Category: daily stuff

Never share the CCV number of your card

It’s been quite a long time since I wrote about something here – and as usually, I am going to whine about something this time.

Time came for us to renew the car insurance. Related papers were sent by the company through email, suggesting the payment through bank transfer. However, I wanted to use my credit card isntead, as I get some small % as a refund from some payments.

I called the insurance company to ask if this would be possible and they confirmed that it would and that they would send me the details. I was expecting something like a page with an e-POS where I would securely add my card details and my payment would be processed.

Photo by energepic.com on Pexels.com

Alas, what I was asked to do was to provide a scanned copy of my ID and [drum roll] a copy of BOTH sides of my credit card! Simply put, I would provide a total (or many) stranger with my official identification details AND the details of my credit card (INCLUDING the CCV!!), through an insecurely sent email, without knowing who would have access to them and for how much time – let alone the possibility of an email breach or the unauthorized use of my card by anyone having access to these documents.

To make things even worse, I was asked to sign a form, in a simple, unbranded Word file, stating that I consent to have my card used by the company for paying my insurance. A simple word form that could be easily changed afterwards… and as a bonus I would get the option of paying the sum in two installments 🙂

This was one of the most outrageous and irrational things that I have seen lately; and then we are wondering why people still consider the use of credit cards insecure (yes, in Greece there are still plenty of them).

The suggestion of sharing such data in this insecure way should simply be banned. Period.

My worst business trip ever (Part II: Heading back to Athens)

A new day – Tuesday – had started and I had a nice feeling about it. I woke up early, had a nice breakfast at the hotel, took a warm shower and check out, heading back to the meeting place. This time the elevator was working. I had already checked in for both my Lufthansa flights from Berlin to Munich and from there to Athens in the previous afternoon, and I was supposed to leave the meeting at about 16.00 to head to the airport and catch my flight.

For some reason I did not have a good cellular signal at the meeting building and at some point after the lunch break, I received a call. It was a colleague of mine, who said that they have been trying to contact me for quite a long time to inform me that my Lufthansa flight was cancelled (WTF!!). The good news was that I was rebooked to a Swiss flight to Zurich and from there to Athens. The bad news was that the Swiss flight was one hour earlier than my Lufthansa one, so I had to rush to the airport – now!

(Lufthansa only informed me by SMS (not via email, which I checked regularly), but I had no signal at the time, so I received it rather late).

I quickly picked up all my stuff and rushed to the bus stop to take the airport bus so quickly that I did not have time to greet my colleagues at the meeting. In the meantime, I was on the phone with my agent, who offered to check me in as well, so that I would save some time – and I was glad she did. She also emailed me the boarding pass, just to be on the safe side.

My last photo before leaving Berlin; yes, it was snowing in the morning.

Thankfully, I arrived to the airport on time and went through the security checks pretty fast. I was one time and the flight of Swiss only had a slight delay so we made it on time in Zurich. However, the flight from Zurich to Athens was also delayed (by about 45 mins) and this only got worse by the fact that Swiss staff at the gate started asking passengers to hand over their oversized of second cabin item. As expected, no one was willing to hand over a luggage that they planned to take on board and this led to a confusion and contributed to the delay of the flight.

As a result of all this mess, I reached Athens more than 1 hour later than I expected, at about 01.45. I was on time in all occasions, but none of the airlines was. I reached home at about 02.30, went to bed at about 03.00. Next morning, I woke up at 06.30 to get to the office as usual 🙂

A challenging business trip to Ireland

I recently made a 3-days business trip to Ireland for a 2-day Conference. Due to a relatively recent operation I had, I decided to travel light, carrying only my backpack and a cabin-sized suitcase with only the basics. But this is a trip where things went wrong…

