Solutions

The good news for anyone following my experience of dodgy services in South Australia is that we eventually recovered all our money back from Exotic Sportscar Hire. On the 27th January they took our $3,000 deposit. On the 29th January they informed us that there would be no refund until after 28 business days. $701 was paid back to us on the 14th March well after the stipulated refund period. After a lot of complaints by me to ESCH and perhaps action by Travel Zoo, a further $2,000 was refunded on the 19th March. We still had $299 outstanding, for which ESCH finally provided a readable reconciliation statement on the 15th March. In addition to the $189 we had paid for the original voucher, they were now claiming all sorts of reasons for making extra charges. I have already detailed how ridiculous these charges were in my previous post.

On the 15th March I phoned Consumer Affairs (Consumer and Business Services in SA). The first question the counsellor asked was whether I had contacted our credit card company. She explained that we had 90 days to raise with them a disputed payment and ask them to recover our money. If only I had known this from the start. It took two phone calls to the 28 Degrees MasterCard call centre to get some action. The first fellow tried to fob us off, but the second time we got a more professional worker. She immediately agreed to refer the matter to their disputed payments section in Melbourne. I had to supply copies of all our correspondence, and on the 15th April we got back the final $299.

I'm not sure if the 90 day dispute rule applies to debit cards as well. I had once been fobbed off by the people at ING DIRECT when I tried to recover my money from a company called the Decorator Bug after it went into liquidation. The man who ran this, and a number of other companies that install blinds, shutters and so on, appears to have been trading while insolvent. I had paid a forty percent deposit with a Visa Debit card. The person at ING DIRECT said that there was nothing that they could do. Maybe I should have been more assertive. It all worked out okay for me in the end but I know a lot of people lost large sums of deposit money. Interestingly the Decorator Bug is up and trading again.

I got another emailed response (11th March) from TravelZoo, which issued the voucher for Exotic Sports Car Hire. This basically stated that they bear no responsibility for us losing our money and having such a terrible experience. They did take some credit for our getting back some of the original $3,000. At least it seems that they will not be promoting Exotic Sportscar Hire in the future. I do despair about companies like ESCH. Eventually it will disappear from the scene, perhaps through bankruptcy and take with them all the money they have taken from their victims, and then probably re-emerge under another name, and it all starts over again. They are only a subsidiary of Stemidoju Pty Ltd.

Living Social is still promoting this company. They have varied their name to Exotic Sports Car Hire. I complained to Living Social and they claimed they would investigate. I also tried to add my complaint to the others on the LACARTES website but failed. They are still promoting ESCH.

The best thing about my experience with ESCH was a reminder of how many good people there are still out there, particularly those people who made comments or emailed me offering assistance. They had all lost money to ESCH, but they were still giving some of their valuable time to helping others. So many good people also helped me get the shutters I had ordered from the Decorator Bug and at the original cost. These experiences serve to remind me how many good people there are out there.

Most problems seem to have reasonably positive solutions, even if they are not evident at the time. In 2006 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and I have been keeping a separate blog of my journey with this disease entitled "God, Prostate Cancer, and Me". My father had it as well. They removed his prostate in a major operation that involved cutting through his stomach. When this didn't work they operated again and removed his testicles. After that there were no further treatment options.

I was diagnosed too late for the operation, which is now pinhole surgery. I have received external radiation therapy and internal radiation administered through small tubes inserted into my prostate. Castration has not been suggested but I have received medication that has the same effect. When these all failed to stop the progress of the cancer I was placed on a trial of a new drug Ipilimumab, marketed as Yervoy, and used primarily in the treatment of advanced cancers associated with melanoma. Maybe I was on the placebo but that do not do me any good either. I am now on chemotherapy, Docetaxel, every three weeks, and Prednisone, a steroid, twice daily. This has reduced the spread of the cancer and negated earlier symptoms, like lymphedema. My point is that there are options that weren't available to my father and the prospect of further advances. Don't give up. I like the old saying: "Tough times pass, but tough people keep going."    

