). I doubt any of the harsh words would have realized but luckily for me her enemy never showed up :D.

The food was OK, all of it seasoned and cooked by Jason in his front yard. After having my plate of food I invited some of my hungry belly male friends to come and play dominoes, they don't particularly care about the late notice at 10pm, all they needed to hear was free food, dominoes, girls and they are good to go. I knew I didn't really have to worry about inviting my friends as I am familiar with most of Jason's friends and he did invite a lot of people, in fact over 50 people squeezed themselves into his barbecue. I guess its because Jason can be very persuasive, he could probably convince Frosty the snowman to take his vacation in Jamaica.

He was so happy with the turnout of the barbecue he thinks this is something he wants to do every four months. The only draw back is getting the people to leave your place when you are done. Us domino people didn't leave until after 4am and by that time I saw Jason fast asleep on his front veranda. I met one of Jason's friends girlfriend who can play dominoes pretty good, I am intrigued. Oddly enough Jason said I should have made a move as she would probably cheat on her man(who was there) as it is known that he has cheated on her before and she probably wants revenge. That is too much mix up right there but if she lives in town she could be my friend ;) lets not throw away the benefits too.

Goodbye

My uncle Champy passed away last month two weeks before his 64th birthday. I have never met him before, in fact I first learnt of him when my mother told me her brother died, but I will miss him. Pretty much the only thing I know about my mother's side of the family is that they are Chinese and grew up in Trinidad.

I felt nothing when I heard the news as I didn't know the man but when I picked up my mother at the airport last week Monday after she came back from the funeral she started to tell me about him. I saw her again today and she continued where she left off, she also gave me some of his stuff she brought back.. lots and lots of gum and a box of chocolate, I now have gum to chew every day for the next couple of months.

Apparently Champy liked to shop and buy stuff in bulk, hence the lots of gum. She said she found lots of clothes brand new still in the packaging too amongst many other things in his collections. While the family went through his documents they also found out he donated quite a bit to charity even though he worked a minimum wage job carrying laundry in a hotel in Toronto. She also mentioned that a bus load of his coworkers from the hotel also came to the funeral.

I have always wondered who would come to my funeral when I die? and what would people say/think of me after I'm gone. I never did like the answers I came up with, maybe I should work on changing that.

R.I.P. Champy

T.G.I.F. - Thank God it's February

I'm not sure if I could take another day of January but I can relax now as it is February. I worked feverishly hard to close off all the bad things that is January. A short list should summarize my current standings.

• I got back my car and the new rims look better than ever, it was ready from before but I asked my mechanic to keep it for a bit to service the CVT transmission as it had an issue. I took back the car with the issue resolved for now but he advises me it still needs work, more ~ $25,000+ I'll just ignore it for now as I've been doing over the years until the day I have massive transmission failure. Then its time to get a new car :-D
• I bought a new fridge from Pricesmart and its wayyy cooler than the old one[pun intended]. I was aiming for a stainless steel model but I could only find them in 18+cu feet sizes which were too big for my needs. Unfortunately(of course) enough for me, my truck guy told me he sells 15cu foot stainless steel Frigidaire fridges while I was chatting with him and waiting for the merchandiser from Pricesmart to take the fridge I just bought out of storage.
  
• I now have my 10 year US visa, even though its too late and I should be in Nashua now I don't mind, I'll leave my boss to brave that cold weather. Once I was inside the embassy it wasn't that bad, I gave them my application, they asked me 3 questions and then sent me on my way. They didn't ask me for a job/asset letter or anything, it's a good thing I didn't waste my money paying NCB for a letter of assets.
• I think I am slowly winning over apple. She now insists on having lunch with me anytime I am available and at her office. I was idling with her for a minute outside in the parking lot today and she tried to sneak in a cuddle, I had to use all my might to keep my hands from molesting her.
• I got the raise, the money was put to good use. This is the first pay stub I've seen where the tax deductions reach six figures, lets hope Omar Davies puts it to good use(not likely)
• I tracked down my missing USPS parcel and got it delivered, thanks Joy. I called the Boca Raton post office and found Joy, I described the package to her and she instantly knew what I was talking about. She is responsible for routing the packages and was the one who initially bounced back my parcel to Washington. After a quick chat with her she understood how to deliver my parcel and it was on its way the next business day. I am slowly getting the hang of various couriers and postal services after having several parcels from Hong Kong post stuck in Jamaica's gummed up postal service. At least its not as bad as work, I was supposed to receive a crate with a very expensive server and I am now finding out that it was shipped to Barbados in error and has been there for the past two months.. wtf. I would be so pissed if it was my money who actually payed for it.

I am going to keep things simple for February. This year the Chinese new year falls on the same day as my birthday! I try to keep up with my asian traditions as I am 1/2 Chinese but things tend to fall on the wayside. Maybe I will have luck on my side for this month.

