Time to pick up my monthly money. Every time I go out and deal with any sort of officialdom I have a heavy heart. That said I have never had a problem with Argenper. I walked into the office and typical Wednesday, it was empty, so I never thought to take a number. A woman was picking up a pair of shoes at the front, then she went back to the cash desk. I don’t know what sort of transaction they were doing but the dialog was continuous. Then the guy behind the counter had a polo shirt he was holding up for her, it was starting to look more like a stall in El Once. After what seemed like an age someone came in and took a number, followed soon after by another five. This could cause a problem, as without a number, I was effectively last. Eventually the second counter called “next” the guy who had taken the first number was quick, but not quick enough, had I missed my turn I would have been here all day.
As I said I have never had a problem here, with Argenpur, always easy and always the right money. Not today though, when I gave Viv her money there was a $50 in there with the 100s. Not a great loss in the grand scheme of things and I am still up on the last lot of money, but bloody annoying. I have to check every note from now on, and when it is like monopoly money, that can take some time.
You just cannot beat the system here; I walked into the post office, two counters open, no one else waiting, but I took a number anyway. (you don’t get me twice in a day). The girl to my left finished, so I positioned myself ready. She was too busy on her terminal for customers. The girl to my right finished with her customer, so I shuffled right. No luck some one had come in behind me with a parcel. They have priority, it seems. Actually here, every one has priority, children, pregnant women, cripples, men with dogs, Fiat owners, everyone but me. Eventually I did post my letters, but this is getting annoying.
Off to Milonga de Juan again today and as always when we get down on the subte we had just missed a tube. So I decided to try and connect to the subte internet, just because I can. It was not going to happen though, two guys pushed past us to get to the subte map. They were trying to get to Tribunales. I told them to change at Callao onto the “H” line then onto the “D” line. I got an incredulous look from one guy as if to say “but he’s a foreigner” I asked where he wanted to go and he said “Nueve de Julio y Tucuman” so I told him to just stay on this train and get off at Peligrini. Aparently they were not happy with my advice and asked someone else, who told them to get off at Peligrini. Maybe I am not a local but I spend a lot of time down here. Anyway it seems the bigger of the two guys had been asked by the smaller one and he could not help, then we found out that he was a hawker on the train. You would think he would know his way around.
Milonga de Juan was quiet when we arrived but we managed well for dances although it dried up for Viv later. By the time we left it was getting quite busy, but the floor is good and the air conditioning is inbuilt, so we were a lot more comfortable than yesterday.