Kiddo Pic Mar 2025

阳阳 @Bedok HeartBeat For Swimsafer Test

Meimei accompanied 阳阳 to the test. By the time I got into the swimming complex he was already done.  We'll hear of the results in a week or two.

Elixir Haul #26

The original Travel bottle is back! Although I'm only in Bangalore for 4 nights, I still decided to buy this bottle just so I can savour the sweet taste of the Cognac.

Mastercard Must Have Some Data Leak

My turn to get the same fraudulent charge on my Mastercard. The fraudsters must be going through their whole long list of Mastercards to buy things off Amazon US.

The difference this time is that I received a call from OCBC about 5 minutes after this charge pop up on my phone. The customer service immediately cancelled my card. They must have been receiving a constant stream of people calling to dispute these charges that the moment more of such charges at USD499 are placed on Mastercards, they immediately call to notify the card holders.

Again I have to wait till the charges are billed before I can dispute them. I do think Mastercard must have had some data leak that they are not sharing. How is it that we can be receiving these charges like that? I've not used my Mastercard ever and I don't have any Amazon accounts nor buy anything really online. So my bet is that someone got hold of a list of cards with their security codes. Oh well, this goes to show it's important to check the credit card bills. Never know if something fraudulent pops up on your card.

 

Kids @Dentist ... With Special Guest

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.

Mastercard Amazon Fraud Charge

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 10th Birthday 萱萱

Happy Birthday 萱萱! Lots of attitude these days. Hopefully you grow out of it soon! 

Work Travels: Dining @Cincinnati Feb/Mar'25

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!

Work Travels: Usual Loot And Something New

Every trip to Cincinnati involves 2 staple. Lawry garlic salt from Walmart and Lindt chocolates from the outlet mall.

I made sure to grab the chocolates over the weekend. I came with more clothes this time, plus the ones I bought when my luggage didn't arrive on my flight. I love the sleeping clothes and went to buy another set of them from Walmart. So as it turns out, there was more stuff that the luggage can take. Thankfully Meimei had preempt this and made me bring along a foldable bag. I threw clothes and stuff I can afford to lose into the bag and kept the salt and chocolate in the main luggage. I had space for more but Meimei didn't want me to buy too much. Plus I'm probably going to make another few trips to McAllen this year so plenty of opportunities to get more salt!

 

Kiddo Pic Feb 2025

Work Travels: First Hockey Game

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.

The game was pretty stop start and except for the fights the commentator had to constantly drum up the atmosphere. It gave us time to grab ice-cream. There is a famous local brand, Graeter's, and it did not disappoint. I had its signature Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip which was so creamy and flavourful and yet not as sweet. Perfect for my tastebuds.

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!

Work Travels: Cincinnati Upgraded Ride

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.

Work Travels: Transiting to Cincinnati

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.

Work Travels: Dining @McAllen Feb'25

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.

Dinner were at a mix of places. Jeremy and Martin likes to go to the Yardhouse for dinner and drinks. I preferred something simpler and would do takeouts at Mambo Seafood. It has been a reliable spot for comfort food. I would order a fried shrimp and fish set plus a vegetable soup for a total of USD15. That's concerned cheap in McAllen. If it was dinner with the gang, each plate are at least USD30.

I recommended the place to Arthur and the SG team. They've been there 3 times in a week. It's just comfort food for Asians.

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.

 

Pay Per Use Scam

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 ....