Anyone Can Take a Reservation

Happy 3^rd Anniversary to My Best Friend.  This past year might not have been all sunshine and daisies but it has definitely brought us closer and strengthened our relationship.  We never pictured we’d be here three years ago, I wonder what God has in store for us in the next three?

Today was definitely a day to celebrate, but the rest of our little world over here didn’t seem to get the memo.  The past three days have been a bit rough.  I’ll give you a "quick" breakdown:

Sunday

Issue #1:  We went to the new bank to get a joint account set-up (see my other rant).  There was a woman sitting at the customer service desk with her back to us.  We waited for what seemed like a long time before she actually turned around.  The moment I saw her face I knew we were wasting our time, but I tried not to be too judgmental or stereotype so we sat down and waited for her to make a phone call (in Arabic) to what sounded like a child or friend.  Then we explained that we (a) wanted to set up a joint account and (b) figure out why my airline miles hadn’t been accounted for in the past 6 weeks.  First she asked which item were we there for...uhh…both?  (Isn’t that what I just said?)  She explained that she cannot figure out my miles and just gives me their “800 number” to call.  (Oh joy.  Thanks for being so helpful.)  Then we talk about the account.  She asks what kind of account we want to open and I say that we want the level above the basic account which we qualify for due to our salaries.  Of course she is only authorized to open the basic accounts.  Only her boss can open the better accounts and he is on holiday in typical Arabic style for the next month.  (Really?  You can only open one kind of account?)  She says that we can go to the branch in the mall and they can open the account for us. (Another time when the stereotype was dead-on.)

So we go to the mall.  He says that he can just add Paul to my single account which is what I wanted to do in the first place.  (Sweet.)  We sign all the forms while Paul sits there and eats an orange.  He tells us the account should be open that day or the next.  (Awesome.)

Psyche!  I get a call Sunday morning from the guy and he says that they are no longer allowed to add people to accounts (what the first guy told us).  And no, he can’t use the forms we already signed to open a joint account.  We now have to go back in together on another weekend to open the joint account.  Fail #1

Issue #2:  Paul gets a call from our real estate agent who is completely frantic and barely coherent.  Apparently there is another renter that wants the place and he tells us that if we don’t give them the money today, then we will lose the place.  Paul explains that he has our deposit and we are trying to get the money but they haven’t provided us with all the info our company needs to do the wire transfer.  After trying to talk some sense in him, Paul calls me and has me call the agent.  I talk to him for another 15 minutes, repeating the same things over and over.  He says that if we lose the place he won’t give us our deposit back.  That’s when I about lose it.  We talk a while more and then he decides that we should talk to the landlord to try to convince him to give us a couple more days to get the check to him.  I have to go to a meeting so Paul calls the landlord.   The landlord didn’t speak any English!  Not sure what the agent was thinking.  Paul talks to the agent again and we think we’ve bought ourselves a few more days.

Now I’m totally stressed out and starting to second-guess all our housing decisions.  I can hardly make it through the meeting because all I’m thinking about is what we’re going to do for our housing.  So when I get out I start looking online for other places.  I think I find this nice place and decide to go ahead and just check it out in case something falls through.  I meet the agent and he takes me to the place.  I had seen this exact apartment last year…and with the amount of dust in there it might not have been rented this whole year.  The kitchen is tiny and not at all like the photos online.  The agent tells me that the photos are for the apartment in Khalifa City B (even more out in the boondocks).  Oh well, at least I  checked it out and don’t feel like we should’ve move to this “great” apartment instead.

Issue #3:  On my way to the gym from checking out the apartment, I notice my rear driver’s side door window is open.  I try to roll it up.  Not budging and it starts making a noise.  Awesome.  My window mechanism is broken.  Not wanting to miss my class I just keep driving into town, opening another window because of the killer “thud-thud-thud” sound from the wind.  Every couple of seconds the a/c breaks through the thick sheet of humid and sandy air and I get a reprieve, but for the most part the drive is nasty.  (minor issue:  I get to class a few minutes late and there are no mats left for pilates, so I’m doing pilates on the hardwood floor from which I still have bruises today…)

Monday

Issue #3 Continued: The next day I take my car in to the shop.  The guy tells me to get there by 2:00 if I want to have any hope of having the work done today.  So I leave at noon and get there at 12:45.  I wait 15mins for the guy to finish helping another man.  The shop’s a/c is out.  So I’m just sitting there sweating in about a 95° waiting room waiting.  I get to his desk at 1:00.  He informs me “Noooo...when I  said by 2:00.”  Me: “Yeah, I’m here by 2:00, it’s 1:00”  Him: “Our lunch break is from 1:00 – 2:00. That’s why I said 2:00”  Me:   *Sweaty stare*  I guess that was enough to get him to at least get me logged in and then he left for lunch.  So I got to sit in the sauna for an hour while they left for lunch.  Finally he gets back and they check the car to see what part they need and if they need to order anything.  To keep a long story short—as much of a pain that it was, it ended up good in the end because they just fixed it right then without making me leave and come back in 2 days because they have to get approval from the shop that I bought it from to fix it since it’s still under warranty.  And it’s good that it broke when it did because I only had 506kms left on my warranty.  So at least there was some silver lining on this one.

Tuesday

Issue #2 Continued:  The past two days Paul has been working like crazy trying to get a paper check cut for our rent.  The number of sign-offs and paperwork that you need is absolutely amazing.  Finally we get it!  Paul calls the agent to see when they can meet up to sign the contract and handover the check.  I wasn’t on the phone call but I think it went something like this…Agent:  “Sorry sir but the landlord gave your apartment to someone else this morning”  Paul: “Are you kidding me”  Agent:  “I meant to call you this morning but I got busy”  Paul: “Wow.  Ok, well then I guess I need to come get the deposit”   Apparently this time the agent was a little more coherent and actually understood that he can’t keep a deposit for something that he didn’t hold up his end of the bargain on.  Paul met him got the money and then got conned into letting the agent show Paul another place.  Paul said it was like “Candy Land v2.0”

Paul got home just in time to shower and head to the Abu Dhabi Country Club to celebrate our anniversary over sushi (I was afraid we were going to miss the sushi-order cut-off time 9:00).  We relaxed and just enjoyed each other’s company.  On the ride home we were talking about the whole housing fiasco and Paul said it reminded him of a Seinfeld episode… “You see, anyone can take a reservation, but it’s the holding the reservation that’s important”  Enjoy the clip (even if it's at our expense)…