Day 5 of The Three Weeks

Caroline was almost killed yesterday. Her husband was drunk when he rode the motorbike, and she was on the back of the bike. He crashed the bike into a truck, and she fell off hurting her hands as she landed on the road. She said it was a miracle she survived. Unfortunately her husband escaped unscathed, didn't fall off. OK it was only one of those scooter bikes nevertheless it could have been a lot more serious!! I told Caroline off for riding on the back while the driver was drunk!! I told her not to do it again!!! But in India they don't take drunk driving so seriously, there weren't even any coppers around. But I did have feelings that her life is in danger, and I am rarely wrong.

Today was my most serious incident yet..... I go for my walk, and I catch the train back to my starting point. I use a smart card to pay for my voyage, and when the funds on the card falls below a certain point, my credit card gets automatically charged a certain amount which tops up the card - well it has been doing that with not a problem whatsoever.... until TODAY!!!! After my 30kms walk I swiped the card on the machine only to be rudely informed that there was not enough value on it!!! Question was, WHY wasn't it topped up??? I used my cell phone to login to my account at the transport company, and indeed, for some reason the auto top-up through my perfectly VALID and SUFFICIENTLY FUNDED credit card had been suspended!!!! It's the card I use all the time, not a problem whatsoever! So I tried to re-instate the auto topup with my card, but it would not work!!!! It just refused to do so!!!!

OK in such cases I do bring a small amount of cash with me, so that in an event of a card failure, I can just purchase a manual ticket through the ticket machine. Alas!!! I didn't have enough cash on me!!! I had forgotten that they increased the price of the ticket this month, July being the start of the tax year in Australia, public transport fares always goes up in July. I was indeed a lousy 40c short!!!!

Well I could at least get a 1-zone ticket, that will get me part of the way back. So that is what I did, I purchased a 1-zone ticket. And if there are no ticket inspector on the train, I could get away with travelling all the way back. Most trains especially on weekends does not have ticket inspectors. But wouldn't you know it... Murphy's Law... or the curse of The Three Weeks!!!!.... this train DID have ticket inspectors!!! So I had to get off at the end of the 1-zone. This turned a potential 30kms walk back to about 20kms or so.... so I saved myself about 10kms.... better than nothing!!!!

And so I walked the 20kms back to my car, only that there was not enough charge on my phone to GPS track that return journey. So I walked a total of about 50kms today!!! Since I did basically two days worth of walking today, I am not going on any walks tomorrow!!!!

Question is..... WHY WHY WHY was my credit card suspended from the auto topup?? There is nothing wrong with my credit card, indeed I used it at the shops just yesterday, and there is much more than enough credit funds on the card to cover for the top-up!!!! This can only be attributed to the curse of "The Three Weeks". EVERY year without fail it happens, sometimes a catastrophic calamity that really hurts me such as my wife's diagnosis of the illness in 2011 which ultimately led to her death, otherwise a fairly major calamity that is more inconvenient - such as what happened today!!!!

So in spite of these calamities, the meeting with Karen tomorrow is still on.... She was talking about some radio show that she goes on during Saturday which is why we arranged to meet tomorrow on Sunday rather than Saturday. Not quite sure exactly about the radio show, I guess I find out tomorrow. So bar any more incidences nor Karen changing her mind, I be leaving around 10-10:30 am. I'm not going for any walk tomorrow morning as originally planned!! I did two day's walking today!!! So I just go fill the car up with petrol and make sure I have my other items together. I will be taking my star kin whale with me for her to meet, she won't think I am weird, we both think alike, we are star siblings!! She my star sister!! The latest on the weather, storms are expected overnight but the worse of it should be over by the morning, so just a bit of rain, and knowing Perth it won't be that much, and even less as I travel east inland to Northam.

Here's a train song in keeping with today's theme.... in those days there would have been no smart cards nor even computers!!!! All paid in cash in those days!!! hahaha!!!......