Tuesday 2 January 2018

Phone lost again!

I just lost my new J7 phone, the one with my Spanish phone number. So my WhatsApp contacts will be wondering what has happened to me.
I really need some rest but I don't have the courage of my convictions to tell my friends that I want at least one day on my own. So, after the party last night, I was very tired again, still with the feeling that I have some kind of bug which doesn't help the jet-lag. Alexander came to my apartment at 10am but there is no bell and he didn't say he was coming, so I missed him. Then it rained a lot so they couldn't come to see me anyway. I wrote up my blog and then they invited me for lunch at their home. We then went together to the centre of Cuba, Nini's dad came too. I wanted to buy a couple of phone chargers with a Colombian plug and we went to great lengths to find them, it was a bit crazy, I said that there was no hurry. It was a fiesta today so then I went shopping for food for me in Éxito, then we went to another supermarket to buy food for them, Alexander paid for it. Then we took a taxi back to their home and I left after a short while. I was feeling quite rough by then.
I forgot to ask Nini to remind me of the name of the zone where I live, I know it well by the bus route (or even bike) which follows Calle 70 but taxi drivers go by zones. I couldn't see the turning which I normally take because it was dark and raining. We overshot into the centre of Cuba, under the underpass and he took a right after that. I kept on saying "Calle 70" in Spanish of course, but he claimed not to understand me. He stopped and asked two passers by, they didn't know. Calle 70 is one of the main spokes of the wheel coming out of the centre. I began to get impatient, fuelled by tiredness. This was not a good plan. I got out my J7 phone to show him on Google Maps where we were, I could see Calle 70 but he seemed not to understand maps. The upshot of it was that we argued and he threw me out of the taxi and it was only a few seconds later I realised I had left the phone on the seat of the taxi. But by then he was driving away. He will think it is his lucky day.
I walked from where he dropped me to the bus station and took a number 14 bus back home. The bus journey was crazy, the driver was going like a maniac and hitting bumps with venom. I was trying to message Nini.
When I got home, I changed my Skype password but Movistar wouldn't let me block the phone. The message said, "Call 1004". Well!! If I had a phone, I would do that but I don't have a phone. So, if it is used, then it will just stop at the roaming limit.... I hope.
I got rather depressed about the whole journey, about my plans to live here. Maybe the difference in culture is too great. But unpleasant taxi drivers are in the world over and I admit that I was rude to him. And my brain is in a constant fog, more so now with my tiredness and a possible virus or whatever it is. But it has been with me for many years. Not senility, I am sure of that. Just a fog which won't go away. But it is with me wherever I go, and it affects my memory and has cost me two phones in quick succession. My other problem is that my nerves and energy keep me awake long after I should have gone to sleep and I am very vulnerable because I am over-tired.
A short while ago I was going to ditch the whole idea of living here but Nini and Alexander are very keen to look after me, I can see them doing it all the time and I am very touched. So maybe I will try to explain the fog to them, Nini trained as a nurse. Maybe that is just what I need. What is the alternative? To spend my days in boredom in the ruptured society which is Catalunya. Certainly I would never go back to the UK.


We are meeting at Alkosto tomorrow morning to replace my J7 but, of course, the Spanish SIM is in the phone which was lost so it won't be much use to me for a while. But I will put my Colobian SIM in it and create a new WhatsApp account with that number. Maybe Movistar can post a SIM to me. And I will buy the TV that I promised them. My Colombia phone number is +57 310 272 3797 so try sending a WhatsApp message to it any time. Sorry, I published the wrong number earlier. +63 is the Philippines!! Now you can see my problem, I think I know what planet I am on but which continent...?

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