Nov-2013 Buenos Aires

   (e-mailed to friends & family)

All well here. Except I have had a cold. Amber has tennis coaching on Mon, Wed and Fri morning, with perhaps a game after with a friend, yoga on Tue, Thurs and Sat mornings, photography on Thurs evening. During which time I just sit here, but the internet resources at my disposal can keep me fully occupied and contented. It has changed so much in just five years. The weather is not brilliant - had the aircon on for the first time last night. But then during the night there was a fierce thunderstorm, and it is cloudy now. But I am wearing my shorts, so it can't be too bad. We have watched the latest series of Mad Men, and are just completing series 3 of The Borgias. Some evenings we just play Burraco, our card game introduced to us by my sister in Lima. We are expecting a visit today from my old friend and neighbour Vicky, who has come with a friend (husband stayed home) for a cruise to Antarctica. And we go out, to lunch in various places, to the square for a drink or coffee and watch the tango dancers (and Amber to try out the latest learned settings on her fancy camera), down to the corner to sit outside with hot chocolate, to the market to shop and generally nose around, and the odd wander further afield. We both have odd feelings of guilt, that surely there must be some duty that we ought to be doing, but no, this is it! Argentina is, by and large, a duty free zone.

 

Vicky, my ex neighbour in Chiswick, and her friend Jackie stayed 2 days here, and we had a fabulous time, not least because they enjoyed it, and San Telmo, so much.

 

Beatriz (our cleaner) sent a message that Dennis had just died.  Dennis was married to Beatriz's husband's wife, and they lived with them in the same house in Hampton.  Dennis was English, about 60, overweight, and paralysed from the neck down.  They were all happy to look after him, and he did stuff like dinghy sailing, and going up Snowdon with a team of pushers (and area I could get into, I suppose, but don't). Anyway, Dennis died, and Beatriz emailed me with the sad news, so I suppose she's taken some time off work.

 

Went to a milonga with Mercedes which was fab.  There was a performance by three couples from a Downs syndrome school who were amazing.  All highly choreographed, of course, with various show-stopping moves, but the crowd really cheered and clapped and enjoyed it and the performers looked so pleased to be appreciated.  Look, we are Downs syndrome, and this is what we can do.  In UK I think perhaps the line would be we are Downs syndrome, but don't look, and pretend that we are just like everybody else.  There were lots of gays there, and a general feeling of anything goes, so dancing you had M-F, M-M, F-F, and sometimes one would lead and sometimes the other, so you might have a F leading a M.  And sometimes you couldn't tell whether someone was M or F.  It all felt very liberating, with so many prejudices discarded.  I feel as if I have glimpsed the future.  And all in a very ordinary, local bar in Barracas.  And as in Greece, the locals take your presence as a compliment, not an intrusion. 

 

We went to the house round the corner of a yoga friend of Amber's yesterday for a performance by her husband Mickey, with piano bass and drums.  He is a jazz crooner, I suppose, and the musicians are really really world class.

 

Carolina and Concon, the son and daughter of my sister's daughter Monica, with their father, are coming to BA at the end of the week for the world polo championship, and have organised for us to have tickets with them to the two grand final matches.  It's alright for some!  Concon, 14, is a keen polo player and has a handicap well in excess of most players in England.  And we will go out to another polo match 50km out in the country with them.  We will just get out taxi man Jhonathan (sic) to take us there and back.