The wingman is back

I was minding my own business at last night when my phone started to ring, I wasn't planning on answering it but I noticed somebody just drove up outside. It was Jason, he wasn't supposed to be here as he has been out sailing the seas of the far east for the past few months and was supposed to be sailing his way down to Brazil from Canada now.

He ended his contract early and is now back in Jamaica, he normally misses Jamaica quite a bit when he is out at sea for many months in a ship full of men. He gets to travel extensively though and gets paid well for it so I'm not sure why he is complaining, if I.T. wasn't working out for me this line of work would be for me right after investment finance.

I'm not sure why we got along so well at UWI because we are on the opposite spectrum on many things, we even went to rival high schools STGC and KC. One thing was certain though, we had a common interest and shared the same taste in UWI girls. Wherever I would fall short with one he could always come and pick up her interest and girls who didn't fancy him much seemed to fancy me.

Jason often tries to get me to follow him when he parties in a sad attempt to get one of my friends. I introduced him to her at UWI many years ago and ever since he saw me with her at a party one night not long after he has been head over heals for her. He seems to assume that any party, club, gathering, thing he invites me to I would get her to tag along. I don't think I have ever gone along with his plans as she doesn't like him like that, I'm sure she has told him this but he chooses to ignore it.

I think for this year I will follow him out more, its been a while. Oddly enough he knows a strip club owner and I know different strip club owner so if our plans fail we can always go have backup options as we can get into these clubs for free. I must say Jason at the strip club is hilarious, he always tries to pick up girls(who I assume, a good assumption, are lesbians) and fail. I leave those girls alone and gave the last one that tried to dance with me some very dirty looks. Fun future ahead.

Is it wrong to be single?

The last time I had an official girl friend was October 2004, due to the fact that I am rather picky of who can actually call herself Miss Adrian. Not too long ago I walked pass some ladies in my office talking and heard one say "Ask Adrian he can buy one" Clearly this was a ploy to get me to ask what so I indulged them. One of them was apparently selling basket orders for Valentine's day. I eloquently responded "buy basket fi who".

At this point in time they were quite shocked, one asked if I was single, another asked if I was gay. They then proceeded to talk about me refusing to believe I was single so I injected that I was indeed just single and not gay... only to hear one of them mutter "yeah him don't look gay" WTF!&#!. They then proceeded to question me as to why I was single and I explained that I didn't like the quality of women I am seeing these days then exited that conversation. I guess its safe to assume that everybody else in my office has a significant other based off of their reactions.

Maybe one of them will hook me up even though I doubt I would like their friends. Fast forwarding a few hours earlier I was walking back from the bathroom and I came across the office apple of my eye. I had long given up on her as she confirmed a few weeks back that she was indeed 30+ and I was convinced I was too young for her but she surprised me today by asking me if I was up for lunch today. Her saying "call me when you are ready and I'll drop what I'm doing" and "Its a date" got that ball rolling again in my head. I was all smiles after that as I rushed off to a meeting I was late for.

The meeting was long and boring as usual but the food was good. So good that I had about four sandwiches, three banana nut muffins and a couple glasses of juice. Needless to say I was full at the end of the meeting but it was now after 12 and time for my lunch date. I went to her and explained the situation but still offered to accompany her and we had a good time together. I am torn as to whether or not I should pursue this not so young lady.

I have told my friend about apple and she doesn't seem to like her. This friend uses me as a booty call ever so often has expressed nanny will lock off if apple comes into the picture. I suspect this breaks some booty call rules but its understandable, so I imagine the question becomes: Do I want to throw away the young, hot, fun piece of ass for an old girl and a steady relationship? I am leaning towards yes but this whole office affair just raises red flags all over my head which can't be ignored. Drama is one thing I have made ever effort to avoid but this is hard.

it

A few weeks back I was up late one night using my computer and I had a little 2.5" portable TV on my desk playing in the background. I was vaguely paying attention to it but was hearing some of the words: "If you have it, you don't need it. If you need it, you don't have it. If you have it, you need more of it."...

After a while I started to wonder what the 'it' really was only to hear him end with: "if you've never had any of it, ever, people just seem to know"

I looked it up online that night, nada, apparently it was a brand new commercial and there wasn't much buzz about it yet. I remembered this morning and decided to look it up again and it was all over the place :) My question is what is your initial interpretation of this 'it' he speaks of? I know I was completely off.

I want a bike, ride and die

The Yamaha R6 has my name all over it, its affordable, at 600cc its not too fast and it would be a good addition to my weekend/late night gallivanting. I am very tempted to get one.. my only issue is that bike owners don't seem to live as long as non bike owners.. I am also sure that my parents wouldn't accept that idea too well too. I guess I'll see what my sister have to say on this topic, she seems to be an unbiased voice and can give me this from a medical perspective.

