After
we have returned back to Buenos Aires both me and Roy have been ill.
For Roy we are talking one of these nasty stomach illnesses, with
effects that are not worth mentioning here. I got it too, but my
version of it was not so bad on the stomach, but it still knocked me
out for a few days. We are both still regaining our strength.
As
I came out of our dark room after the few days of illness, I was
stunned by what had happened to the weather in Buenos Aires. All of a
sudden it was boiling hot and humid. So this is how it gets here
during Argentine summer...
One
of the sick days, however, we had to deal with changing our tickets
so that it would not get too close to the date they where set for. We
aimed at getting 3 more weeks here in Argentina, and one of the
reasons to make the change was to be able to make it to our next
destination, the island Tonga in the Pacific Ocean that now have a
travel warning out since there has been a tsunami. Our hope was that
in adding another few weeks it might be enough time for the warning
to lift so that we could go there safely.
On
shaky legs (at least mine where) we went into the office of Delta
Airlines. They said the changes could be made, put the penalty for
the change was 290 dollars per ticket (£175 and 2000 Swedish
kroner)! That is a lot of money for us travellers and since the
tsunami is not our fault, we where wondering if they would be able to
lift the charge for us. The girl behind the counter was not, but she
gave us a phone number and Roy called the customers service. For half
an hour he was negotiating with the person on the other end on the
phone. I heard it was an intense conversation and I sat next to him,
tense, biting my nails. Every now and then Roy got silent when they
where negotiating on the other end of the line. Our Delta flight is
not taking us to Tonga, see, it is taking us back to Los Angeles,
USA, and from there we are flying to to Tonga, so the only thing Roy
could do was to ask Delta to help us out of good will, not out of
obligation. After a long time of it looking quite hopeless, and Roy
talking and negotiating, taking new angles on the matter, pleading
the case and being nice and polite (not getting upset or aggressive), all of a
sudden they guy on phone the said OK. We did not have to pay $580!
Roy is my hero and I am so proud of him!
This
means that we are now booked on a plane from Buenos Aires to LA on
the 4th of December. Great!
One
of the days when I had some hours out of bed and enough energy to
deal with the heat, I was looking for a studio to paint in. I found a
little room in a private house of this bachelor guy. I know him
thorough an artist organisation where we have rented a room for
dancing before. My new studio is small, not renovated for years and
smells of damp, but I like it! He has never rented it out before and
asked how much I wanted to pay...that tells me he is not much of a
business man, which is fine by me. The house he owns is one of those
Argentinian houses where all the rooms have doors to an open
courtyard with no roof and with stairs up to the second floor with a
terrace. My little studio is in one of the top floor rooms and it is
nice! I am so happy and will start spending time there next week.
Love
ania
