Harassed Mom

Dear FNB – Is it something I did?

When we started the shop we opened up a business cheque account and decided to do it all with FNB because David does all his banking with them and they did seem to offer the best deal around for businesses.

We overlooked the fact that when we wanted our bond and we enquired with them they took about a month to get back to us – Nedbank had already given us approval by then. (This was with FNB’s twitter man RB Jacobs trying to help)

The opening of the cheque account was not without hassle – I had to make many follow up visits and phone calls to get everything confirmed but eventually it was done. One of our cards was printed incorrectly so we had to have it re-ordered but whatever – it happens.

Fast forward and while the service I have received has never been “WOW” it has been tolerable. There is always a 25-45 min wait in any branch I have been to but coming from a bank I know this is almost expected. So I let it go.

Then David’s cards got stolen in December a few days before we had to leave for Cape Town. The call centre agent refused to assist us in trying to get the cards before we left for CT (again RB Jacobs tried to help but couldn’t). Now I used to work in a department that made cards – I know that they can be made and delivered in 24hrs. We needed the credit card to be able to get our hire car – I dont have a credit card and we were basically using all Davids accounts – so for over a week we had no access to any money! It was a great start to our holiday.

Just before we left on holiday I applied for a Credit Card – one of the Steve adverts mentions something about 3 days to get a credit card – so realistically I was working on a week. Well after sitting in a branch for 42 minutes I was told that I needed to speak to my business banker. Great I thought – personalised service. This was around the 6/7 December. I sent through all the forms to my banker – who sent them back saying that the card division wanted the DATE on the form!!!! Ok fine. While in Cape Town on  I followed up because I had heard nothing and it was no 10 days later. What do I get? An out of office from my banker. So I once again call in RB Jacobs – I then get a nice letter of apology and a phone call from someone saying they were working on it. I collected my card on the 6 January – so if you are applying for a credit card with FNB – there SLA is a month!

This brings me to my current issue – I need the credit card linked to my internet banking. I am a user on Davids profile and have access to all our business accounts. It works well. So I asked my banker, she refers me to their card division. Their card division links me to a business profile (??) I have no access to a business profile? So I escalate to Mr Jacobs – another letter from the FNB CEO promising resolution.

It is now the 28 January – I first made the query on the 9/10 January – and I am sitting looking at a form I was sent by my banker that asks me to assign nominees to my accounts etc etc – it is 8 pages of documents that appear to have no relevance to what I want done.

I am now fucking gatvol! ALL I WANT IS TO BE ABLE TO ACCESS THE DAM CREDIT CARD ON MY INTERNET PROFILE. HOW HARD CAN THAT BE???????? The cheque account was done quickly with no forms needing to be completed.

Seriously FNB – is it because I used to work for a rival bank that you feel it neccessary to treat me like crap? Or is it because in R value I am not worth the effort?

Despite your crap service I STILL recommended you to a friend because your product is good. Your technical people have an understanding of what people what but your service people SUCK. You will only get by on the product for so long. Because I am one more email saying “phone this person” away from moving my business accounts somewhere else.

Things I know about life

Shae isn’t doing Things I know any more but I am going to keep doing it anyway :-p

So things I know about life

• Parenting is hard.
• Even if you have a meal plan the brinjal your whole meal went around will be off despite you having checked it.
• You will stand in dog pee/poop as you are running out the door.
• Woolworths will always have corn cakes until the day you need to buy.
• A puppy will arrive on your doorstep at the exact moment you thought your plate was about to break from the weight of stuff on it.
• Children do not listen. Accept it and work around it.
• Mothers are the only people who know where things are.
• Ants (in Pretoria) are mutant animals. Nothing will kill them.
• No matter how clean you are you will still find maggots in your rubbish bin.
• You can grow sweet potato plants from sweet potatoes. (Does that even make sense?)
• Banks suck. All of them – without exception.
• The only way to knock a nail into the wall is with a hilti. ACCEPT IT!
• A good teacher is invaluable – do whatever you can to ensure you child (the one that battles) gets a good one.
• Sometimes you just have to have a little faith!

What do you know about life???

That is all!

Updates updates updates

I haven’t blogged about poor Jack in months so today I thought I would do a quick Jack update and then a small wedding one

Jack is nearly 8 months (can you handle that) and started crawling over a month ago and is now into everything! He motors around the house like a little energiser bunny – it really is to freaking cute.

He is also cruising now and this morning cruised the entire length of the kitchen.

He is not Lucy’s biggest fan right now because she bites him :-/ We are working on it but it is hard to keep either one of them contained and I want them to get used to each other so don’t want to leave Lucy outside while we are there.

He eats anything. He has no teeth but those gums can demolish wors, pizza, green pepper, cold meat, fish fingers – whatever and he demands it. If we are eating and he is sitting with us and I have fed him he shouts for something from our plates.

