Mood: Calm 
Drinking: 7up Zero Sugar
Weather: 28°C, Clear
Location: Mont Fleuri, Mahe, Seychelles
I don’t really think I do enough on a daily basis. I will need to start working on some kind of project because I cannot continue to live such an idle life. Can’t even remember what time I woke up today, fed the cats as usual.
Contacted Cable & Wireless by email to ask them if they could assist me in activating my eSIM. The agent replied to me in this way:
Dear Sabrina,
Customer Service Officer
Kindly note we are unable to proceed with your request as the number is not registered under your name nor have you been given authority to the account.
They didn’t even care to tell me how to proceed, they just shut the door in my face. I then tell her that the number is registered under my business name and it was actually my sister who registered the business (I didn’t have my ID with me on the day we decided to go there). So I had to get my sister to email them for “authorization”. After my eSIM was successfully activated, I attempted to activate it on my Apple Watch Ultra 2 and it says “CW Seychelles does not currently support Apple Watch.” Well, I guess I purchased an Ultra 2 for no reason then! I also activated the eSIM in vain.
My business’ landlord’s manager then sends me a Whatsapp message telling me that my neighbour accidentally paid my utilities for December 2023. Back then I was so busy getting ready to leave for the Christmas holidays that I had intended to push the payments to after I had returned. When I returned, I asked the landlord for the bills and they gave me the wrong one. I asked them for the correct one, and they told me to wait until the manager returns from his holiday (one month later). I did notice that the amount to be paid was less than expected but I cleared the rest of the bill anyway. I asked him today if the neighbour could provide proof (for our records and for tax purposes) of payment and apparently they already threw away the receipt. Throwing a receipt is such a stupid move. First of all, they are a business – they are expected to keep business records. Secondly, if PUC charged them for the same bill, how would they prove that they had already cleared the payment? So now that headache is passed on to me – firstly, how will I be able to prove to PUC that the bill has already been cleared, and secondly, when it’s time to file my taxes, how can I prove that this was a business expense? Am I supposed to just hand over SCR 1,141.25 (US$81.50) and trust that the amount was paid to PUC?
My apartment’s landlord is being difficult too. I already signed the new lease, supplemented the deposit, paid him the increased rent for the month and he hasn’t installed the AC unit (the very reason why he increased rent). My sister is growing irritated and the pressure is on me to talk to the landlord. I will have to send him another reminder tomorrow morning. Temperatures are expected to increase by the end of April until mid-May. I don’t know how my cats will react to AC. Their litter boxes are placed outside in the balcony but we will be shutting the sliding doors when the AC has been installed. I also can’t wait to see how much our electricity bill will be at the end of the month by then. The most recent electricity bill was SCR 909.28 (US$65). We’re going to leave the AC on for half the day and I’m expecting the bill to increase by SCR 1000-1500 depending on the AC’s BTU and whether or not it’s the inverter type.
Visited my mother in the afternoon. I noticed she had 3 Buddhist figurines at her place. She had the laughing Buddha one for a number of years.
My mother was telling us about how she attended a funeral of her friend’s mother yesterday and the place was packed with everyone from Pascal Village (where we lived briefly for a number of my childhood years) and Le Niole. She said she met a woman there who has her on Facebook and the lady was talking about how she sees that my mother seems to travel a lot and then she made the comment “when will you pass by and give me that thing you bought for me in your suitcase.” My mother was speaking Creole so this is a rough translation. After my mother told her story, I turned to my twin sister to compare how my mother’s reaction that comment differed drastically from what my reaction would have been.
After my mother’s old friend had said that, my mother’s immediate reaction was to laugh. I told my sister that if an old friend were to ask me “hey, when are you going to pass by to give me that thing you bought for me in your suitcase” I would have experienced a slight panic, pause for a second and really think hard to see if there was something still in my suitcase or at home that was brand new like a souvenir or a purse – or anything – and I could just give the old friend. I then asked my sister “or was that comment like a joke that I don’t understand?” My sister replied “it’s not a joke, they’re basically asking you for booze” and I was gobsmacked. My mother then reiterated my sister’s explanation. Have I been living abroad for too long, that I don’t even understand the local culture? So I guess that explains it – if someone asks for anything I might have purchased for them in my travels, I owe them booze. Well it’s a good thing I don’t have friends then!