 

For those of you who haven't heard about the Aerolineas saga, this is a letter to them:

 

I have travelled with my electric wheelchair from London to Buenos Aires (4 times), to Beijing (4 times), to Hong Kong (3), to Viet Nam (1), to Madrid (2), and from Buenos Aires to Calafate (1), to Mendoza (1), to Salta (1), and to Lima Peru (1).  Sometimes I am asked at check-in what sort of battery it has, and I tell them Gel or Dry cell, and I have never had a problem.  Prior to this flight, we advised Aerolineas (via the agent) "Disabled, electric wheelchair, weight 50 kg, Dry cell batteries"

 

After checking in normally, and in good time, we were asked to go to the Assistance desk a few meters away.  I told the Aerolineas official at the desk the details of my wheelchair.  But he didn't believe me!  He wanted to dismantle the battery box to see inside how the actual batteries were marked!  The box is held together by 8 screws, which need a long screwdriver. It took more than an hour for the maintenance man to arrive with his screwdriver.  Unfortunately, his screwdriver was too short, and it took a further half hour for a longer one to be brought.  Then we could see that the batteries were marked prominently as being of Gel type.  But the Aerolineas official had his paperwork, which he was following rigorously.  It had a list of possible phrases for the battery description, at least one of which had to apply.  One was "Gel cell", but my batteries only said "Gel" and not "Gel cell"!  So the official said we couldn't fly, and that was that.  After 3 hours, it was the sum total of the help Aerolineas had to offer.  I speak Spanish fluently, having been born here, so there was no misunderstanding.  My condition makes it impractical to argue vehemently, so there was no rudeness on my part.

 

The Aerolinas official, of about 35, seemed at first like a normal airline official.  But he behaved in a way which exhibited astonishing stupidity, and lack of knowledge and training.  He said he was the senior safety officer on the Aeroparque site, so there was no higher authority to appeal to.  The other Aerolineas staff studiously avoided any involvement.  The maintenance staff just giggled at the incompetence of the Assistance official.

 

By now, of course, the flight had already gone.  Fortunately we were able to book a LAN flight for that afternoon.  LAN behaved throughout in a normal and adult way.    

But there is more!  After retrieving our checked-in bags, we came across another Argentine passenger, riding on the identical make and model of wheelchair as mine.  It had Aerolineas baggage checks on it, and we naturally asked whether he had been passed at the Assistance desk?  Yes.  But.  He had been supposed to fly the day before, and they had refused his wheelchair and put him in one of the airline's manual wheelchairs.  He was about 60, with no legs, and fairly corpulent.  Not a good candidate for a normal wheelchair, and sure enough he had overbalanced and tipped over backwards, cutting his head, and had to spend the night in hospital.  Today, Aerolineas had relented, and was allowing him to take his normal electric wheelchair.  When I remonstrated to the Assistance desk staff about this, they said it did not affect my case, and they gave no sign of finding the situation at all odd. 

 

With hindsight, and with an eventual satisfactory outcome, all this seems fairly amusing.  But seriously, Aerolineas appears to employ senior staff with a significant lack of training and intelligence (even by health & safety standards!).  I don't think I shall ever again trust Aerolineas with my convenience, let alone my life.

 

I have naturally told this story (through my agent) to the Aerolineas head office, and claimed a refund, but I do not hold out much hope.

Gavin McHamish

 

In reply to concerns about our experience:

 

No, we didn't get too upset, thanks for your concern, and it all turned out OK in the end.
 
I have become fairly used to the fact that I have little control over anything, and I now realise that a lot of the stuff that worries you never happens, so what's the point?
 
Actually what we were faced with was that Mercedes, who we were going on holiday with, had got on the flight, and it would be a poor do if we didn't turn up.  The rough maintenance man could easily have destroyed the battery box, and then where would we be?  Would LAN be just as awkward?  We had already paid the (quite high) hotel bill.  We could possibly get a rental car and drive there, which would take 12 hours.  What if we got lost, or got stuck, like last year, on a deserted road 50km from anywhere with a puncture and a useless spare tyre?  If Aerolineas finally let us on the flight, what were the chances of getting another idiot for the flight back, and be stuck at Cordoba airport?  What if I had a heart attack, right there?  Then they'd be sorry!  Actually, they wouldn't.  But we would start a whole fresh train of worries. 

 

In fact we let most of it wash over us, and, having coffee waiting for the LAN flight, smiled at each other and squeezed each other's hand.
 
Awwwww!.....

Still.waiting to hear from Aerolineas about a refund.