29 – 30 September
Well, it certainly rained all night!. Thankfully we were in the motel, so our
camping stuff did not get wet. Kylie was
pretty bored. She went and put up the
“Do Not Disturb” sign, which then removed!
She read a book in bed, watched the TV and eventually had a glass of wine in the evening and caught up
on the blog.
This rain seems to have brought with it a series of bad
luck. It started in the morning, just
after 10am, checkout time at the motel.
The reception called and icily asked when we would be checking out. Upon arrival the previous night I had asked
for two nights and thought that I had paid for it. I went to the reception and the receptionist
from the previous evening apologized for missing out the second night, so we
sorted that out.
Later in the morning, we decided get some breakfast. We walked from the Motel to the Yeperenye
Shopping Centre. In there we found a
Café and had our brunch. We then
realized that we were low on cash, so we found a Westpac ATM in the shopping
centre. Sibba went first to get some
money out. After putting in her card,
pin and entering the amount, the ATM began its processing!. Then nothing happened, until it suddenly
displayed a message saying something along the lines of “A Timeout has
occurred. Your card has been retained!” Then it simply made itself ready for another
customer. Sibba didn't get her card back
from the machine! She wasn't happy or
impressed. The ATM had a phone number to
call for any ATM issues, so I phoned the number. It wasn't easy getting through as the
assumption is that the caller is a Westpac Customer, but eventually we got a
help desk operator on the line. After
explaining the situation the operator advised that there was nothing that could
be done by Westpac. This ATM was managed
by Armaguard and they would simply shred the card. Sibba would have to contact her bank to get a
new one. She did apologize on behalf of
Westpac, but there was nothing to be done!
This is strange! I've had a
similar problem once with a St.George ATM, where the transaction timed
out. The ATM simply returned the card
and issued a printed slip with a message saying it had a problem.
We then called the St.George help desk. The first call got through, but half way
through the conversation, the line disconnected. The second attempt was more successful, the
help desk operator spoke with Sibba and initially asked if she needed money
there and then! As I was there, plus
Sibba also has a Credit card, that wasn't a pressing issue. She then proceeded to give Sibba a couple of
options i.e. go to the BankSA branch here in Alice Springs on Monday and have
them sort it out. They could either give
her a new Freedom card and link it to her account, or add this account to the
Visa card as a savings account. We will
go to the branch Monday morning and see what they can do!
I wasn't game enough to use my card in the Westpac ATM, so
we walked across to the other shopping centre where the BankSA branch is
located. It has a BankSA ATM in the Todd
Mall. Unfortunately it was completely
dead! Thus in the end I had to withdraw
some cash from a credit union ATM and pay the other bank fees.
After having coffee we headed back to the hotel in the
afternoon. Sibba pulled up the Motel
room card and swiped the door. It just
buzzed and a red light blinked. After a
couple of attempts it was clear that we had been locked out of our room!
I went to the reception and had it sorted. It turned out that when they processed the
second night earlier in the morning, it hadn't been added to the card system!
Back in our room, I spent the time updating the blog. Thankfully we didn't have any more issues
this day.
This morning (30th September) we woke up late and
had to rush to get all our things out of the room and into the car before the
dreaded cleaning crew turned up! We then
drove from the motel and parked close to the shopping centres. As we walked from the car, we were suddenly
surrounded by a bikie gang! As it turned
out, they were on a quest and needed to have a group photo with tourists. We of course obliged!!
We then tried to find a place to get some breakfast, however
could not find anything other than Gloria Jeans open. It’s a Sunday, so perhaps that is the reason
most of the places are closed. After
brekkie we went to Todd Mall to browse through the Sunday markets that were on
this morning. From there we headed to
the Anzac Hill, which provides a view over the City. After that it was time to head for the
Caravan park and check in!
Once we arrived there, the lady at the reception could not
find my bookings! After some time, she
simply gave us a site and took my word that I had already pre-paid for two
nights. After setting up camp, I was
attending to minor issues with the car, while Sibba was reading.
Suddenly this big truck arrived with a Toyota 4WD Prado on
the back. The truck had these big signs
written all over it, “Outback Recovery Services”. Obviously something had gone wrong for this
family!
Later on I went to the reception and found the lady I had
spoken to on the phone when making our bookings. She did remember that and is going to sort it
out in their system.
As I sit here writing this, I hear sirens and they are
coming this way!! (Pause)
Well, what an end to the day. Not only did the police arrive, but a large Fire
truck drove into the caravan park and guess what?, they parked in the empty
space next to our tent! Then, four burly
firemen ran out with the Caravan Park manager just catching up and going with
them into the rear section of the park.
Initially we had no idea what was happening! There was no fire or smoke visible. Only Sibba cooking our evening meal!! When the firemen returned, Sibba asked one of
them if all was OK! He replied as he disappeared
into the big fire truck “Everything is fine, it was just a minor mishap!”
We will have to find out what occurred later on!
No comments:
Post a Comment