I spent the last couple of days working at home, with small escapades to bike around town and stop by the bank. I suffered a couple of setbacks over the last four days because my stupid banks, CitiBank and Bank of America, independently decided to freeze my credit cards when some AuI (artificial un-intelligence) realized that I was charging things in France! It used to be that you told the bank when you were going to travel, but a few years back they let me know that was no longer necessary (probably because they got my travel info from Expedia). In any case, I had placed the info for both my credit cards in Apple Pay and something went wrong.
CitiBank, which is the most retarded of
the two, asked me to call them to discuss, which I cannot do because my
American cell phone doesn’t allow me to call from overseas. I went to their
website, logged in, and got told that they were sending a double-authentication
number to said cell phone that doesn’t work overseas! Fabiola finally got them
on the phone, and by putting her two phones side by side allowed me to talk
with a very clueless and unhelpful person, who after asking all sorts of
security questions informed me that she was going to send yet another
double-authentication number to the cell phone that doesn’t work overseas! I
stopped her and told her that was not going to work. “Oh, do you have another
cell phone number?” “No”, I said. “Well, how about your work phone number?” “OK,
but I am not at work, I am in Europe.” “Do you have another work phone number,
because the one you game me is not answering?” “That is because I am not there!”
There was no way to break her from her script, so that credit card is now
useless to me until I get back home in two months.
Two days later I get the same circus with
Bank of America! Same stupid insistence that they were going to send a
double-authentication number to the cell phone number they had on record. This
time Faby was able to talk to them, and again acting as an intermediary (this
time over WhatsApp because I had gone to the Post Office to see if I could call
the bank collect – no luck because the Post Office stopped offering phone calls
as a service over 10 years ago) managed to clear the concern of the bank and
presumably that card is now unfrozen, although I am scared to use it lest it
will trigger another “We have sent you a security code to your cell phone ending
in 6555”.
It is fortunate that Fabiola is Super
Woman and is persistent enough to set the record straight, but what are the
thousands of tourists that are planning to come to the Olympic Games in Paris
are going to do? I can see banks freezing credit cards left and right because
of this double-authentication nonsense, and tourists getting turned away from
hotels, restaurants, rental car agencies, train stations, airports, and Parc
Asterix. If the US banks don’t get their act together it is going to be major
chaos. My advise to those of you who are planning to travel this summer is to
contact your banks and have them place a travel notice in your record. Don’t
take “no” for an answer!
Outside of being mega-annoyed I actually
had two good productive days writing my book and going shopping. I go shopping every
day, but I am glad to report that by now I have stocked enough food and wine to
survive a minor natural catastrophe. My dear friend Giulia is arriving tomorrow
for a four-day visit, so I want to make sure I have what I need to be a good
host. Giulia is a wonderful cook, so the bar is set pretty high; I have fixed pollo
cacciatore for tomorrow, which is good because it will have a chance to “mature
and blend the flavors” overnight. Tomorrow I will also go buy some fruit to
have at hand, and tidy out my tiny house. Since I have a tiny European
refrigerator we will have to buy the cool stuff, such as meat and cheese, on a
daily basis, as well as go to la boulangerie every morning to buy a baguette
and some croissants for breakfast.
And what shall we do in four days? She
will arrive in the afternoon on Day 1, so I think after dinner we will go walk
through the old town. On Day 2 I will suggest to go to Lascaux, la Thot, Rouffignac,
and whatever more get on our way. Giulia likes hiking, so for Day 3 I would
like for us to walk the loop Les Eyzies – La Micoque, which goes past some of
the other famous pre-historic sites, and maybe end at Les Eyzies with a visit to
their fabulous museum. Day 4 we might spend walking through Périgueux, but it
really depends on the time at which she will have to get back on the road to
reach Cogoleto (near Genoa in northern Italy), in time to be hostess to the young
Ashby family.
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