Bad Service

Bad service doesn't really cut it. A terrible experience better describes the events leading from my purchasing a voucher to Exotic Sportscar Hire (a subsidiary of Stemidoju Pty Ltd, a company based in North Sydney) through Travelzoo Local (Australia) Pty Ltd late last year for $189. This should have been a fun thing. Maybe I'm at fault for being overly trusting, but this is the first time I've had trouble with a product sold through Travelzoo, or any of the scoupon issuing companies.
I bought the voucher for an 8-hour hire of either a Porsche Boxter or a Mercedes SLK convertible as a Christmas present. My good wife has had a lifelong ambition to possess a Mercedes Sports. Warning bells should have registered with Exotic Sportscar Hire (ESCH)'s demand for massive amounts of personal information, and lack of responsiveness to our request for a later starting time and preference for the Mercedes.
After making the 8am Sunday meeting time in a Glenelg hotel car park, Elizabeth had a brilliant day driving the issued Porsche Boxter, after first cleaning it up a bit. She also had to point out to the ESCH representative that he was 7 kilometres out in his speedometer reading.
Despite Travelzoo's fine print stating that there would be a "credit card pre-authorisation required with a limit of $3,000", the ESCH representative actually deducted $3,000 out of her account. Alarm bells really started ringing when ECSH informed us by email two days later that the $3,000 security deposit would not be repaid for 28 working/business days. Even after that time passed, it took a week of constant emails via the ESCH website to receive a refund of $701 and a non-readable reconciliation statement. When we managed to get a PDF reconciliation statement we were staggered at charges totalling $299 (i.e. in addition to the $189 already paid to Travelzoo for the voucher). The statement included all sorts of extra charges: an extra driver charge (when there was only one); a cleaning charge (the car was returned in the same state as collection); a 4% ($120) credit card charge on the security deposit (not mentioned at the time), and GST charges (not previously mentioned). We have calculated the only amount owing is $38.80, after deducting the $20 cheese platter voucher we never received.
I've not yet fully tested what Travelzoo might do to help. They are still promoting deals with Exotic Sportscar Hire. I did get a response originally when I had not been getting any from ESCH. The Travelzoo officer said that she hadn't been aware that ESCH kept the security deposit so long.
After more hassle, ESCH refunded a further $2,000 on 19/03/2013.
I feel the value of Travelzoo promotions generally are becoming just that, and not the great value they used to be. Whether we get the remaining $299 of the security deposit back only time will tell but it has been a lot of stress and wasted time. Stress is not good.

Another experience that generated those tight chest feelings was my visit to the Ashford Day Hospital on Monday (4/03/2013). I moved between four waiting rooms over the more than three and a half hours waiting for my operation. Maybe I'm being overly sensitive but I found the whole process impersonal. Even the anaesthetist had difficulty finding a spare room when he needed to interview me. I had expected more because of really positive experiences with the Adelaide Cancer Centre (ACC), which I think also comes under the Ashford. I was referred to have a port inserted in my chest for the easier delivery of the chemotherapy I'm getting at the Centre. Technically the service from the surgeon, anaesthetist and Ashford theatre staff in doing this was first rate.
I stayed in the Ashford overnight for observation, which just continued an already bad day. No offer was made to sponge me down from the operation or help me change out of the surgical gowns into pyjamas. The ties on the gowns kept unravelling every time I went to the toilet (a not infrequent event) and I started worrying I might dislodge the chords dangling from the needle in my chest. I guess there could have been good reasons for just offering me a sandwich and cheese and crackers that night. Not having eaten since early morning I was pretty hungry and hoping for a proper meal, perhaps supported with a glass of wine. No main course was offered for breakfast either, just cereal and a piece of toast.
The next day I was up, had a shower, dressed in my usual clothes and out of there for a proper meal - a wonderful feeling.