  1. During the flight to Dublin, I managed to stain my shirt (one of the three I had with me) with olive olive during the in-flight lunch. I tried to remove it with wet towels, hand refreshers and lots of soap and rinsing with water but didn’t succeed.
  2. I reached the hotel after about a long trip of 12 hours from Athens. As a result, I missed the interesting guided tour to the Kilkenny Castle, the Welcome Reception (drinks included) as well as a couple of interesting speeches.
  3. When I reached the hotel and started unpacking, I realized that the small dispenser with my dry-skin lotion was broken in the suitcase and left some stains on my second shirt – two shirts off before even the start of the Conference!
  4. My third shirt, which I had picked up from the dry cleaners just before the trip had some small coffee stains which had not been properly (and entirely) removed) – I only wish I had noticed that when I picked it up…
  5. The hotel had a maze-like arrangement (rather complex for newcomers) and some irregularities (e.g. Reception was on top of the 1st and 2nd floor!) so I got lost while heading to the reception. This resulted in me getting out of the building through an one-way security door (not opening from the outside) and I found myself in chilling cold, wearing only a shirt and having just left the steaming shower. That was a shock for me, but fortunately I didn’t catch a cold. No doors opened from outside, so I had to walk in the woods surrounding the hotel until I reached its main entrance.
  6. I left my smartphone to charge overnight using an EU to UK adapter but forgot that the UK power outlets have a small on-off switch. When I woke up in the morning, the smartphone’s battery was almost drained. It was a good thing I had my second device almost fully charged.
  7. On the way back to Athens, my flight from Dublin to London was delayed by more than 1 hour, so I was not sure if I will be able to catch my connecting flight to Athens. I tried to reach both Aer Lingus and British Airways through their social media (FB pages and Twitter) but I got no response. On top of that, power outlets in Dublin airport were out of order and I was running out of battery. Thank God for the free WiFi.
  8. When we landed in London, nobody knew if we had sufficient time to catch our flight to Athens. I was rushing so much that I missed the signs leading to the bus connecting Heathrow Terminal 2 with Terminal 5 and I had to walk much longer to catch the train. I was in a real shock.
  9. Fortunately our flight from London to Athens was also delayed, so I found myself boarding later on. Unfortunately It was delayed so much (more than 2 hours, if I recall well), that we reached Athens early morning (about 05.30) instead of 02.30.
  10. British Airways has turned into a low-cost airline and I was not aware of that. Instead of free beverages during the flight, we were handed a Marks & Spencer menu list and we had to pay for virtually anything that we needed – even for coffee and water. I feel sorry that I had opted for the BA flight instead of e.g. an Aegean one.
  11. The delayed flights along with the lack of proper sleep during the previous days, resulted in me sleeping abnormal times during the weekend, as I was really exhausted.

That’s the kind of stuff that you hate when traveling – especially for business purposes. No matter how well you prepare, things can easily go wrong. It’s a good thing that they’re not typical to most of my business trips, but some times, shot happens!

Η κακή μέρα από το πρωί φαίνεται…

(This post is mostly about whining and grousing and I do these better in Greek, so I’ll skip English for this post!)

02.30: η σύζυγος δεν μπορεί να κοιμηθεί και θεωρεί πως πρέπει να ξυπνήσω κι εγώ – ανοίγει πόρτες, φώτα κλπ. Στη συνέχεια κοιμάται βέβαια. Κι εγώ μετά από λίγο.

05.00: Ο μεγάλος γιος ξυπνάει και θέλει να κάνει εμετό. Τον προλαβαίνουμε πριν λερώσει. Δεν μπορώ να ξανακοιμηθώ οπότε ξεκινάω να απαντάω σε emails της δουλειάς από τις 05.30 που έχουν κοιμηθεί όλοι στο σπίτι.

11.30: Η σύζυγος με ενημερώνει ότι ο μεγάλος γιος δεν είναι καλά (είχε ανακατωσούρες) και θα τον πάρει νωρίτερα από το σχολείο, να τον κρατήσει λίγο στη δουλειά της μέχρι να σχολάσει. Και η ίδια δεν αισθάνεται πολύ καλά…

12.00-14.00: προγραμματισμένη συνάντηση με φίλο που έχω να δω πολύ καιρό ακυρώνεται μετά από στήσιμο δύο ωρών. Έχω χάσει 2+ πολύτιμες ώρες από μια εντελώς πηγμένη ημέρα.

15.30: Τηλέφωνο από τη σύζυγο – μου λέει πως τελικά λιποθύμησε 2 φορές (!!) στη δουλειά και είναι στο σπίτι με τον μεγάλο γιο. Πρέπει να πάρει τον μικρό από τον παιδικό σταθμό και με ρωτάει πότε θα γυρίσω. Εγώ έχω τουλάχιστον 3 ώρες δουλειάς μπροστά μου και είμαι σε συνάντηση. Εξάλλου θέλω περίπου μία ώρα για να φτάσω σπίτι από το γραφείο.

16.30: Μαζεύω υλικό για να δουλέψω από το σπίτι, κάνω backup τα emails στον εξωτερικό δίσκο και φεύγω για το σπίτι. Στο δρόμο με πιάνει μια απίστευτη μπόρα. Φορούσα σακάκι (όχι αδιάβροχο μπουφάν) και όχι αδιάβροχα παπούτσια. Μπήκαν νερά παντού, ακόμα και στα καινούρια μου Geox παπούτσια…. Ακόμα και στο σακίδιο με το tablet. Επίσης γύρισε το ταπεράκι με το φαγητό μέσα στο σακίδιο και τα λάδια παραλίγο να βγουν από τη σακούλα και να κάνουν τα πάντα χάλια.

