Cordoba, Wednesday

Wed 2343 Phone batt 87%, not sure should be wasting power on blog but if don't write this now may not get chance for ages.

Slept surprisngly well, got up 1145ish IIRC. Then massive panic as unable to charge phone, really losing plot embarassing levels of panic. Did manage to get it charging but now having to resort to weighing it down with half litre of water in a bottle to keep pressure on - and this evening had to add a couple of hundred ml extra to charge, so clearly this cannot end well.

E-mailed BA airbnb and have told them phone playing up and arranged to turn up at the address at 1030, so as long as train not too late should be OK and worst case have to find a net cafe.

Went out 3pm-ish with view to IIRC going to city museum but it was closed for renovations - have photo. En route one of mobile phone shops which was shut yday (is Tuesday just "don't open your shop" day?) was open, went in and after brief queue managed to speak to someone over sound of pneumatic drill in street outside. They said they could fix it for ARS1k and I could collect it tomorrow afternoon but said I had to get train and they couldn't do it there and then. I was dithering over going in at all since just putting huge pressure on re collecting before train (eg if they just decided not to open at all tomorrow) but torn towards going in on offchance they said they could do it while I wait and given huge panic every morning re toping up. Kudos to shop they did suggest getting it done at other end of journey.

After finding museum shut went on to original intended phone repair shop before going into another museum saw nearby on Google Maps a bit at random. Other shop open as well but they wouldn't do anything with a Blackberry.

I feel a little better about the repair prospects now, I have been given an acceptable price as a baseline and at least one shop has seemed willing to do it, so this gives me hope I can find somewhere in BA to do it. I may go and try this Friday after I check in, tho maybe reluctant to risk being without phone over weekend if they don't open weekend, and in part this is why I am writing this now since I may just poss be without phone almost immediately on getting to BA and won't want to burn batt on train writing this; tonight there is at least a chance of a top up tomorrow before I check out.

Nearby museum was (from mem, not faffing with maps) Tarrini (sp!!) architecture museum in bank building nearby - gorgeous stained glass ceiling and murals, real "Bank of Ankh Morpork" level stuff, and a small but nice collection of paintings - easily standout for me was a near-photo-realistic scene of slightly run down street with an old car parked, something about the way it wasn't quite photo realistic really appealed to me, some of the colours (eg the sun reflection on windscreen) really intense. Free to get in, staff member I asked a bit taciturn but OK, he told me ground floor only so maybe there was another floor I wasn't able to see today. But at least I did something today and it was quite fun.

Packed tonight, except bits and pieces re cleaning teeth and charging phone. Quiet evening in with YT. Bit stressed about tomorrow, prob mainly due to phone power issues, which is a shame as had been looking forward to this train journey. See how it goes.

Oh, I popped out maybe 2pm (leaving phone charging in flat) to supermarket to return the Iguana beer bottle and get food to cook tonight. I found the automated machine which accepted my bottle and gave me a coupon worth ARS6 (I'll ignore fractions) even though I knew (I had kept the receipt handy) I had been charged an ARS25 deposit. Not super great behaviour but I cursed out loud to myself about this, then decided as an experiment I'd see if I could find a customer service desk to ask about this. And I could, and I did. And MoS was quite helpful in an uncommunicative way, disappeared for a minute or two, then came back and gave me ARS25 cash (in extremely ratty notes) after I signed the receipt. I actually got stiffed out of a tiny fraction of a peso as desposit was a TFOAP more than 25 but still chuffed, even tho amount not huge. I then got screwed over in typical supermarket style by buying what I thought was a cheap tin of sweetcorn which scanned at double the price, but decided not to argue. Pretty quiet in supermarket as I was there 2pmish.

OK, think that's the key stuff. Batt down to 84%, gonna send this now as better that than forget.