My desire for go-fast machines also extend to WRXs and Evolutions. The problem with these cars is that they are so expensive to maintain. My friend bought his evo in 2005 and I am amazed at how much money he poors into it, its a good thing he makes a lot of paper. His explanation was that you are only young once and it didn't make sense for him to wait till his 30s before buying such toys. Driving on 15psi boost in an aluminium body car always makes me imagine the news reports as they cover the scene of the accident with our bodies in the crumpled vehicle. Yet still I jump in his car whenever we are going somewhere like a little Charlene. My assumption is riding a bike would be that (thrill/fear x15) - 80% cost.

ps. That isn't really me riding the bike without a helmet in the above pic, don't worry :-p

When it rains, it pours..

Where to begin? This has been one of the worst weeks I've had in a while. Lets start the list of things that went wrong in chronological order.

1. I realized I lost my membership card to pricesmart then inadvertently voided my visa card.
2. My mechanic calls me and tells me he has given up hope in finding replacement rims for my two damaged rims for my car. This has been the only thing that has been keeping my car from me these many weeks. So I went and picked out a set of new rims $$$ which the insurance company will only partially subsidize.(They are only paying for like 1 rim)
3. I realize my freezer is only partially working, the front 3/4 is at 0C and the back quarter at -20C while the compressor is at 80C and been running non-stop** all week, running up my electricity bill, whilst the meat in my freezer still thaws out. I figure that the sands of time has run out on that fridge and its time to buy a new one.
4. My boss casually* tells me that I need to be on a plane to the northern state of New Hampshire before the end of the month to perform an evaluation of a new system being offered by one of our vendors... My us visa is expired.
5. I rushed to get the visa application forms filled out, ask my friend where is a paymaster and she sends me to Superplus Liguanea. There is no paymaster there so I ask the staff where is the nearest paymaster they point me to hi-lo Liguanea.
6. While walking over to hi-lo I noticed that the sole of my boots has started to tear off.
7. At hi-lo there is no paymaster either I asked the staff at hi-lo and they point me to Sovereign Center, I proceed to walk there in my 1/2 dead boots only to find they don't take credit card nor debit card for US visa applications. I asked them to point me to the nearest ABM which wasn't far then came back, paid and had to walk all the way back to my car which was parked at superplus.
8. I came home to enter the paymaster the receipt into the embassy's site and make my appointment, the only to find the the only date available to me is 1 day after I am supposed to leave. I accept it and send an email to the embassy requesting an emergency appointment they email me back the next day stating they don't give out emergency interviews so early and I should continuously check the website for earlier dates... wtf I check the site and find the next available date is now 2 weeks after my departure date.
9. One of my friends told me she was pregnant, I ignored that statement and she said nothing more on the matter. She called me again today(a few days later) and she said it was just a joke. Ladies, this is not a joke to any man who isn't actively trying to get you pregnant.
   
10. I received a fax from my union earlier this week stating that I was getting a 35% raise on my basic pay backdated to April of last year. Later I checked my HR records online and realized after crunching the numbers that the raise is only 12% and also conflicts with another raise I got back in April.. with my luck my pay stub will not reflect the new raise in pay due to this conflict.
11. I had a meeting with my boss reviewing my performance over the past 6 months and I lost a bit of points due to things beyond my control. His explanation was that one person in the dept. can't get a high score and everybody else scores low. That is understandable but this lower score hurts my yearly bonus.
    
12. I found out that the camera I ordered online earlier in the week is now almost hopelessly lost in shipment via USPS at some post office in Florida... I called their main IVR and it says it has no records of that tracking number and after arguing the IVR for over 20minutes I got to speak to a real person!! who said that the package was at a local post office in Florida and gave me a number to call them directly. Of course they had no clue about the package.
13. A girl stalker just called me on my house phone as I was typing this post and said she has been trying to reach me all holidays.. its a good thing I don't answer my phone much. This girl has had a crush on me since the first year of UWI and always tries to talk to me whenever she builds up the courage. She somehow managed to squeeze my number out of me before I left UWI. She also somehow managed to squeeze my new number out of my parents after I moved out of their house too and left them strict instructions not to give out my home phone number.. She just now seems to be making renewed effort into starting something with me.. what am I to do? I've already told her a few years back its not going to work and I don't want to be mean to anybody.
    

So as not to dwell on the bad I shall also list a few of the positive things for this week in no particular order.