While I am laying out those experiences that have given me grief, I have to mention my attempt last year to have the refrigerator repaired. The fridge was making these intermittent loud noises, which from my internet search seemed to be a slipping fan belt in the motor and beyond my capability. I phoned what I thought was a local company, but I was directed to a call centre for Electrical Refrigeration Services or ERS, and and according to their account this is somehow connected with Sharpe Electrical. The technician had an offsider whose job appeared to be to prepare the bill.
Of course the noise had stopped when he got there and he simply stated "I don't know what it is". I tried to explain further what I had heard, but he just said that one of the motors probably needed replacing and that he couldn't tell which one it was without hearing the noise, and that I needed to pay him $110. Before I knew it I was handing over the credit card and they were out the door. The whole thing was over in less than five minutes. I wouldn't have felt so bad if he had at least taken the back off the machine and pretended to check the mechanism for awhile. I'm now putting up with the noise. I think when I get the money I'll just buy a new refrigerator.

And what is happening at Waterfall Gully? One of my ways at keeping healthy is to do the inspiring, but exhausting, trek from there up to Mount Lofty and back down again. The trail goes through a range of bushland, provides spectacular views and frequent contact with native beasties. Many of the people I meet along the trail are overseas visitors, no doubt directed there by Tourism SA. This is a very popular walk or, in the case of the very fit, run. Waterfall Gully is also now being used for weddings, in addition to the restaurant that has been built into the side of the hill. All of this is administered by Parks SA. But why is there so little parking provided? Even during the week parking overflows to the road, but on the weekend it is crazy trying to find a park and the man giving out $140 tickets for illegal parkers is kept fully occupied. Car drivers are aggressive, as only Australians can be when fighting over scarce resources. What must our international visitors be thinking?
I have a negative impression of Parks SA. The only officers I can remember seeing are those at places like the gates at the Innes national Park where they take your money. When I first came to South Australia, I brought with me many positive experiences of camping and bush walking in Queensland. But the camping grounds I've been to here have been expensive and unpatrolled. The main animals are vermin, rabbits and foxes. I gave up camping at the designated grounds because they were invariably invaded by drunken all night parties. These were no small affairs but often supported by large loud speakers, spotlights and beer kegs. People who attempted to reason with the party goers were just abused or ignored.

I do not mean to give the impression that much of the service industry here in South Australia is bad, although some of it is down there with the worst I've seen overseas. I have also had many good experiences. For example, I must have the fortune to be a member of one of the best gyms in the world - Health Works, at Marden. There is the usual top of the range of equipment and classes, but the owner/managers, Wayne and Des, maintain a fun, but professional, atmosphere, a good distraction from the pain of exercise. With the help of new technology, they've now open twenty-four hours, but I prefer to go when the guys are there.

Since I last reported I've had a few small writing successes. In the middle of last year I won a Campbelltown Literary Encouragement Award and some money courtesy of the Campbelltown City Council. I titled my short story, The man with the frog growing under his arm, a whimsical, horror tale about the history of Thornden Park. For anyone tempted to read a fairly short story this can be found at the following link: The man with the frog growing under his arm. I was criticised for my paragraph formatting (spacing between paragraphs rather than indenting the first line). I'm not sure...
I was really pleased to have the story of my great uncle, and his family, published as "Armidale's Cordial King: William Henry Logan", Armidale and District Historical Society, Jounal and Proceedings, No. 55, September 2012, pp 63 - 79.
 

It's all happening

I have trouble believing how long it's been since my last post. So much has been happening.
One of my short stories ("Missing") made it's way into an anthology called Where's Pluto. The best part was the venue for the presentation ceremony at the Wirra Wirra winery. 
I've been to Armidale in New South Wales where I spoke to the local historical society and did some research for a journal article later in the year. An article about my visit even appeared in the local newspaper: The man who became Armidale's cordial king.
I also finally published The River, a history of the Logan and Collins pioneering families who lived alongside the Tweed River in New South Wales. A lot of people have shown interest and bought copies. Most pleasing has been the positive comments from non-family readers who have just enjoyed a good story.
A change of pace (if you excuse the pun) has been my participation in the City to Bay Fun Run to raise money for cancer research. I don't know where the fun is in running 12 kilometres and we did not raise our target. If you want to help out it might still be possible to make a donation. I did the race, but let down the team by walking part of the way. They're all very nice about it, and ominously telling me that I'll do better next year.

