Total PayPal (Mauritius) frustration

We have less than two weeks left, to try and get some donations towards Muzakir's kidney operation in Mauritius. His mother texted me some hours ago, asking for help with getting the bank account verified with PayPal. She gave me the login info, and I logged in to her account. She then gave me her bank account info, which I entered to the PayPal account, BUT... PayPal Mauritius requires the Routing Number of the bank - there is NO way to get around it, and a Swift code will not be accepted.

Routing Number is only used in the US banks (and in Canada, but it's different there). Banks in Mauritius use a Swift code instead. So, WHY does PayPal Mauritius require a number which is not even used in Mauritius?!?

I've sent them email about this, explaining the urgency of the situation, but it's Friday now and I'm wondering if I'll even get a reply before the weekend, which means missing more valuable days..

Missing child - Reunite Ellie (Update: Ellie is back with her family - nightmare over)

A friend of a friend's daughter is missing - please, read more about it on Facebook: Reunite Ellie, and sign the petition on Change.org. (Also, please share those links and the picture as much as possible, especially if you know people in Portugal..) If you have any information, comments or questions, please post them on that Facebook page as I am only sharing this.

Update: Ellie was found, and she is now back with her family =) (Feb-2013)

So much for that retro phone (and those cherry points)

(The above post on Facebook)

The story of my life - I almost get something, and then it's snapped away or can't be used.

Don't buy animals as presents

Source: facebook.com via Stella on Pinterest

ARAN (Animal Rights Action Network) launches new Christmas poster campaign;

Scratch Me Off Your Shopping List!

Cats and dogs require a 10- to 20-year financial and emotional commitment.

Please, don't buy animals as presents.

(In general, never buy pets - adopt instead.)

General entitlement

This is something that's been annoying me for a long time, and I've seen it a lot online, over the years - and offline as well. It's people who seem to think that they are somehow better than others, and that their time is more worthy than other people's time.

As this is perhaps a bit difficult to explain in other ways, I might give an example. This is all fictional (incl. the websites/services mentioned), but very much based on reality;

Airhead: Oh, poor me, I want to sell my crafts, but I don't know how.
Friend: You could sell them on FictionalShop, it's free to open an online shop there..
Airhead: Oh, how do you do that?
Friend: [gives a link to FictionalShop, and another one to their very clear HowTo page]
Airhead: [without even bothering to check the site first] Lol, I'm so bad with all this stuff, can you explain it to me?
Friend: Well, if you look at that HowTo page I just linked, you'll see that it's explained very clearly.. I don't think I could explain it any better than that..
Airhead: Ok, I'll give it a try one of these days.. How do you get, like, pictures of the stuff? I just have a camera on my phone, but it's really crappy. I think I need to buy a new camera. Which one is good?
Friend: [mental sigh..] It depends on so many things, like what's your budget and what you'll be using it for, etc..
Airhead: I dunno, maybe €£$***.. And I'll take pictures of the kids, too, and my dog, lol..
Friend: Ok, well, if you go to FictionalCameraReviewSite, and search with those specs, you should find a range of cameras that would be good for you, and full reviews of them.. [gives a link]
Airhead: I don't really know anything about them, can you do it for me?
Friend: Fine.. [Your Feckin' Highness.. because I've nothing better to do than spend hours reading on cheap cameras, for someone else..]
*some time later*
Friend: Ok, these cameras would suit your budget and needs [gives a list of links].. I made brief notes on the pros and cons..
Airhead: Oh, turns out that I don't need it now, lol. I've just been to the FictionalSuperMarket with the kids, and they had this cute pink camera on sale, so I bought it! It has the cutest decorations on it, and it came with a free bag. I love it!
Friend: Oh. Great. Congrats. [ya cunt.. don't even say thanks or anything..]
*some time later*
Airhead: Help! Lol.. I took pictures of my crafts, but they're really blurry, what am I doing wrong?
Friend: [mental sigh] What settings did you use?
Airhead: There are settings? Lol.. I'm so bad at this..
Friend: [you said it..] The camera must have come with a manual, did you look at it? Or, you could google it..
Airhead: It's FictionalPixKam700.
Friend: [oh.. so, you're expecting ME to google it, find a manual, read it, and explain it to you?!? I'm so surprised.. Tell you what - why don't I spend my own money on a round trip to where you live, I'll take the damn pics for you, set up an online shop, make you a website, and feed you feckin' grapes while at it! How's that, ya lazy cunt?!? I could walk the dog, too, and take the kids to school, FFS.. NO need to prepare the guestroom or anything, I'll just sleep on the other doormat..]

