Both kids have their dental appointment today. Yeeyee took the opportunity to let XY learn about what happens at a dental check in hope that she understands having to stay still and open her mouth when it's her turn in the future. The kids were also excited to have their little baby cousin come along to see.
Got a prompt on my phone for a USD499 charge against Meimei Mastercard sub-card. Huh? What did she buy? Checked with her immediately and she didn't buy anything on Amazon. The USD amount also raised a red flag. If she had purchased anything on Amazon it's usually in SGD.
Further checks on the banking app showed that the charge came from Amazon US. Ok, definitely this is. fraudulent charge. But because this is a fresh unbilled charge, it doesn't allow me to dispute it on the app. So I called and spoke with a customer service. They asked a couple of questions and recommend that I cancel the card. Makes sense but they cannot reverse the charge right now so I have to wait till its billed and put in a dispute.
The fraudsters were pretty "smart" in purchasing something below USD500. The typical default notification threshold is at $500 so this way some or many people would not notice a charge. And unless they comb through the bills they may not notice it and pay for it. Thankfully I always set my notifications at $1. I want to know everything that is being charged, even if I was the one triggering it.
Next step is to remember to dispute it once the charge is posted.
Happy Birthday 萱萱! Lots of attitude these days. Hopefully you grow out of it soon!
I didn't take many pictures of meals this time. After a few weeks in the US, everything tastes the same. There were a few good finds but I forgot to take pictures for some of them.
As good as the food looks, I miss home-cooked food. Can't wait to get home for a good bowl of meesua!
Every trip to Cincinnati involves 2 staple. Lawry garlic salt from Walmart and Lindt chocolates from the outlet mall.
Jeremy was so thoughtful and organised for us to join in on a hockey game with his family. Much appreciated, this is the first time I've ever been to a hockey game. I was looking forward to the brawling between players. You don't get these fights on Singapore TV!
We went for an early dinner at a bar and arrived before the crowds came in. As we are part of the season ticket guest, we received a free Cyclones cap free.
We had a good time but were all tired from the week. We left at half time and Jeremy drove us back to the hotel. Thanks again Jeremy!
The temperature at Cincinnati is a lot colder than McAllen. Based on the weather channel, it's between -7 to 8 degrees over the next week. So I decided for everyone's safety to get a 4 wheel drive SUV. Plus with Martin's bad back it makes a lot of sense to get a ride with a higher base so he can climb in with lesser difficulty than he did at McAllen.
Although the major snow fall already happened over the past few days and we have forecast of better weather it's still awfully cold. The roadside were long patches of powdery white. Thankfully the highway are salted so relatively cleared of snow. Nonetheless I drove slowly and got to the hotel unscathed.
Spend a large part of Saturday flying to Cincinnati and settling in at the Marriott at West Chester.
With all the recent flying mishaps in the US, it does play with your mind. Especially when you are riding a tiny little plane. Thankfully it was a quiet peaceful flight to Cincinnati. Again the transit through Houston is crappy. I didn't get time to sit down for lunch and had to pack a sandwich to eat on the plane.
Although the flight went ok, unfortunately my luggage didn't arrive with the plane. I went to make a delayed baggage report at the United counter and was advised that the luggage will be on the last plane and arriving at 11+pm. I opt for United to deliver it to the hotel and can only expect to receive it the next day.
I was already planning to go grab some essentials at Walmart to get through the night while walking to the Hertz counter to get my ride for the 2nd fortnight of this month long trip.
2 weeks is way long to be having western food. Every morning I would have breakfast with Martin at IHOP. It's reasonable fare but there is only so much omelette and pancakes one can take before getting totally disgusted with it. I switch to buying takeaways from McDonald's drive thru a couple of times.
The rest of the meals were really hits and misses. There were a couple of times where I simply went to the mall food court to pack Burger King or a Caesar Salad. The temperature can drop to 0-5 degrees on some days so warm hot food is always a pleasing treat. I found a Japanese Ramen place on Friday before I leave for Cincinnati so that's one for future trips.
I got a shock when I landed at Narita. While taxi-ing on the tarmac to the gates, my phone started to vibrate and a chain of SMS started prompting on my phone. In few seconds I was charged $140 for supposedly utilising pay-per-use roaming. What utter nonsense is this.
I immediately message Meimei about it once I got on airport wifi. She called Singtel and they would move my ReadyRoam pack to start a day earlier. To make sure this doesn't happen again I tried to go set a $0 limit so my line would never go on pay-per-use. Lo and behold ... it's not even possible. There is a $100 minimum on the settings. This is BS ... if you can set a limit, the only reason $0 is not possible is the settings is deliberately setup not to have it as an option.
I call this a scam, plain and simple. Phhhffff Singtel always has these irritating way of trying to make extra bucks. How is this helpful to customer satisfaction. How many people would not dispute these charges? Maybe they know something I don't ....
The Hertz counter staff thought he was doing me a favour by offering me a Camaro. I didn't know better and took the offer. Turns out the space in the car is so tight Martin couldn't get into the car when we wanted to go out for breakfast this morning.
I immediately went back to switch to a 4 seater. This time I got us a Toyota Altima which is like a Camry equivalent in the US.
I had to jump on a flight this morning so we had a mini celebration with cake last night. Thankfully Meimei had it all prepared for a proper celebration for 阳阳. Wished I could be there but work is work. Sometimes we don't get to choose.
Anyways, Happy Birthday Buddy!
On a 4 weeks trip to the United States. 2 weeks in McAllen and then 2 weeks in Cincinnati. Managed to snag a flight thru Narita > Houston > McAllen. The last trip to McAllen was a direct Singapore to San Francisco flight that took 15 hours. I prefer this route through Narita. You get here past noon and can enjoy lunch.
Then it's a 13 hour flight to Houston. We had a little delay and by the time I cleared the customs and go through the TSA checks I had only 5 minutes to get to the connecting flight. 5 minutes ... and the flight was at another terminal!
It was almost an impossible task. I basically ram my shoes on, ran as fast I could to the train. Managed to get on one that was just leaving. Reach the domestic terminal and ran all the way to the gates. They were at the final boarding and there was only 4 persons right at the gate when I finally reached. I was panting so hard everyone turned around to look at me. I gave a weak smile and explained that I had ran from the International terminal.
After getting on board, the captain announced that during final checks, the maintenance crew discovered that there was a missing part on the landing gear and we would have to wait for a replacement part which would take 20-30 minutes. Dammit .... I was so thirsty from the run and didn't have any water due to having to go through TSA. And now we have an extended wait before we could take off and the stewardess would come with water. First time through Houston and probably never again. Or if I do have to come through here again, I need to schedule for a later connecting flight.
I eventually landed at McAllen at 4pm on Saturday. What a tiring 33 hour journey. More of these flights since we have to come here more often for the project.
Teachers took some pictures and posted them on the school portal. I'm surprised teachers would take photo shots to share though I'm not complaining haha. Love seeing the kids in the photos.
