Enjoy my blog!

After we dropped off our bags in my room, we made our way to the bank. And I found out all the other transactions (except the first $200 one) which had amounted to $700 had been dropped off from my account statement. This meant they were all unsuccessful as the buyer probably missed out some info while shopping with my card number, such as the 3-digit number behind the card or my mailing address or something else. This is really such a miracle. Because last night, I had went online to check my bank account statement and all the fradulent transactions were still displayed there, and were still in the 'pending' stage. But this morning when we were at the bank, the banker helped me check my account statement again and all these pending transactions were gone. This saves me a heck of a lot of trouble in filling out the paperwork to make the various claims. So I only filed one claim and i will receive it within one business day, which is tomorrow. And what's more, now I have two cards to draw money. One is the temporary ATM card given to me few days ago and which I can now keep, and which i can draw max $300 per day, and the other one would be the normal debit card which I can draw $500 per day. pretty cool huh? Any my paycheck amount just got deposited today, so you can say now I have a sizeable amount of money in my account.

After finishing this money business att he bank, we went to the nearby Tusayan town to catch the grand canyon IMAX movie. Mum and I got free tickets for it. She seemed really glad to enjoy this benefit, if not, she would have to pay $12.50. The movie was slow and quite boring. It was like a fictional documentary and there wasn't much talking by the chracters but lots of narration by an old guy, so the movie seemed quite long though it was only 35 minutes. But the really cool thing about the show was there were certain parts when it seemed like you were actually whitewater rafting the Colorado river in the canyon, or having helicopter views. That was pretty awesome. After that, we decided to treat ourselves to steak at a nearby steakhouse (take note, it's an american word). However, the steaks weren't good :( and the service sucked. only 2 servers were working in the whole place. When the bill came, it stated in purple stamp that 15% tips were included inside. We were like, 'wtf!' because we had planned to leave a low tip for them, if not none at all. So i asked the server (who was multi-tasking as a cashier as well) if they did this to every bill and he said yes they have no choice because like, 75% of their business are europeans who almost always never tip. I think that's not right. Tips are subjective and there are other more discreet ways to let the customer know they should tip reasonably, you know? Even my fine-diging workplace don't do that.

So after our late lunch, despite the sky looking cloudy, we decided to go for the airplane ride. We were told at the counter by a very unhelpful lady that we had to standby for about an hour. If you don't know, employees can ride for $16 while the original price is $123. Any mum would have 10% off. When it came to near the hour, we asked at the counter again and the lady said the chance of going on a plane for us were unlikely as they were going to use a smaller plane as they had about 9 peoeple. When mum walked over as I was almost finished talking to the lady, mum asked me if were able to ride and I said probably not. And mum just immediately walked away in a huff to show she wasn't going to wait around any more and was immensely unhappy. So we walked outside to wait for the bus to take us back. Less than 5 minutes later, while I was trying to persuade mum to calm down and wait a while more and ask again if we could take that ride (which was the last one of the day), the lady walked out and informed us we could still ride as they 'suddenly' had space for more people. We suspected she got scolded by a higher figure who was at the counter with her and saw her treatment of us and our angry-disappointed reaction. Anyway, long story short, we got on the plane and it was filled up! The views we got of the canyon is just amazing. I'm just awed by how vast the canyon is and how different it looks after every few miles.

Then after that 45-minute ride which seemed to go by in a flash, we got back unto the canyon by shuttle bus to catch the sunset at a certain spot. as it was a really cloudy day, the sun came out for a few seconds and then was hidden. Mum said this sunset-viewing activity was actually better than the airplane ride. can you imagine that?? she said the views we got from the canyon was like what you would see in books, and so wasn't too awed or impressed. -_- anyway, tomorrow we're going hiking! that i believe is when you get to see the real canyon from another perspective. :D It is going to be an amazing experience for her. I think it was really good for her to see the IMAX movie and plane ride on the first day and be blown away by what the canyon is all about (like i wasn't when i first viewed it at the rim near my housing in May, haha), but mum seems to take it for granted man. she says it still seems like a dream to her and that she can't quite take in that she's here now in the canyon and it's just right in front of her nose.

anyway, she wants me to mention this. There's this family in the neighbouring table who has 3 kids and it keeps reminding her of our own family. It makes her yearn for the next family trip sometime soon. ahha.

ok anyway, we gotta go now as we need to get ready some stuff for tomorrow. It's a big day for us and if we're not too exhausted, we'll report back to you at night. We plan to set off at around 6 something am as I estimate we'll take about 12 hours to finish the whole hike. It's a relief mum is feeling much better now, after her vomiting and duiarrhea last night. We have lots of food prepared, and she has an experienced hiker with her, haha. It'll be ok. I can look out for her and myself.

Anyway, you guys take care of yourselves as well back in Singapore, and papa you especially, don't feel lonely, take this chance to strengthen your bond with your sons.

sigining off here and gonna look at all the pics we took today,
mum and daughter :)

god bless!