...and so on. It usually goes on forever (if you let it..) - the Airhead will want this and that, requiring sites and services suggested to them, will never bother checking the links given as they are too "busy" for that, whereas your time is not that important, so you can go and get familiar with how stuff works, and then "explain it" to them, often to find out that their interests have shifted, and they're into something else now, so the circle starts again, with new stuff.. Generally, they just think that they are a god, and you're their minion who only exists to help them and do their work for them.

In case anyone wondered; no, Airhead is NOT referring to anyone in particular. It's a combo of real people and their attitudes. Friend is not really me, either, but it's a combo of situations and thoughts I've experienced..

I do NOT have a problem with anyone asking for help, if they genuinely need it, and if they are actually interested in learning something new. If I'm able to help, I love doing it and seeing people discover and learn new things. However, when it's some self-important eejit just constantly coming up with various flippant needs, expecting other people to drop everything and do all the work, and then not even appreciating their effort, they can pretty much go fuck themselves, as far as I'm concerned.

Helping a sick child can be really difficult

A Finnish friend of mine (NK) was in Mauritius, a few months ago, with her family, visiting her husband's relatives. During the trip, one of her two daughters had to spend some time in a hospital. While there, NK made friends with MaR, whose little boy, Muzakir was a patient in the same ward.

 

This entry is about Muzakir - a child with the most beautiful chocolate eyes.

Muzakir is five months old, and suffers from kidney problems. He has already had one expensive operation, but now needs another operation, which has been booked to take place on 18th December 2012 at Apollo Bramwell Hospital in Mauritius. The family needs to collect money for it as all their savings went to the first operation.

They need MUR 576,000 = €14,325 = US$18,315 = GB£11,593
(Currency rate for Mauritian Rupee may change - click on the links for the most recent rate..)

 

This is where helping gets difficult.

Normally, you could set up a ChipIn account, which would pay donations to the recipient's PayPal account, and the owner of the account could then transfer them to their bank account.

However, our little patient and his family live in Mauritius. I am not entirely sure if PayPal Mauritius (which I've only just now discovered!) has all the same functions available than PayPal Ireland, for example (which is where my personal PayPal account is - and I've never even used it yet). As I was googling about it, the other day, I didn't get PayPal Mauritius in the results, but I got a discussion (2010-2011), which mentioned another site as a way of getting PayPal funds paid to Mauritius; 2Checkout.com

As it turns out that PayPal might nowadays work normally in Mauritius as well, maybe there's no need to use 2Checkout, although fair play to them for replying promptly to my Twitter query.

MaR (Muzakir's mother) has stayed in touch with NK (my friend in Finland), but MaR doesn't have internet connection at home, and having six children, with the youngest of them (Muzakir) being ill, it's understandable that she can't be going out all the time, to check her email. As far as I've understood, she's not extremely familiar with opening various online accounts, but we are trying to find a way for her to get that PayPal account up and running, so that we could actually start asking for donations towards little Muzakir's operation. I have sent her instructions by email, and a text message to let her know that it's something she should get done a.s.a.p.

After all, we need to collect a lot of money in a very short time!

 

If anyone who reads this, would like to make a donation, I will post a donation link as soon as we have one available! First, we need to make sure that they will be able to access any funds that may be donated, but hopefully PayPal Mauritius will be useful for that.

(Photos used with permission.)

Feral cat boxes

 
About a month ago, I saw very useful looking feral cat boxes on Facebook - made and sold by Community Cats Network. Unfortunately for me, they are based in Cork, which is a bit too far for collecting two cheap cat boxes..

I googled for styrofoam fish boxes, which they've used for these boxes. After all, it would be easy enough to make similar boxes. However, it seems that you can only bulk buy those fish boxes, so I had to forget that idea..

Eventually, one of the CCN people was driving to Dublin, so I agreed to collect two cat boxes from City Centre, between 10:30-11:30am today. We were in touch by text messages, and I was expecting to just collect the boxes, pay for them (€15 for the two - otherwise they're €8 each) and go, but unfortunately, L didn't have the boxes ready when I arrived, which was a bit of a nightmare as there was nowhere to stop/park, so D had to keep driving around the block as we walked to a nearby building where L's car was parked, to get the boxes.. Had I driven myself there, I would have had to just turn back and drive home without those boxes as there really was nowhere to stop! I didn't expect it to be that busy on a Sunday morning, to be honest.. (And I did expect her to have the boxes ready as she knew what time I was arriving..) Anyway, I have them now, so it's just a case of getting Ginga to discover them.


Here's Ginga and one of the cat boxes.. Ginga sometimes sleeps/shelters under the garden table, so I decided to put one box there, hoping that he would go in and find it comfy..

 
I wrapped the ancient bit of rug over the box, just in case it rains in a funny angle or anything - that should offer some added protection..


I must try and find some bricks or something, to put under the box to make it straight..

