Cordoba, Tuesday

[E-mailed to blog submission address out of order, but was written on Tue as per timestamps below.]

Tue 2152 So woke up this morning with phone batt down to about 4% due to use in bed. Tried to charge it and really struggled; this plus failure to use the USB OTG adapter last night despite balacing tricks (which had prev been completely successful) made me flip out slightly and I decided the connector had finally died. I did manage to get it charging again after a few minutes and to jump ahead I also managed to charge it this evening, tho powerbank went dead when got to 78%ish (remember it charges super slowly now plus I forgot to put it on during couple of hours was out this afternoon).

But I was also thinking it was on its last legs and looked up a phone repair shop on smart TV  browser and mulled while watching shit on YT as phone charged.

I thought I'd see how I felt at phone repair place - did I get a good vibe, did they have cheap smartphones I could buy to get me through the last few days instead, blah, blah - but when I got there maybe 4ish it was shut, despite their web site IIRC and Google Maps saying they were open til 9pm and were open then.

So I had a quick look on GM and natural history museum (full name in a photo) was nearby so went over there - free to get in despite sign outside saying it was 50 except Wed. Not huge but quite a nice circular building. Despite happening to tell Z (based on Wikitravel memory from skimming article few days ago) I wasn't going to see the large spider fossil I ended up in that museum by sheer chance. As it turns out while it is a damn big "spider" there's actually a board next to it pointing out it's actually IIRC a sea creature more related to sea scorpions.

Checked phone repair place after hour or so at museum and still shut. Popped in another place nearby which seemed more computer repairy (but kudos for trying) and asked if they repaired phones but they didn't; guy told me about shop which was shut and another down the road which I think was also shut if the place I saw was place he mentioned.

In a way I feel I "accomplished" stuff today rationally or otherwise. I think in part there's this lingering idea that "doing shit" means I'm using my time productively. I'm not saying going to the museum wasn't fun in a quiet way and yes the mobile phone shop query and supermarket experiences were a tiny dollop of real practical Spanish experience and I sort of got to "be here" etc, and I'm not saying lurking in flat excessively is good/better, but need to be careful not to fall into that "busy is good" mentality.

Came home to pick up my returnable beer bottle and went to supermarket near flat, queues from hell again tho not quite so bad as weekend, perhaps as it was getting on for finishing-work time. Turned out I should have handed the bottle in at some mysterious machine in the body of the shop which would have given me a discount ticket for my shopping (and you only get two days to return the bottle?! so you're not allowed to buy a beer on Mon, drink it at the weekend and return it next Mon? maybe I misunderstood) but the cashier sort of let me get away with it and I had bought a new bottle (the brilliance of the returnable scheme is that it "traps" you on a particular brand) and will go back tomorrow and see if I can return that. Also got some alfajores (with dulce de leche, if there are diff types, which I think there are, ISTR buying some more jam-ish ones on prev trip but mem may be bad) and have gorged on those tonight after cooking

Done some laundry (last night when clothes will have time to dry) and had most of beer and watched way more crap on YT.

Wrt phone going to have to be careful but will try to keep batt over 50% so I have some headroom for eg airbnb comms if it does become unchargeable, have jotted some passwords down on paper (and made a note I need to do a practice "I've lost my phone, how painful is it and what do I wish I'd done in advance" when I am back home; I *had* briefly thought about phone being stolen but I either didn't or wouldn't allow myself to think through the fine details - I guess I need to do a kind of DR exercise to shake out the problems) and unless it becomes totally unchargeable tomorrow am prob going to not even try to take it into shop tomorrow, because what if I have a train on Wed as I do and shop is shut when I go to collect or they've got it in pieces and are busy and refuse to give it to me.

Once I get to BA I'd *like* it working but it becomes a bit less critical (I have to go to a net cafe to print boarding pass and as long as I know an hour or more in advance that phone is knackered I can more or less equally well do online checkin from net cafe) and I'll probably continue to nurse it along and deal with the problem once I get home and having a working phone is less critical. It does occur to me repair *may* be cheaper here, but far from guaranteed plus as a foreigner (and a Brit in Argentina at that) an unscrupulous repair guy may take advantage and if I really have to argue there's a potential language barrier, so may be better to take it to a shop back home, plus if I check YT and/or web and when I'm back home with tools like soldering iron and/or ability to buy tools off web I may well be able to have a go at repairing it myself.

In case it's not clear, things are more critical until I get to BA because I have an airbnb reservation and I can't quite just assume "I know the address, I simply turn up on the day after checkin time" as I could with a straight hotel booking, so if my communications go out I could be stuffed. Once I'm settled in BA this issue mostly goes away.

Oh, I never checked again but with one thing and another the possible English lang practice thing tonight just totally fell by the wayside. I'm far from sure it is even here in Cordoba but anyway I just didn't even think about going, not that bothered and bit distracted by phone and supermarket tonight.

(Actually just checked Wikitravel and they say the spider fossil is at university museum, I was at Illia museum; maybe WT is wrong or it moved or there is a true spider fossil which is huge at university museum.)

2359 Bed. I'm on 21st floor (UK style numbering in this building) of a tower block in the second largest city in the country and yet I hear that chirping cricket (?) noise now I've turned the TV off. Weird and slightly cool.