 17.15: Φτάνω σπίτι – σύζυγος και γιος με πυρετό, νηστικοί. Η σύζυγος τέζα στο κρεβάτι, ο γιος βλέπει παιδικά με τον μικρό. Δίνω κάτι στο μεγάλο να φάει για να πάρει αντιπυρετικό. Ταυτόχρονα στήνω το Laptop με το δίσκο για να αρχίσω να δουλεύω.

18.00: Ο ένας θέλει νερό, ο άλλος να φάει, η σύζυγος δε μπορεί να σηκωθεί κάν – 39 πυρετό. Ετοιμάζω λαπά για να φάνε. Στο μεταξύ δουλεύω σε παραδοτέα και απαντάω σε emails που πρέπει να φύγουν σήμερα.

20.00: Πάνω που έχω πάρει φόρα με τη δουλειά, κόβεται το ρεύμα. Εντελώς. Σε όλη την περιοχή. Είμαστε όλοι κομμάτια και άυπνοι, οπότε ετοιμαζόμαστε για ύπνο με τη βοήθεια ενός φακού. Και κοιμόμαστε κατά τις 21.00. Κι εγώ μαζί.

21.15: Ο μεγάλος ξυπνάει τη γυναίκα μου γιατί πονάει το δόντι του. Η γυναίκα μου ξυπνάει εμένα, που μόλις έχω κοιμηθεί. Πάνω που κοιτάμε τι έχει γίνει, έρχεται το ρεύμα.

21.30: Το ψυγείο έχει πάθει τραλαλά από τη διακοπή και σφυρίζει συνέχεια επάνω στο UPS που το έχω (για να το προφυλάξω από τις συνεχείς πτώσεις τάσεις). Για να βγάλω το UPS πρέπει να τραβήξω το ψυγείο και να σκαρφαλώσω σε καρέκλα. Είμαι περισσότερο από 100 κιλά αλλά ευτυχώς δεν σπάει.

23.30: Κλείνω δύο ώρες σερί που δουλεύω παραδοτέα και στέλνω emails  – ελπίζω να μην κάνω λάθος γιατί έχω αρχίσει να παραδίνω πνεύμα. Τουλάχιστον θέλω να τελειώσω σήμερα και να μην τρέχω μέσα στο Σ/Κ.

Η μέρα δεν έχει τελειώσει ακόμα – περαστικά μας!

 

Leaving home without my wristwatch

….is never a good thing – and not only for practical reasons. When it happened to me, a couple of days ago, I knew that the day would go wrong.

I found myself running to the bus stop a bit late, only to find a sign that the bus stop had moved three blocks further (due to constructions at that road). When I managed to find the new, temporary one, it took the bus a little bit more to arrive (maybe the bus driver was as confused as we were) and so we only reached the suburban railway station after the train had left.

Killing time

A photo posted by Vassilis (@vprot) on Feb 1, 2016 at 11:57am PST

 

I managed to reach office at some point, only to realize that I had left some important documents at home; it was a good thing I had digital copies online so I could print them again.The strange thing is that a meeting that I had that day went pretty well (despite the fact that I was not wearing my watch). 🙂

On taking the wrong decisions (and paying for them)

I have setup my Windows 10 phone using U.S. as the default location, so that I could use Cortana (currently not supported in Greece). I also enabled international assist for calling, as I travel quite often outside Greece.

Today I tried to call a landline phone on Greece. I received an automated response about the subscriber not being available – in English. I checked the number I have called only to see that it has been corrected to U.S. number and in fact I had called a U.S. number.

This costed me about a couple of euros for a 10 second call. A lesson learned – I disabled the international assist option.

R.I.P. Lemmy

One of the first LPs (yeap,  referring to the old school vinyls) I got myself when I got into heavy metal was “No Sleep ’til Hammersmith“; an album that blew my brains out. Lots of speed, energy and harsh sound that made me love this band and keep following them throughout the years. Since then I bought several of their albums (and listened to many more) but I never had the opportunity to see them live.

5172s69mryl-_sx315_bo1204203200_A couple of weeks ago I was browsing Amazon UK for something interesting to read and I found two biographies; one of Lemmy and the other of Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath); the former was delivered directly to me in Athens while the latter to my sister in London, so that I could save on the postage costs. I was still reading Lemmy’s biography when I heard the news about his death; I was really sorry about that, as I deeply respect Lemmy (a 70-year old man who was still rocking that hard!); as I was reading, he has been through so many abuses that it looks like a miracle he lived so long. At the same time, he was a simple man, gentle and straight to the point.

R.I.P. Lemmy and keep strong Tony.