Underthinking my bar tab.

So on Friday I went to my local for an afterwork drink as has be come custom. My drinking companion grabbed the first round, half way through this round it was decided to grab chips, and seeing as I was also going to get the next round, I decided I would start a tab, so I could just settle up at the end. I had high hopes this would avoid hassle at the end.

"Trust me this will be awesome"

So since this was a new regular for me, and I wasn't known to the bar staff, to open a tab I had to leave my credit card behind the bar. This is pretty standard operating procedure, I assume so that if I try and skip out on my tab they can recoup their costs, or at the very least hold it hostage.

Pictured: Consequences of skipping tab.

The first thing that struck me was despite, using paper to take orders, and a computerised till to record purchases. They recorded the fact I had opened a tab on a white board (as well as the fact I left a card), and put my card on the other side of the bar from this whiteboard. I mean to me you want to be able to check off things when the patron comes to settle up so at the very least you want to store them together.

"Trust me I am writing it on a whiteboard"

But you know writing something on a whiteboard is pretty secure, its a pretty permanent, its not like some one could accidentally remove this evidence, I mean how could they possibly do this.

Oh right.

Anyway I was happy with this arrangement for the most part, like I said it is pretty standard practise. But I went and enjoyed my fries and beers, and had some great chat. Then the problems started when I went to leave I went to the bar settled up the tab with my eftpos card, the girl said thanks I stood there looking at her, and she asked is there anything else you would like? Ahhh yeah my credit card please.
This is were the madness started the whole staff were running around like headless chickens looking for my card.

I am not sure why, this guy isn't going to be much help looking for card.

The bar manager then approached me with the news, and talk about sweat...

"Oh Jeez I don't know where your card is"

If I don't say so myself I took this news rather well, I just said well I guess I will cancel my card then. He was very apologetic and refunded my bar tab - all $24 (I know high roller) which didn't really make up for the inconvenience. But you know I trusted them it was an honest mistake, they took my number and said they would call me if it turned up, I had lost my high hopes at this stage.

"Hmmmph"

But I did receive a call, and the staff had had a pow wow, and discussed what had happened. Turns out what had happened was there was another lady in the bar who had opened a tab, but she was a regular regular, so they hadn't required a credit card from her. I remembered at this point it didn't say "card" beside her name on the whiteboard so the system had noted this. But this is were the system fell down, when the lady came to settle up her tab, instead of referring to the whiteboard, the staff had just enquired of the lady if she had left a card. She probably didn't recall and just said yes, they gave her my card.
She took the card and tried to pay her tab with it, thankfully she attempted to pay using a pin, and since it was the wrong card it didn't work.

"I am sorry your card doesn't seem to be working"

Instead of looking at the card to check why it was working, the lady just grabbed the card and put it in her wallet and got out another one.
This isn't such a big deal if it was the same bank then at a glance it would look the same, so she probably assumed she forgot the pin or something.
Where I find issue is she put it into her purse, surely at this point she would have noticed the slot where she normally kept her credit card was already occupied.

"All the slots are full, but this must be my card"

So at this stage not only had the bar underthought, so had this woman who had taken my card home. She was apparently such a regular they had her home number. I am not sure what this means.

"Yea, you are going to have to come get her again, she is passed out on the floor"

 The call also informed this woman lived in Fairfield and they would be able send one of the staff out on his motorbike to get the card (he told me he got paid to do this...)

"I AM GETTING PAID!!!!!"

I just had to wait 45 minutes, this changed my evening plans, from sitting at home watching rugby, to sitting in bar watching rugby.
Since I was driving I only had one beer watching rugby, as opposed to if I had went home I would have brought 6-12 pack, so it didn't cost me extra, and meant I was more social...

So despite all the underthinking that had gone home, the staff had gone out of their way to rectify the situation and I had my tab paid, so cost me nothing. So in the end no harm no foul, so I will be returning to this bar.

Salute to Overthinkers - Dave Allen

I just stumbled across this video, by the great Irish comedian Dave Allen. In it he tries to explain to a young child how to read an analogue clock. When you think about it, this does seem like one of the most confusing ideas in the universe.

"Wait you are telling me sometimes a 1 is a 5?"

With the advent of digital watches, and the like, I guess the need to be able to read an analogue watch is not so great. But my dad was telling me when he was in school the teacher used to spend 3 months teaching telling the time. I guess that's why people like to wear analogue watches it conveys to others that you are intelligent , because you understand how a watch works.

