… and effort I finally got hold of a tablet for myself.

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As you can probably see I haven’t had much practice with it, But I figure the only way I’ll get better is to practice, as painful as it may be.

In any case I’m not disheartened, as I didn’t get the pen to write with, but rather to draw. That is my intention in any case. I’ve always wanted to be able to put more natural curves into the graphics and minor photoshopping I do on the PC, and the mouse movements my hand is capable of has always annoyed me.

That led me to eventually hunt down a Wacom Bamboo Pen from Expansys. The way Expansys works, I later found out, is that they have branches throughout the word which source products as cheap as possible, and then import them from that branch. Something which isn’t very clearly indicated on their website.

In any case, after a few days I get an e-mail form them saying they’ve sourced my Pen from France, and that it should arrive in SA after 20 days or so. Fine I though, I’m in no particular hurry. So slightly more than 20days go past, and no news. I send them an email and they tell me there’s been a delay and they’ll opnly be receiving it the following week, it’s then an expected 10days to deliver it to the Cape apparently.

So it was with quite some surprise that two days later I receive an e-mail with a tracking numberfrom Expansys. Great, I think, and my package is duly collected from the post office. Before Iget home that evening however, I receive an e-mail telling me not to open the package, as they’ve sent me the wrong one.

So I ge thome and open the package anyways, and lo and behold, they’ve sent me the more expensive, Bamboo Touch & Pen. Anyway, they basically sent me this product, and another dude who was supposed to get the Touch & Pen mine. So a week later, we both have our respective packages and I’m happy.

In unrelated news, my Absa Debit Card was declined on Saturday for the first time ever. I was extremely embarrassed, even more so after the second time I tried it. My only saving grace being my Credit Card, which luckily had some extra money left on it, and which decided to have mercy on me.

I was very taken aback at this. On teh lady at Spar’s teller, DECLINED, shows up in nice big letters on a red background, and I had no idea what to do. After the second time trying, I knew I had used the correct pin. I had drawn money that mornign, and knew I had more than enough money in my account and my daily limit was also no where near being exceeded.

The lady behind the counter looked annoyed at me wasting her time, and could not give me any information as to why my card had been declined. Her computer just told her my card doesn’t work. So after paying with my credit card, I left Spar and headed straight to the nearest computer with an internet connection.

After several recent card skimming scams and things happening in the nearby Somerset West, and the fact that I’d used an Absa ATM that morning, i suddenly feared for my money sitting in my account, including my recently aquired wages from my past 4 weeks work.

After finally getting onto my online banking, I was relieved to receive my SMS notification, and to see all my money sitting happily in my account. I then relaxed a bit and decided to give ABSA a call, to see if they could tell me why my card had been declined.

It boils down to no, they couldn’t. I even gave the one operator my card number but he couldn’t get very far with it. The other one told me if I wanted to check the status of my debit card I’d have to register for telephone banking, something I was in no mood to do. I actually still don’t know if my card works. One of the operator’s mumbled somethign about the Point of Sale system not having been working at some stage on Saturday, so I have taken slight solice in that.

But I was still so shocked to see that Declined showing up on the teller, and can’t believe how self-conscious I suddenly felt. I like it even less when I know it was in no way an event that I could control, I felt like I wanted to explain to the people behind me in the queue that, no, I have money in my account etc.

But anyway, for me, after 3 weeks of vacation, 4 weeks of work and a weekend, I’m back in Stellenbosch. My roommate is in China till Sunday, so I’ve got a single room. It’s nicely peaceful as I jot away on my tablet.

To the beginning of a new term.