they refused to show us the document, and informed us that there was a problem with my signature. i was asked to sign a separate paper for comparison, and i expressed my belief that my signature had changed somewhat over the years - albeit not significantly - and was shocked to be informed that it simply wasn't the same at all. they asked us questions in an attempt to lead us to admit that we'd done something illegitimate, and eventually, after much frustration and speculation and consternation and perspiration, they took it off officiously to their team leader to check.
the team leader "let it go" and magnanimously allowed the requested operations to go through; what we discovered when the document was revealed was that my mother had signed for me using her power of attorney, and so each signature that they'd considered "forged" was written - explicitly - ABC IN THE NAME OF DEF.
what complete assholes.
pg and i hit the helipads at the waterfront and bargained a (relatively) decent price: i'm not a big fan of their pricing schemes. i think it's a bit dishonest. we were going to have to wait for my mum to join us, so we went to the mall for lunch and she joined us there. ordering lunch was extremely rushed... pg wasn't so impressed with that bit...
the staff at mugg & bean were fairly quick about it all, and we all finished eating and made it back to the helipad in good time to purchase our tickets and be briefed. we headed out and clambered inside - all of us boarding a helicopter for the very first time.
1. i've played and loved helicopter simulators, and i have a rough idea of how complex the coordination required by the pilot is. the flight was surprisingly smooth in spite of the wind, we barely felt turbulence and i was totally impressed by the experience.
2. a helicopter tour of cape town is absolutely amazing! we were especially fortunate to have good weather, and not only was visibility perfect and everything picturesque, but we even caught a glimpse of whales just off the coast of fish hoek before coming back in over marina de gama, kenilworth, past mowbray and the foreshore and back into the waterfront.
what a rush!
we stopped to purchase a link for my mum's nomination bracelet, which took a lot more thought than i'd anticipated, and pg dragged me through a shoe shop to purchase a bag she fancied before i dragged her back home so that i could pre-training snack and crash.
...
i was far too tired to train. i was absolutely exhausted. i watched the final episode of master chef with my mum, who's seen every episode and had me watching the last few, and was well impressed. it's a great show and the end of this season has a lot of valuable lessons that the other reality shows need to learn.
we met up with a cousin of ours at willoughby and co, our favourite seafood restaurant. i'm not going to detail the entire meal - as usual, we were all deeply satisfied and sated. i just have to stress that the oyster shooter was incredible. on an unrelated note, the head waiter used to be my next door neighbour and was the first person ever to give me a black eye; seeing him was amusing.
dinner was fantastic, dinner talk was fantastic and we had a great evening. we came back to watch the complementary documentary on the cape of good hope that we received after the helicopter trip in addition to a free boat cruise. i'm guessing those were included in the price :P
i was shocked to discover that my cousin's husband suffers from cluster headaches. he's now on three different (and conflicting) kinds of anti-epileptic drugs, the gods know what they're doing to him. he and his wife have heard about the effectiveness of psilocybin in treating cluster migraines, but in addition to being afraid to let go of his current medication in case stopping it will do him harm, he's terrified of trying something that the world has told him is bad for him. i sent them the link to watch the union - the business of getting high online (i prefer watching things on dvd
), the documentary on the war of drugs that explains a heck of a lot about the science and the propaganda behind the confusion.thanks to nystire for sending me this link, because i would have been taken completely by surprise if i hadn't seen it.
The only legal requirement of a signature is that you, the signatory, acknowledge and recognise it as yours. It does not need to be your name, and it does not need to be the same every time. In fact it doesn't even need to be a written signature, only an indication of your understanding and consent at the time (which is why clicking 'I accept' online is a completely valid legal signature). By law, the only requirement for confirmation is that they show you the signature and you acknowledge it as yours (or not as the case may be).
ReplyDeletethe only problem is that neither of us were aware of this, and apparently neither were the people "assisting" us.
ReplyDeletethank you, that's a really useful thing to know!