God and unrelated stuff



I have struggled with being in and out of belief in a God being all my life. Even more of a struggle has been believing that God believes in me. Perhaps that is why virtually none of my writing is about spiritual matters. In fact most of what I write is a bit pessimistic - "life's a bitch and then you die" sort of thing. This is pretty depressing really when I look at how much time and energy I give to spiritual matters.  

http://www.subud.org.au/



I usually go to Mass and I'm often involved in some Catholic prayer or study group. As well I'm heavily involved with Subud, and attend latihan twice a week, unless Quiz night at the Port Football Club entices me instead. I won't try to say what Subud is (there is plenty of information on Subud websites), but obviously it's pretty big in my life. I'm even supposed to assist new members be opened and generally be a Helper.  

I mention all of this because I've been feeling a bit despondent the last few days. I've also for the last few months been pretty angry over God playing with my head about curing me of cancer at Lourdes in France. This was part of my motivation for starting up another blog on the topic. Now that I don't believe he did me a miracle I've had to rethink the whole blog. Anyway I was lying in bed this morning feeling sorry for myself and I had the strongest feeling (and image) of God lifting me out of bed by the scruff of my neck with one enormous hand and giving me a tremendous shake. I guess the point is that with all the misery of the poor bastards in Libya and Japan I shouldn't complain. Anyway I've felt much better since.  

Another article in Articlesbase (http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/william-logan/57251): "Revise what you've written". Too many writers leap into publishing before adequately revising what they've written. This article reviews the pitfalls of submitting work for publication without adequate revision and makes constructive suggestions on how to go about the revision process.

I was recently asked to write a comment for a friend in a copy of my 1999 thesis: A social work perspective on changing service approaches to people with disability. In addition to my own research, I had drawn on the writings of the French philosopher Michael Foucault to argue that categorisations of people as mentally ill or disabled was really to serve more the interests of powerful interest groups. For example, this could be big business, politicians, drug companies or treating professionals. I compared the way in which working with people categorised as mentally ill and intellectually disabled was regarded by social workers. One of my conclusions was that social workers had much more authority (and consequently enjoyed) working with people with intellectual disability than they did with people with mental illness. This was because they had less competition from other more powerful interest groups who preferred to work in mental health because of the financial rewards in giving the appearance of providing a cure, and the more profitable patient/client group.

I won't continue on about my thesis or otherwise I'll be at risk of trying to rewrite it here, but what struck me was that in my novel Bloodied Brains and Bureaucrats I was making the same argument, although this had not been my intention. My original idea had simply been to write a bit of a mystery / satire within an area I knew something about, that is the disability service industry. What I ended up doing was describing the parasitical behaviour of people who benefit from the disability industry. Unfortunately in both my thesis and my novel, I'm unable to offer an easy solution to this situation. Maybe it is the human condition, or maybe it can only be addressed at an individual level, a bit of a struggle that will go on as long as we draw breath, like my struggles about God.





Exciting stuff

I just discovered my book is finally listed on Amazon. I must admit much of the delay has been because of my many revisions, but I'm nevertheless very chuffed.
Talking of good reads, I have lately been reading recently published novels on the Vietnam war. I think this is a difficult subject to write about. I don't think many books or movies have really captured what it was like, apart from some obvious exceptions like Apocalypse Now and Deer Hunter. I'm currently reading The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli. Not a bad read though some of her style leaves a little to be desired, and I think it suffers form her not actually having lived through the period of the War. I'm also not sure about the title. I had a woman bail me up when I was returning from the library with the book. She accused me of decadence in reading about drug taking and women being pregnant in their sixties. Maybe she was thinking of The Lotos-Eaters by Tennyson, but whatever it was she got very excited. I walked quickly to get away from her but I could still hear her harangues even after I was a good block ahead.
I think an even better book is the Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes, which I read previously. Marlantes was actually in the War and it shows. Some of his depictions are pretty gruelling, but he keeps the tension going throughout the book, and it helps in understanding what the experieince would have been like.
I was a young man during the Vietnam War and very involved in the politics of the time. Graheme Greene's book helped change me from a supporter to an opponent. I read how the puppet governments imposed by America helped oppress the Vietnamese people. I was not conscripted (this was done by lottery in Australia), but I had prepared myself for being an objector no matter what the cost. Nowadays I'm sometimes in a dilemma in talking about this period of my life when I meet so many ex-soldiers still bearing very hurt feelings over how they were treated.

