This should make you giggle..... it happened yesterday afternoon.

All was well until I got to the final page of Thomson's site and they have another window pop-up where you have to insert the password for the HSBC MasterCard secure code thingy.
Well, I thought I'd remembered the password, I haven't booked a holiday with Thomson since the ash cloud incident, and this was only the second time I'd encountered this extra security measure since it's been in operation, and fortunately my son was here the first time, and he did it for me.

I'm generally very good at remembering passwords and telephone numbers, so I was positive it was the correct password and I was aware of the password being case sensitive.
But after two attempts it wasn't accepting it, so we set about in a frantic state emptying drawers and looking in wallets etc"¦and getting very angry with each other because I got blamed for not keeping the piece of paper safe that I'd written the password on, and he got blamed for sitting watching rugby on the TV, and letting me do all the work"¦..

He's full of good ideas is my Dave, but he can't switch the computer on, so having him stood behind the computer chair getting irate and giving out orders, it sent my BP off the scale and the conversation went something like this, with a few choice words in between......
Him: Where was this piece of paper? Where have you put it? Don't you know where you have put it?
Me: No David, I can't, I thought it was on the noticeboard in the kitchen tucked behind another item pinned on there, but HELLO, we had a major flood last year and the kitchen was gutted, so the wood & cork noticeboard probably turned into mush and was binned, and I was in Australia at the time"¦REMEMBER?

After the third attempt making sure it was all in lower case, that was it, my MasterCard was blocked.
Oh my gawd, the poor old cat who's riddled with arthritis and can hardly move, even she ran for cover.
So, after the flames had died down, which were coming from his mouth (he does get so upset when the problem involves money, cards and banks) he marched into the room saying "I'll have to phone MasterCard now" so I said, "not with the video remote in your hand you won't." he'd pick the remote up which looks very similar to the handset parked on the same small table in the corner of the room"¦"¦..at this point I suppose we should have had a good laugh, but we weren't in a laughing mood.
He phoned MasterCard to get my card unblocked, and having to go through all the rigmarole of listening to music, press this, press that, and several other security questions, and then finally 10 minutes later getting transferred to the dept which deals with this security code thingy and speaking to a human being.

They wouldn't talk to me without his permission (I have my own card, but both cards are on his account) and it was no good asking him to go onto the HSBC's website, so after a few more security questions I got to talk to the guy and he guided me through the quagmire of pages to get to the one where you can reset the password, which wasn't a simple thing of just entering another password, I had to put the numbers/letters in that he gave me first and then my own."¦.and all the time Dave is breathing down my neck.

Before all this happened, he'd started cooking the dinner, so next, the dinner was getting frazzled and the smoke alarms went off in the bottom of the hall and in the dining room because he'd left the doors open and I could hardly understand this guy at times, and it became impossible with two smoke detectors blasting decibels out.
Great.! Finally it's all reset and the card unblocked, so, I'll start again from scratch going all through the booking process because in temper I'd shut the page down.

Yippee, it's all gone through and then the final page appeared with the booking confirmation and all the details, and advising to print it off, so I hit the print button and explorer crashed.
My computer recovered the tab again and again explorer crashed, the third time, no chance of recovering the page.
Great"¦now I've just paid for a holiday and have no booking reference, so I'm silently praying to myself "please send it me all in an email pronto, pronto, pronto," as the flames started to appear again from his master's mouth and he said"¦"you've just paid X amount out and have no reference number or receipt?.... brilliant! "

Five minutes later, the e-mail arrived with all the details and successfully printed off, no problem from an email"¦. Phew, thank goodness for that.
So, I thought I might as well put our passport numbers in for the API requirements, and then it's finished with, and I've only got to book a taxi, but I couldn't, the page was saying "unable to access your booking details at the moment.""¦try again. Nope, same message.
Oh for crying out loud, sometimes I wish I was a drinker because at this point I'd have poured myself a long stiff drink "¦"¦.. The dinner was burnt and most of it went in the bin, and that set him off again because he fancies himself as Yorkshire's answer to Jamie Oliver and he's passionate about cooking"¦"¦..so dam it, I'll add the API thingy next week.

In our defence....He doesn't go anywhere near a computer, we don't do on-line banking and I don't feel comfortable using my CC, so, they don't make it easy for old codgers like us two, and the experience is detrimental to our health and relationship.
I'm regarded as old fashioned because I prefer to deal in cash, I do have a little book with all the passwords in it for forums and looking at my gas bill on-line, but this particulary password escaped being written down because it's that long since I ever used it.

After all this, it felt like I'd done a day's work, I sat down and thought.......Do I really want to go on holiday?

Sanji

Edit for typo error