Day Trip
Yesterday was my first ‘lunch downtown’ for several weeks, and it made for a pleasant change. The King Saron is back in action, bringing day trippers over once or twice per day, there were three or four other day trip boats operating as well, so the harbour was busy, which is good to see from an island finance point of view. We did what we had to do; a visit to the dive centre, post office, buy some tea bags (not from the post office), buy a new bulb fitting for the laundry light (today’s challenge is to change it, and it’s only taken me a year to get to this point), and then it was off to lunch.
In the evening, the harbour was also full, from what I could see of it from up here, with a few boats anchored offshore too, and there was a concert in the village square. Neil was called in to work for the evening, and I’ll find out later how that went because he’s still in bed while I am starting my day’s work, but then, it’s only 4.00, so you can’t blame him.
Today looks to be a quiet one as I have nothing planned other than the usual writing work, and perhaps a quick sweep of the courtyard to get rid of some fallen leaves. Then, I can start reading my new book, ‘Life of the Victorian Stage.’ A book, I should add, that was hard to buy.
A Struggle with Amazon
I was trying to buy a Kindle copy because a) it was more immediate and I don’t have to wait for delivery, b) I don’t have to pay post-Brexit import changes, and c) it was cheaper. To buy it, I had to log into Amazon. So, I entered the details, and it came up with a captcha thing where you can hardly read the letters and numbers. I did though, and was told it was wrong. So, I tried again, and again, and again…. Until finally, I passed the challenge and was over the threshold, where I was told I would be sent a verification code to my phone within 90 seconds…
No code arrived. (Resend: nothing.)
I tried the process again – still no code.
Did some online research, and checked my phone’s ‘push notifications’ were on, made sure my password was correct and all that jazz, and tried again. (This process had been working fine a couple of days ago, btw.)
No code.
Rinse and repeat several times. No joy.
I headed to customer service only to find the only way of contacting Amazon was via phone. Not doing that! Actually, I can’t do that, as my mobile phone tariff only lets me phone within Greece, and we don’t have a landline anymore.
I then found a customer service email on the dark web and sent them a message – only to receive the auto-reply that the email no longer exists.
Then, I found some other links to CS via the lighter grey web, only to find those pages didn’t exist either – yet they come up at the top of a Google search.
Tried downloading the Amazon app, and that DID send me a verification code, so the phone was working fine, then.
I then found out, I can’t buy Kindle books through the Amazon app (it’s basically useless and tells you to use a PC to buy Kindles). Nor was I able to buy one through my Kindle app on my tablet, nor through my phone (verification code needed), and still not via the PC. (Ditto)
Had a break, turned the PC off and on again, and a while later, finally managed to get my password accepted, and get a code, and, I bought the e-book.
I don’t know why all that happened, but I got there in the end. Now, though, I have a message saying there’s a problem with the payment, yet the account page shows it all as being fine.
What do you reckon? Chinese spyware, Russian ghosts in the machine, an Amazon glitch, or perhaps AI having a bad day? Whatever the reason, it provided me with an hour of frustrated non-entertainment.