"That's right ladies, I can tell the time"

I wonder if that's what inspired Flava Flav

"I am the most intelligent man in the world, look at the size of my watch"

Anyway, I better get back to work enjoy, the work of Dave Allen. He also has some great thoughts on supermarkets, banks, and airplanes as well as many other ideas. Unfortunately he is now gone, but his comedy lives on.

Underthinking the Winter Deaflympics

So today I was talking to my friend Jeff Mansfield. Jeff is deaf, and he is also a gold medal winning international athlete, he competes in the Deaflympics Team USA Ice Hockey team.

Jeff is apparently also a male model.

Jeff was the first deaf person I had interacted with, and taught me some basic sign language, I learnt the alphabet in like an evening, and then tried to pick up the odd word as I went along. Most of my conversations with Jeff though involved us spelling words to each other with sign, which I imagine was slightly annoying for Jeff, imagine this....

"H...E...L...L...O...F..R..E..D...H...O...W...A..R...E.....Y...O...U"

To be fair I could say the above sentence in actual sign language and not just spelling it. The odd thing that struck me was how NZ sign language (based on two handed alphabet) was different from American Sign language (based on one handed alphabet). I mean both countries the language that is spoken is English, so I am not sure why the sign languages were so different, according to Jeff they were only 33% the same.

I blame this difference on our anti-nuclear ships policy

 The reason Jeff was in NZ was to play ice hockey in the NZIHL, where he played for the Dunedin Thunder.
The teams record wasn't so flash that year but Jeff was a stand out performer, making the scorelines a lot closer than they  could have been.

Jeff's leg on the left, accompanied by future Jersey Shore cast member Richie Russo

But I digress, the main reason I am writing this post is right at this very moment Jeff is meant to be defending his title along with his team-mates at the 2011 Winter Deaflympics in Slovakia, the problem is they have been cancelled. And they literally got cancelled at the last minute some teams were already in Slovakia, not the USA team they were in the Medallist Bar at JFK airport about to fly out when they were told.

Pictured: Not the 2011 Slovakian Winter Deaflympics

This late cancellation has lead to lots of cost to the National sporting bodies, as well as the athletes themselves.  I guess if you are like me you might not even be aware this event existed . Well I did some digging and apparently the Deaflympics are longest running multisport event excluding the Olympics themselves, the Summer version started in 1924 in Paris, and the Winter version in 1949 and this is the first time in history they have been cancelled. So how did it happen, why was this event cancelled?

Well a lot of people are blaming this man - Jaromir Ruda.

 But let's start at the beginning, when the deaflympics were first awarded to the Slovakians in 2005, the Slovakian Government refused to back the bid, because of the lack of infrastructure, so the fact it was awarded to them seemed strange, but you know what they had 6 years, surely they could get something together.

Dunedin did this in 1 year, I am pretty sure I could get close to doing this myself in 6 years.

And for the most part they did, from what I understand Jaromir Ruda raised 1.6 billion dollars in sponsorship for the tournament and planned stadiums, and booked hotel rooms for the visiting teams. In late 2005 he was put in remand standing accused of embezzling a lot of the sponsorship he had raised, but was released two years later, through some dodgy politics from what I am told.

Jaromir Ruda's bed

When he was released he was immediately reinstated as the head of the Slovakian Deaflympics organising committee, this was meet with some opposition, but protesting your belief that the wrong man is in the job by quitting doesn't really solve the problem, just means you are no longer associated. Leaving the man accused of embezzling all your money in charge seems just plain bizarre.
Now claims are coming out that the reason the stadiums weren't built because the money was never paid, hotel reservations were cancelled, and people pulled their sponsorship because of an accused embezzler's invovlement.

And who could blame them, probably safer to give your money to Bernie

 Turns out in the last year or so, Jaromir closed down the office and let a lot of people go, because he decided he could run the tournament better himself, and the Slovakian organising committee brought this?

"Huh?"

Your raised eyebrows are warrented Duane "The Rock" Johnson. That sounds like the perfect excuse to embezzle more money. Doing the work by yourself means there is no one to check what you are doing with tournament money.

Dance (and steal money) like nobody is watching

Jaromir Ruda is now facing criminal charges from the ICSD (International Committee of Sports for the Deaf) which is all well and good. But that doesn't help the athletes like Jeff who have trained hard for 4 years, and now have no tournament to go too.
 Apparently the Russian and Ukrainians sporting bodies are putting their heads together to try and organise a tournament before the end of the year, because their athletes get paid by the Government to train and compete, the amount they are paid is based on their performance at the deaflympics. So here is hoping they succeed.

With this man in charge of their country, how could the Russians fail?