It Never Rains but it Pours

It never rains but it pours.  An old saying and a true one.  It was the title of the last email I received from daughter 3 presently in Zambia. For me it transports my mind in several areas at once.  Firstly that original meaning of "When troubles come they come together" and secondly back to my childhood and one of the few things that I can still recite from my Primary School days the poem My Country by Dorothea Mackellar.

The second verse in particular which transports us from the staid first verse referring to England to the second verse which bursts forth with the vast contrasts of my country. 

I love a sunburnt country,

A land of sweeping plains,

Of ragged mountain ranges,

Of droughts and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons,

I love her jewel-sea,

Her beauty and her terror—

The wide brown land for me. 

It has always puzzled me as to why in our country when people suffer through years of drought it is generally broken by the heartbreak of floods that follow the rains that break the drought.  It is a land of excess and I guess our lives are ones of excesses.

IW is halfway through the radiotherapy and going OK.  The major obstacles being the constant nausea and general tiredness.  Sleep is patchy but all in all we say to each other "Half way now - in a week we will be in a better place".

Back to the "It never rains but it pours" email.  It really started with my mobile phone signalling a message Thursday morning at about 5:45 am just as I arrived home from my daily gym session.

The message read:

 "Hi.  Sorry if this wakes you. I've sent you an email, can you read it asap.  I need my credit card cancelled'  Leaving my phone on.  You can call anytime."

It was from Kato.  Didn't bother to read the email but phoned straight away to find that the details of both her credit card and the card of one of her travelling companions had been skimmed while using an ATM in Livingstone.  She has had several thousand dollars of transactions run up on the card and could not get through to the bank on her phone from Zambia - could I do something?

I felt comfortable with the situation - I had seen the ad for the ANZ Falcon and knew everything would be OK.

Found the number, rang, waited for the helpful Falcon to swoop to my assistance.  Initially there was some success.  I managed to get the card cancelled despite giving the wrong birthday for Kato when quizzed by the Falcon's assistant.  It still amazes me how easy it was to get a card for a female cancelled when obviously I was a male providing a wrong birthdate.  Maybe it was the genuine desperation in my voice.

The Falcon's assistant then switched on super-helpful mode.  There was no more I could do, Kato would have to ring them but they have a wonderful toll-free number so she can ring for no cost and get everything sorted out.  I jump on the phone and tell her the good news.

1. 
   
   The card is cancelled
2. 
   
   She is slightly younger that she thinks she is.

 Gee the Falcon is pretty good.  Last night I received the following text message:

"This is a nightmare!  Just spent $30 talking to the most useless person on the face of the planet. Will send you an email tonight."

I guess the Falcon has crashed and burned.

To be continued ....