1. There is a chance the raise goes through properly and I get almost a year of retroactive pay+benefits.. if not I have to sort it out with HR and wait till next month.
2. I notice my boss and his boss goes on all the business trips but this time my skills have been noticed and I've been selected to go even though the US embassy may throw a wrench in this project. Hey, its the thought that counts.. unless they put it as one of my objectives then I am screwed.
3. I spoke to someone at my company who made a few calls and gave me a one last chance procedure to get an immediate interview at the US embassy. I am still doubtful of this as what I have been told directly clashes with the consulate's instructions which they have bolded on their site. Failing this I will be stuck in Jamaica for this trip. I still have faith as they came from somebody with clout.
4. I had quite a bit of apple martinis tonight while typing this as my fridge is on the fray and some of the ingredients are perishable. So as to not be wasteful I will be using up as much as possible without killing myself. On the flip side I've had quite a bit of meat(my breakfast this morning was all meat) as I had a freezer full of meat that I also don't want to spoil.
5. While searching for my lost USPS parcel online tonight I found a way to make free calls to select business' in the states. I also suspect I've located the post office the parcel is at currently. I just have to wait till Monday before I give them a call to see if I can get it re-dispatched.
   

Only 5 good things to list? meh

* my boss always throw things like this on me.. he has called me at 11:30pm to ask me a question only for me to go in the next day to see an email from him stating he is now in another country??! The other guy and myself normally have a good laugh when we find out these important details by accident or many days later as we are always left in the dark.

**Coincidentally JPS bill just arrived via email 39minutes ago and it has an actual reading up to yesterday. As suspected the consumption for this period is significantly higher due to the fridge. At least its not as bad as the 2005 Decembers bill where they doubled my bill for no good reason. That month stuck out like a porn star in a convent, I was hardly at home then and didn't have any Christmas decorations up.

Ebay... It has been so long

One can't really be a geek without a geeky camera.. so since its a new year its time for a new camera, well new was the plan but I settled on almost new. Last year I had a small 5MP sony camera which everybody loved before it got stolen from my apartment only 3 months after I bought it. The camera took ok pictures but wasn't so hot in the night when I went out and tried to take pictures, after doing some research I realized it was a common issue amoung compact digital cameras so those are out of the question for this years exercise. After doing some research on ultra zooms this is what I came up with, the SP-510UZ:

I decided to pick it up off ebay and have it shipped to my friend, Alex, in the states who should be coming down sometime in the first quarter.. (hopefully soon) as I refuse to pay taxes duty/gct on this. I am sure over the past year or so I have paid over $100,000 in customs fees just to get my junk into this backward island. I used to shop on ebay quite often last year but that died out after I had a disagreement with a guy on it. It has been so long that much to my surprise after I made payment for the camera I saw the following on the reciept

Congratulations! You have just made your first payment using PayPal.

Thank you for choosing PayPal, the fast, easy and safe way to pay for items on eBay.

I must say to all the critics of ebay/paypal out there that it is pretty safe if you do your due dilligence. I did pay a bit extra for this used camera than if I had bought it new but the ebayer bundled extra things in there such as a 2GB memory card among other things that just sweetened the deal. Another thing that sweetened the deal is that if I buy from an individual on ebay often they will send the item to any location I desire such as my friend. Online stores tend to frown upon such practices and require the shipping address be attached to my credit card and is often a big hassle. This is a bit concerning though as this seems like a wide open door for CC fraud to take place, but i'm not complaining though as it works to my advantage for now via ebay.

On that note of CCs and plastic, over the weekend I went to pricesmart to pick up an item and realized that I've lost my membership card. I think I noticed it was missing from my wallet before as the last time I went there was 3 weeks before but didn't pay it much mind. They issued me with a temporary card good for single use and said I can get two more before I have to buy a replacement card, its cheap though. Upon reaching home I decided to search for it to see if I just left it in a pile of some papers somewhere but only found my health scheme card(I didn't even realize this card was lost).

After some time searching with no success I looked in my wallet again and noticed my visa card was dirty, tried to clean it and unwittingly voided the card after I noticed the signature strip at the back was mostly wiped clean and now the words "void void void" were in place of where my signature used to be. The reason I decided to clean the card was due to the fact that when I recieved it it was stuck to the letter with regular cellophane tape that left a bit of sticky stuff at the back. After I tried to sign the back it didn't come out too right and as a result some merchants ask me for an ID when I try to use it. I am always offended as I remember the days of my other credit card which absolutely nobody asked for verification, I would just pick it up and go and ever since this new visa card I make sure and walk around with an ID.

I called my bank and surprisingly enough they said they would replace it free of charge, so now I am walking around with my old CC and this voided visa as well with plans to go in one day and request a new one. If they could find some way so that I don't have to go to the bank I would be a happy camper. Last year I remember requesting another set of cheque leaves from them and within 2 days a courier called me and dropped it off at my office. I checked my statements the following months and saw no charges for the cheques nor the service, I guess they are doing something right as I am a happy customer with over 5 accounts with them.