Priceless....for everything else, there's mastercard

Well.... blogging is SO much fun when the Prof is badly behaved. The worse his behaviour - the better the post!

So, as you have gathered, he is at it again. Before I tell, I need to give you some background information.

The first part is that Arno burnt himself with boiling water last week, whilst we were on holiday. SIGH. I don't know WHERE that child came from...
It went like this. He was making himself a cup of tea. For some strange reason that maybe only boys understand, he made it by holding the tea bag in his fingers, and then pouring the water over the bag in the cup. Maybe he is working out some scientific formula, or perhaps dreaming up a new design...hey - maybe it was giving him some earth shattering insight into how gravity works or the earth spins? No??? You think not? Mmmm...me either. It boils down to (sorry - no pun intended) ... plain DUMB.
The water missed his tea bag and hit his fingers, at the full force of 100 degrees at which water boils at the coast, he pulled back his hand and in the process knocked over the cup of water which splashed against his tummy - causing a lovely blister the size of 2 R5 coins laid out next to each other. It also broke the cup... but that was minor.

The result of that unfortunate event was that Werner and I had to go out to buy stuff for burns, and that we didn't go to the beach that day. Now while we were on holiday, Cream Puff phoned diligently every evening to speak to the children. The first few conversations were great excitement over the sea and sand, but after a few days - that got a bit tame - telling the same stories over and over. But not THAT night. Now they had something "news worthy" to tell... and of course, whoever got the phone first, was going to be doing the telling.

Yup, true to form, Cream Puff phoned. Carissa got the phone first, and promptly blurted out with the news that Arno had burnt himself.
The phone worked it's way through all the children, passing over to the Prof on the other end, when my children took the phone.
We heard some more conversation going around about the burn and then they said goodbye.

It didn't occur to us to even think about it again. In fact, the next day we bandaged up Arno's burn, but when we saw him again - he was happily swimming in the sea, bandage gone, with no apparent worry over the popped blister.

Now, some drum roll music please...dum dum dum... the phone rings. The Prof on the phone to speak to the children. He gets Marinda and the conversation goes something like this:
"Marinda, I have thought about Arno's burn, and I am very unhappy. What would have been the first thing you did if Arno got burnt on the farm?"

Marinda is wracking her brains... put ice on it (no mom says - NEVER put ice on a burn wound), so now - what answer is dad after?
She decides to go the safe route: I don't know dad...

"WELL...you would have phoned your MOTHER of course."
Huh - that was not what she was expecting. Into the silence he continued:
"Yes, you would have phoned your mother first. I am very upset that you didn't phone me about this, and that I had to hear it 12 hours later...from Carissa".

Oi - there is a LOT to be said about this conversation and train of thought - but it will make the post too long! Suffice it to say - it made me realise again - how much the Prof's thought patterns - get him into awful fixes of his own making.

Once again I thought the story was at an end. Most especially because once the Prof saw the actual burn mark - he realised it was no big deal.

Now, the 2nd piece of background I need to tell, seems unrelated - but I promise... this strange story comes to 1 end.
In the settlement agreement, it says that at the end of April, the Prof's maintenance payment goes up by the amount of CPIX at the time. Now, I am no financial expert, and have even tried to find the CPIX value for last month... but to no avail. I am now happy to report to South Africa in general - that last month's CPIX was 5.1%

This is how I found out:
The prof makes his electronic payment, and sends a bank confirmation email to me. The email itself contains NO message whatsoever. The Prof made a vow about 6 months back to never write me email again (except when he really, REALLY has to). So now, when he has issue with me... how does he sort it out - WITHOUT resorting to writing email?
But of course... you write it in the payment advice sent by the bank, together with the CPIX details - all in one go!

So, this month's payment advice comes with the subtitle:
Rxxx+5.1% cpix = Rxxx and then you can't even inform me when my child gets burnt?

Priceless. But... to be honest - with my great observation skills - I almost missed it completely. I only looked closer this month because of the CPIX issue. I think I ought to print and frame that. Making some volcanoes out of mole hills, Prof?

P.S. hey - maybe I should go back and check all the other month's payment advices - wonder what treasures I missed in those? Cheers - I am hot on the heals of all the ABSA payment advices...