Sleep is still a small issue but it is a lot better than it was thankfully.

He threw a small tantrum over the weekend when I refused to let him destroy my bedside lamp. He was mad mad mad!

I have signed him up for Virgin Actives Club V – he went today and had a ball.

We are still doing Moms and Babes and even though he is the youngest he is pretty much keeping up with babies 2-4 months older than him.

He also received an invite to a birthday party which I thought was uber cool!!!

On the wedding side – we have found a venue. It is called Imperfect Perfection and is honestly one of Pretorias best kept secrets. I showed David yesterday and there was no one thing he could find fault with – I am emotion and he is logic

I also have a cake lady who is able to make me a gluten free wedding cake in the most amazing flavour AND is possibly going to do the favours.

My photographer is sorted.

So the big things have pretty much been done. Dress shopping is happening the end of March and is the part that freaks me out the most – I LOATHE trying clothes on – nothing ever looks like I want it to :-/ But I am taking my 3 bridesmaids with for moral support!!

What updates do you have for me????

Let it go

I am tense at the moment – very tense! It has to do with the end of the month approaching as well as the adjustment to working full time again.

I hate my house being disorganised and yesterday when I discovered our bin full of maggots I had a small internal melt down which bubbled over and resulted in me being overly tense all day.

I am not getting to everything. I need our blue kids table for the shop but I can’t take it because it is keeping Lucy contained at the back until I can get the stuff David needs to be able to cover the back door so she can’t get out. But I can’t find time in the day to get to Builders Warehouse to get the stuff. Kiara needs a new costume but again I just can’t get to the shops to get it. We have no food in the house – not for lack of money but because I need time to get to Pick n Pay. And so it all goes on blah blah.

I also am having a small moment about the fact that I may be pregnant. The patch just wasn’t working so I stopped in December and haven’t got around to chatting to my gynae about an alternative (see above).

So everything is irritating me more than it does normally and I was actually going to launch into a rant about how MTN suspended my service earlier today or how it has taken FNB over 2 weeks to link my business credit card to my internet banking but then I went to Moms and Babes.

Our teacher made a comment about how most of the women in her classes don’t actually want to spend 3 hours alone with their husband on Valentines Day. Isn’t that sad? I know David and I are still in the “early” days of our relationship but we love spending time alone with each other. We crave it. The more tense we get the more we need to prioritise it. Even a quick lunch together helps us to recharge as a couple and makes things easier.

It saddens me that people forget why they fell in love or forget to appreciate their partner. Having kids is not easy and trying to fit it all in to a day is freaking hard sometimes but I honestly hope that I never ever feel that I don’t want to spend time with David.

So instead of moaning – I am letting it go and appreciating the amazing man I have in my life. Tomorrow I can worry about the costume and the little Houdini dog we have.

Bit of a restaurant fail!

We attended a birthday lunch on Saturday at La Pentola in Riviera (Pretoria). I am always excited to try out new restaurants especially ones in our area.

La Pentola comes with a rather good reputation and a whole lot of years experience so I was really keen to experience it.

Well to say I was disappointed would be an understatement. The booking was for 12h30 and David and I arrived a little late as I had to work, then we had to drop the kids off but we weren’t the only ones – another couple arrived with us. Everyone had just ordered starters so we quickly chose what we wanted and waited for a waitress – when she eventually arrived she said she had to check with the kitchen if we COULD order starters still? HUH?? Turns out we couldn’t – it was too late – the kitchen closes at 15h00 so we were too late for starters. REALLY?? So I was a little annoyed but we hardly ever order a starter so I let it go. Starters arrived (in dribs and drabs) and we shared with one of Davids friends and it was ok.

We all then ordered the main meal and then waited over an hour it. It arrived ONE MEAL AT A TIME. The steaks were flamed so the veggies were separate and one guy couldn’t waits so ate his steak, waited a bit and then got his veggies. David sent his back because it was cold. Everyone received their meals (eventually) except for 2 guys who received their meals once we were all done. The food was ok – very rich as every meal contains cream and/or butter. I had calamari and the lemon butter was so lemony that I had to separate the calamari from the sauce.

When we enquired about chips we were told “No it is fine dining we don’t do chips”. Fair comment except that when they were clearing up the same waitress tapped me (rather hard) on the shoulder and asked me to please pass her David’s plate. I am sure that wasn’t in the fine dining manual.

We were the only table in the restaurant apart from another one of 2 ladies. So there were a total of 28 people in the restaurant and they couldn’t cope. We waited for drinks, for our food and then got attitude and a ‘Ja things are deurmekaar in the kitchen’ – No? REALLY?

The menu does say you can expect to wait 25-30 minutes for a starter (what salad takes 30 min to make?) and an hour for the main meal. So they cover themselves by warning you which is clever on their part but rather pretentious if you ask me.

