Crazy Five Hours - A Day in the Life of ....

 

Even if I didn't quite look this horrified, it's an accurate depiction of how I felt!

    After Shacharit and my first meal earlier today, I logged onto Zoom to start preparing for my host of Hebrew lessons. It was just after 1pm.

    I noticed a little bar at the top of my Zoom that said I had 1 or more outstanding invoices. What on earth?, I thought. My Zoom subscription only expires in May...

    Then I remembered the four lots of R8 that I woke up to earlier, that had been deducted from my bank account for "declined foreign transaction". I had immediately sent an email to the forex department asking them to kindly reverse the incorrect fees charged, thinking they pertained to the only foreign payment I had made in recent months. 

    When I discovered this morning that my Zoom subscription had expired 4 days ago, I began straight away to feel like the person in the image at the top of this post. What am I going to do?, I asked myself and HaShem.

    My first class was in less than 30 minutes by this time, so I hastily emailed that student to say that due to circumstances beyond my control, we would be unable to have the class today and I requested we move it to next week. I then just as hastily messaged all my other students for Mondays and did the same thing with them. I thought Tuesday and Wednesday could be dealt with a bit later.

    I first thought I would revert to Skype, but after being told by two people that it was about to cease existing, I thought I had best think of another platform. I know that Google Meet and my laptop are not good friends from a previous experience, and remembered my sister had told me she uses Microsoft Teams. OK. Full steam ahead to look at that platform.

    But first, I had to cancel my Zoom subscription completely to stop them trying to take the fees for 2025/2026 off my already-in-the-red bank account. The Bot is helpful up to a point and I asked it to please let me speak to a person, which is when Josephine G came online. I explained my dilemma to her and she rephrased my problem to me in jargon I couldn't really understand, which I told her, and then repeated (more like bleated!) my request to get Zoom to stop trying to take money I don't have. She understood but said I would have to pay for the activity I had taken part in over the last 4 days. It was only Five Dollars, she said. Which isn't much, I guess, but when your bank account is overdrawn by R30 already, it's a fortune.

    I tearfully phoned my son who, after checking I was actually on the official Zoom portal, bless his heart, sent me the money to cover the severance payment to Zoom. Josephine G, bless her heart too, then said she had finalised the cancellation of the renewal (I think that's what she called it) and would now go ahead and take the money for the activity over the 4 days, which she did. What a relief!

    Now, I had to tend to my students. I didn't know how long it would take me to set up everything on Teams, so I first cancelled all my classes for this week and moved them to next week, giving myself breathing room. I managed to get the platform more or less working, but had to call my son back - Baruch HaShem he's in IT - to help me, as I was trying to do everything too fast in an effort to make it work quickly. 

    Through no fault of his, I made a huge mess of everything and had to redo it all over, twice. I sent my students links to Google Meets and cancelled them, before finally managing to get it right. My poor, beloved son. I am grateful that he was patient with me today. My nerves were shot and I was trembling. At one point in the proceedings I did remind myself that this did not catch HaShem by surprise. That did help me calm down a bit.

    When I looked for the recording button to record my classes, which I have done on Zoom for years, I dug deep, only to find out that a private person does not have that privilege.

    It took 5 hours of non-stop machinations to get through all this, I might add. Old ladies and technology....!!!

    Last year this time, you might remember that a Zoom Angel had found me and given me another year of being able to use Zoom for my teaching. I am so grateful for that. Now it's time to join the ranks of the Microsoft Teams group - absolutely nothing wrong with that.

    May HaShem's Name be exalted in all I do, whether on Zoom or Teams, or anywhere else.

    Purim is days away. Let us increase in simcha!

Hag Purim Sameach!