 
I put some Whiskas treats in the box and in front of it, and gave Ginga his foodies near the box as well, trying to lure him in.. He's getting blind, so he goes mainly by sounds and smells nowadays..


I'm really not happy with the second spot as there's rusty bike junk and other crap under the tree, so I couldn't get the box in a better position. I just tried to get it secured, so that it wouldn't fall when a cat moves inside the box. I'll work on it again and see if I could move some of that ugly junk..

Natural cure for common cold

Usually, when I get a cold, it can linger for up to two or three weeks, and even then, I'll be left with the dry cough, sometimes for several months..

Some years ago, I happened to have some fresh garlic and onions, and when I felt the first signs of a cold, I decided to test some natural cold cure tricks.. At the time, I think I stuffed my socks with sliced onion, and put cloves of garlic between my toes, before I went to sleep. The following morning, there was no sign of the cold.

I've had many common colds since the one I managed to avoid, but never remembered to get garlic and onion again (while having a cold), until last Thursday..

I got a cold, last weekend, pretty much out of the blue. Between Tuesday and Thursday, I was feeling totally miserable, my nose was either blocked or running non-stop, I had no energy, I felt shivery, etc.. On Thursday, I finally got money, so I went out to buy some food. I happened to remember garlic and onion, so I bought some of each. I also bought my favourite orange juice (Tropicana with extra juicy bits) as I thought I could do with some vitamins..

As soon as I got back home, I chopped a clove of garlic in bits, and took them like pills, with the orange juice. (Tip: if you place the bits of raw garlic on the back of your tongue, you won't even taste them - I just thought I'd mention this as some people think it tastes horrible to eat raw garlic like that.. well, if you actually chew it, it does! LOL) I'd say I had about one pint of orange juice.

Here's the funny part; I wasn't planning to go to sleep as it was daytime, so I didn't feel like stuffing my socks with sliced onion.. I decided to stuff my bra with it instead! =D (In retrospect, I wish I'd used a black bra.. That white bra now has yellow onion pattern, and still smells of onions, even after a wash.. LOL)

I also placed some raw onion next to my laptop, and continued facebooking.. Oh, and I rubbed some raw onion against my neck..

Some time later, I got really tired, and decided to take a nap. I slept for a few hours, and when I woke up, I couldn't believe how much better I felt! My nose was no longer blocked or runny, breathing was much easier, and I just felt fantastic! Of course, I was also seriously stinking of onions (and probably garlic), but it was so worth it!

At some point, I replaced the onion bits with fresh onion (LOL), and I've kept taking a clove of garlic with orange juice, twice a day.

Here's something interesting; not only did my cold disappear, my lungs also feel much better in general! I find breathing much easier - usually I feel sort of semi-asthmatic as I live with two smokers, cats, and tons of dust.. I think I'll be taking garlic regularly from now on!

Unfortunately, I still haven't found anything that would kill my cough.. Asthma inhaler and time will eventually make it disappear, but there's no quick way to get rid of it. However, I keep drinking tea with honey, cinnamon, and milk - that's soothing.

Sexy and I Know It

SPONGEBOB IM SEXY AND I KNOW IT [FIREMAST23 MUSIC VIDEO] - ORIGINAL

Hilarious!!

Here's another funny version; Mr Bean - Sexy and I know it (Original - @GonzaloLugoVelazquez) (embedding disabled, unfortunately..)


LMFAO - Sexy and I Know It

I hadn't actually even seen the LMFAO original video - Ron Jeremy is on it! He has pretty eyes.

Dáil Rig Protest on Wednesday 21st November, 4pm, Leinster House, Dublin

Source: facebook.com via Stella on Pinterest

From Protect Dublin Bay From Large Oil Drill 2012;

Highly risky licence granted to drill just a few miles off the Dublin/Wicklow shoreline.

-Without proper public consultation.
-Without adequate environmental assessment.
-Profits stay offshore & Ireland Inc. gets next to nothing.
-Coast guard not prepared for any clean up yet totally responsible to clean up any spill at our expense.

We take all the risk for no gain! They want to commence operations within the next 2 months.

Is it a joke ?

stay informed: Facebook/ProtectOurCoast

DO visit the Facebook page behind the above link - there's plenty of information on this issue, and the time to make noise about it is NOW.

This is NOT something that will only affect people living on the coast! Should anything go wrong (and the risks are high), where do you think the money will come from, for the clean up? Bingo..

PROTEST:

4pm, Wednesday 21st November, Leinster House.

Twitter: @ProtectOurCoast #dublinbay #dalkeyoil
Facebook: Protect Dublin Bay From Large Oil Drill 2012
(There are other related FB pages / events, but you should find links to all on this one I've linked above..)