I studied Hotel Management and have worked in a fair share of restaurants to know what fine dining is (and what it isn’t). I honestly am not sure how this restaurant can get classed as Fine Dining. I also know that it is not that hard to get a large table right especially if they have booked in advance so you can prepare for them.

We were also confused as to the style of décor? It was sort of shebeen meets 1970 meets Little Italy. What was clear was that this restaurant is a mini shrine to Shane Sauvages ego. The bathroom doors have articles he has featured in blown up on the doors and walls of the cubicles. There is mention of the books he wrote everywhere. There are framed newspaper articles on every piece of wall that isn’t covered with corrugated iron or prints from 1972.

What upsets me the most is that people assume they can get away with a lack of service because they are famous or have some sort of reputation in the industry. It was a Saturday afternoon and they had no other patrons – so can they really risk to annoy a table of 26?

Despite that it is always fun getting together with David’s friends (who actually by now are my friend too) and was nice to see Kylie one last time before her baba arrives.

Thankful Thursdays

Thankful Thursdays

I am battling to think of things to write about at the moment. Someone on twitter this morning mentioned Thankful Thursdays so I am going to do that today.

Today I am thankful

• That my kids go to the school they do and receive the quality of education that they do.
• For my 3 kickass bridesmaids.
• For Jack’s nanny.
• That I can work 5 minutes from home.
• That I have Madri helping in the shop now – it means I can be here but also have the flexibility to be there for the kids when they need it.
• For my most awesome man.
• For the water shop next door to our shop who sells us water for R1 a liter.
• For the puppy – to see Kiara respond and interact with her makes the picking up of poop worthwhile.
• For my 3 little people. No two days are every the same with them.
• That I can study again this semester.
• Teacher Kim who runs aftercare.
• My “school mom” friends who are always willing to help where they can.

What are you thankful for today?

Bullet Points

My goal this year is to make enough money to employ a PA! No REALLY!!

This week I feel like a hamster stuck on a wheel going round and round and round. I feel rather frazzled. So the update today is short and sweet :-p

• Lucy (the puppy) appears to be a champion climber. We block her into the laundry at night and every morning she greets us in the lounge – this morning she was found ON THE COUCH!!!!
• Jack fell off the bed last night and is now sporting a graze on his nose.
• I am happy with the teachers the kids got this year – especially Kiaras.
• We are back at OT with a bang this week and from next week the appointments will be at 17h00 on a Monday – so excited about that!
• We ran a deal on Groupon for the beauty salon and I have answered more calls than a call centre this week
• I have found a wedding venue – it is beautiful. We just need to work it all out but I may sell a child(or a pet) to be able to get married there.
• I am meeting so many interesting people who pop into the shop – its much fun.
• Turns out my therapist, Madri, knows my brother AND my mother. How small is the world?!
• I really am not coping with this heat AT ALL! Like AT ALL!!!!!!!!!
• I chuckle when I think of the word for this month – peace – there has been little peace in my life this month. It’s been go go go go.
• I have registered with UNISA for 2 subjects.

And that’s it.

What’s up in your world?

A little bit of motivation

I received this poem today in one of my daily motivational emails and I thought it was rather inspirational.

Identity

To please the senses requires impulse.
In turn the deliverance is grief.
I must look past the pleasures and look at what brings happiness.

To please the soul requires fortitude.
In turn the deliverance is happiness.
Happiness is not earned easily; rather, it is earned through suffering.

I have waged an internal battle
To differentiate between pleasure and happiness.
Through my success I have achieved greatness.
Through my failures I have learned success.

I’ve learned to let the shackles of others expectations cripple me.
I’ve learned to be the victim of circumstances.
Thus, I’ve learned impulse.

I’ve learned to create discipline.
I’ve learned to create worth.
Thus, I’ve learned to create happiness.

Never will I take for granted my impulses and my failures.
For, it is the root of my success.
If demons of uncertainty and fear appear, I will turn away.
If I let them overcome me, I will persevere over them.

Happiness is learned. It is not given.
Though my learning is not complete, nor will it ever be.
I am not perfect. I am not infallible.
I am not flawless. I am only because I choose.

— Copyright © 2000 Paul M. David

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. – Mahatma Gandhi

Yesterday we had a few people over for David’s birthday.

David and Guy each made a potjie and we just spent the day chilling.

Halfway through when my little house was full of people in and out, laughing, eating, drinking and being merry I was overwhelmed with happiness. Sounds cheesy I know but it was one of those moments where you stop, look around and realise how truly blessed you really are.

Last year was a hard year with a kaleidoscope of emotions and dramas but this year has started off so well. We have so much to be grateful for and I am exactly where I want to be.

Today life is good. Today I am happy. Today my little family of 5 plus 1 dog, 1 hamster, 1 fish and a bird are happy.

Happiness is our little house.

Oh and in case you missed it we now own a puppy A little staffie named Lucy who really is too cute.

How has your week started?