Regular readers are well aware of my fondness for going out every night–eating, drinking, and carousing with the ladies like a rich man. Well, those things come with a price and now I find myself in the unenviable position of having difficulty fulfilling my obligation to pay the rent on my new place. It was due on the first and remains unpaid as of now.

Here’s what happened. You may recall that last Sunday I initiated a wire transfer of the first and last month’s rent, plus two month’s security deposit via Western Union. That’s nearly $3000. at current exchange rates. Shortly thereafter I received an email from WU advising that I had failed to supply some required information. I clicked on the link in that email and it took me back to my submission but didn’t specify what was missing. I messed around with it for a while, then inadvertently submitted a SECOND transfer request. When I attempted to cancel the second transfer, I got a message advising it was “too late” to do so. What the hell? So, I went to my bank account and transferred money from checking to savings, leaving only enough for one wire transfer in the amount I owed my new landlady. Then I took a wait and see what happens approach.

Well, as of this morning, nothing happened. I had told my landlady to be on the lookout for funds coming via Western Union. She sent me a message last night saying nothing had arrived and mentioned the previous tenant had paid via Xoom without issues. By the way, my landlady is a Filipina living in the Netherlands, but the rent money goes into her Philippines bank account. That shouldn’t be a problem, just makes the process a little more complicated. Anyway, I told her if the funds had not been transferred from my account by this morning, I’d initiate a new action using the Xoom service. It wasn’t, so I did.

Nothing comes easy for an old-timer like me it seems, especially when it involves any kind of technical skills; like reading, writing, and following instructions. Turns out, Xoom is an affiliate of PayPal, so I had to use PayPal to log into Xoom. I didn’t recall having a PayPal account until I tried to create one and was told that my email address was already associated with PayPal. That started me on the process of getting a new password since I had no idea what the old one was. I got the emailed security code, plugged it in, and hooray, was able to change my password! After that, it was no problem getting into Xoom and completing the form required to initiate a wire transfer.

Now, Xoom does things a bit differently than WU. They don’t charge a fee for the transfer itself, they just gouge you on the exchange rate (they are upfront about that). So, with WU the dollar to peso rate was 47.63 or so. With Xoom, it was 45.10. With the amount I was sending that made a significant difference in cost, but what are you going to do? I submitted the transfer, got a notice that it was approved, and the landlady would have her money in a matter of hours. What a relief!

And then I got an email from Xoom. My transfer had been cancelled due to “security concerns”. They gave me a number to call, which doesn’t do me much good from the Philippines (no, I don’t know how to do international calls from my mobile phone either). I sent an email explaining I was trying to pay the rent and asking what steps I could take to resolve their security concerns? Their response was they’d get back to me maybe tomorrow.

Now what? Well, a friend here had mentioned he uses World Remit, so I logged onto their site and registered an account. But when I tried to set up a transfer from my U.S. bank, the Philippines did not appear on the list of countries I could send money to. WTF? I assume the problem may have something to do with my having a Philippines address, but I don’t know why that should matter. I was too frustrated by this point to be bothered with trying to resolve the issue.

A company called Wise (formerly TransferWise) was my last option. I was pretty impressed with the ease with which the submission requirements could be accomplished (or maybe I was just getting good at it by now). In next to no time at all, I was ready to make the transfer. Well, there was one thing that made me cringe. They use a third party to extract the funds from my bank account “for my protection and security.” This third-party app needed my bank account log-in and password. I did a Google search of the third party and Wise and found nothing derogatory. So, I gritted my teeth and supplied the information. I’m going to go to my bank account and change the password, so I should be okay. And just like that, I had the message that the wire transfer was in process. Even got a link to a way to track the progress online. Then a little later an email telling me the transfer was taking longer than normal, but the money should be in the landlady’s account by tomorrow. Alright then, mission accomplished!

I’ve been checking my bank account throughout the day watching to see if and when the money is withdrawn. And finally, just before I sat down to write this post, the three thousand bucks had been removed from my checking account. By WESTERN UNION! Aw, shit. I thought after four days of no contact they were out of the picture. So, now what? I went back to Wise and canceled that transfer. I guess it is safe to assume the money is finally on the way to the landlady. I’m anxiously awaiting her confirmation of receipt.

Next month’s rent ought to go easier at least. I’m an old hand at this now. I do believe I’ll be using Wise next time though, they were the easiest of the lot and I like their tracking feature. Although maybe not since I’d have to change my bank account password every month. It’s getting hard for me to remember my name these days.

In other news, I made it through last night’s tropical storm unscathed. It didn’t really kick in until after my bedtime, but I was awakened a little after midnight by the sound of the wind’s fury and the rain pounding down on the roof. I was still awake when the power went out. I figured it’s o’dark-thirty and a storm is raging. What are the odds this is going to get fixed anytime soon? Well, fifteen minutes later the fan came back on and I returned to sleep in the relative comfort of its breeze.

My neighbor and fellow Hasher, Simon (Leech My Nuggets), was not as fortunate. When I walked past his house this morning, I saw this:

Kevin Kim posted a funny video of this brothers in uniform–The Grammar Police. I know I could be arrested at any moment for the crappy way I write the crap I post here. The history of the Grammar Cops goes way back to the Egyptian times as this rare drawing demonstrates:

Alright, I promised some pics from the Wednesday Walkers hike yesterday. We trekked up Kalaklan ridge again, but took an unfamiliar route. There is no easy way up, but comparatively speaking, this one wasn’t too bad. We did about 7.5K all told. It didn’t start raining until we were down from the mountain at least. Lucky us!

The last of the hike was in the rain, but by then I was so hot and sweaty it was a relief. Still, it was a good day in the Philippines.