Distractions

So many distractions! My visit to the Urologist on 10 February did not go well. My PSA count had multiplied ten times, but at least he said I can have another three months before having to go back on to the hormones, get bone scans and so on.
And who can ignore the troubles in the Middle East and northern Africa? Courageous people are making peaceful stands for human rights that should be available to everyone, and they are being killed! How interesting it is that these people defy Western sterotypes of crazed Jihadists.
I also find it disturbing that America is trying to define itself on the side of democracy and freedom, and yet it has sponsored so much evil. For how many years have they propped up these dictators? One reason given for a compliant military in Egypt is that they are addicted to the billions of dollars in aid from the US that they siphon off to their own pockets. How can the Americans condemn oppressive religious states, like Iran, and be friendly with equally repressive religious states, like Israel and Saudi Arabia? Everything the Americans claim to do in the name of freedom and democracy seems to have the opposite effect. Look at Pakistan. How many American dollars have been poured into that country to reduce its people to miserable poverty and life lived in terror from religious gangsters.
Would it be too cynical of me to suggest that Israel has been a convenient distraction for these dictators? If a sensible compromise could have been reached then attention might have been focussed on the greedy parasites collecting all the wealth in the Arab world that should have been shared among their people. Anyway enough of my political rant. What would I know?
My little Subud group is contributing in a small way to a better world. I've just forwarded our yearly contribution of $1,000 to the Subud school in Kalimantan to sponsor a local student who would otherwise not be able to get a good education and $500 to Subud New Zealand to help our brothers and sisters affected by the Christchurch earthquake.
I have managed to have four articles placed in Articlesbase (http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/william-logan/57251): "Looking for spiritual satisfaction?"; "Queen for the day" about a woman living through disappointment in the nineteenth century, "Mateship and Military Madness" about fighting in Papua New Guinea during World War Two; and "Saying the right thing". I've also been doing other writing that I'll report on when it is published.

 

Bloodied Brains & Bureaucrats, Japan travels, and prostate cancer

Anyone accessing this site to read about Japan in the 1980s will know that I've changed the address for that blog. You can go there directly -  http://japantravel1980. Report from Japan is part-travel diary, part-social documentary, and part-story. After I created my second blog - http://godprostatecancerandme.blogspot.com - I realized I needed more descriptive addresses reflecting the themes of what I was writing. This also allows me to use the original address -   http://wbloganau.blogspot.com/ - for information about me as a writer.
God, prostate cancer and me resulted from my healing experience at the holy site in Lourdes, France. I've known definitely that I've had prostate cancer of a particularly aggressive type since July 2006. I've tried various treatments, but my most extraordinary healing occurred at Lourdes. Our lady of Lourdes first appeared to Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year-old peasant girl, on 11 February 1858. The location of a spring was described to Saint Bernadette by an apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes on 25 February 1858 with the instruction of Our Lady of Lourdes to "drink at the spring and wash in it". I believe I had a healing after drinking and immersing myself in the water, but this raised the question about why I should be so privileged. A strong voice in my head said that the purpose was so that I could tell others about my experience. I've decided to do this by documenting my experiences with prostate cancer in total. A good friend who has since died of stomach cancer advised me at the start to keep a diary. I have done this but I have questioned its value. Now I know.
My biggest writing achievement so far has been in publishing my novel Bloodied Brains and Bureaucrats with http://www.lulu.com/. My profile page for the novel is at www.lulu.com/spotlight/wbloganau. At present the novel can only be purchased with Lulu. Distribution should be available more widely soon, for example, at http://www.amazon.com/. This has been delayed because I did another edit after finding a few typing and grammatical errors. However, this is all done now. Hopefully not too many more errors will turn up.