I was shattered before I started, I am not sleeping well at the moment, and I don\’t know why. I finally got up with Pépe at 6am, had my shower, whilst doping that, Pépe woke Marcela, who had not had a good night herself.
We arrived at the Medical Centre on time, and saw my new Doc, she seems very nice, it was a good job, Marcela went with me, because she spoke so fast, I still haven\’t a clue what she said. She was pleased with my weight loss, which was a relief, although my blood pressure was up, that may have been a combination of a bad night, and my first local visit to the Doc, I don\’t really know.
Anyway, she has put me in for a number of tests, similar to those I had with the other Health Service Provider, all in the same place, but not as before one test does all. She has also applied for an appointment for me to go for further tests relating to the problem I had with my \’fruit bowl\’ a week or two ago, she is not happy that the pain has returned, even if there is no further swelling, we shall now see how long it really takes for an appointment to come through for the common man! Saying that, we have had further contact from SURA and I have a meeting with their local Boss, to apply again for the complimentary cover plan, on Friday.
From Copacabana, we flew across to San Juan, and waited for the Clients to arrive to look at the Tucson, they were not \’Clients\’ at all, they were Dealers, the first made out there was a leak from the turbo, and tried showing me, even though I hadn\’t a clue what I was looking at, and made a ridiculous offer, I thanked him, and asked him for my keys back, the second was a woman, who said she was looking for a car for herself, but from the standard of the car she arrived in, ours wasn\’t going to fit the bill, she said she would let us know.
As a result we went around the corner to Hernan\’s Garage, and showed him what the man had shown us, and what he had said, he laughed, the Turbo is at the back of the engine compartment, not the front, and what he had showed us, was grime mixed with residual oils, nothing more…. that was a relief.
Marcela then had the idea of visiting the showroom, where we had bought the car, I tell you what, she has more bottle than many men I know, I guess it\’s a cultural thing, we went, and blow me down the owner spoke to her over the phone, as he was out, and as a result of speaking to his Staff, he offered to buy the car back, for only a fraction less than had been our target price. That was a purchase, with no strings, however we wanted to see what the woman was going to offer us, so off we went, later we were told the offer had been made, and was exactly the same as the previous offer, so we turned it down.
We then headed home, stopping off for a bite to eat on the way, Marcela dropped me off, picked up some documents and headed off again. Shortly afterwards, two lads turned up to remove the stainless steel worktop, I asked them to be careful, and almost immediately they broke one of the long laminated supports for the units under the top, by yanking it, without removing all the screws, I was livid, and they kept making out they couldn\’t understand me, so I had no option but to ring Marcela, and ask her to return home, in the meantime, they had damaged the drain fitting in the sink unit, so things were going from bad to worse, when they had disconnected the drain piping, and then one of then emptied water into the sink, which proceeded to soak everything in the unit below, I lost it, and went outside before I said or did something I would regret. Likewise once they knew Marcela was returning, they sat by their wagon and waited for her.
They explained to Marcela that damage was minimal, but they had no intention of paying for it, so Marcela rang the Kitchen shop, who said they would arrange replacement parts, as they are coming at 8am tomorrow to fit the granite top… Please let that go smoothly, I can\’t take much more!
After a conversation between ourselves, Marcela rang the car showroom, to accept their offer, but they want the car, we were able to delay a day, because we have to have the Chip removed that gets us through the Motorway Toll Booth without handing over money, as it turns out, we can remove it ourselves, but we didn\’t know that at the time.
The plan now is, that the morning will be taken up with the fitting of the new kitchen top, Marcela will then take off in the car, to take it to the showroom, and hand it over, in return for the cash.
We then had two options, one was to buy a new Renault Stepway 1.6, but the colour we wanted is not on the production line at the moment, and won\’t be until the beginning of next month, so that ruled that one out, the other is the Chery Tiggo 1.6, and Marcela played a blinder, playing one local Dealer off against another, again, as we are buying new, we wanted to pick the colour, which on second hand cars, has never been much of a consideration, and we wanted \’wine\’ or a deep red, the one could get us one but it would be a week, the other had one in the showroom as a demonstrator, but only for people to sit in, it hasn\’t left the showroom, that we could have on Saturday. The latter worked out, after bartering, one hundred and eighty pounds dearer, and that wasn\’t going to break the bank.
There have been a number of concerns raised regarding the purchase of a car originating from China, and we put these concerns to both Concessionaires, the car has recently undergone a transformation, as a result the sales of the model, have taken off, mainly across the southern hemisphere, we are assured that it will be a good purchase. What has to be remembered is that we are on the other side of the world from Europe, and those cars thought to be a good buy there, are out of our reach, price wise here, unless the maker has a factory in South America, and then the standard changes anyway, which is the case with Renault, it is not of the same quality as that sold in Europe, although it is still a popular make.
Back to tomorrows agenda! I will follow Marcela on the Honda, rain, tropical storm or sunshine, pick her up, and time allowing we then have to call back at Bello for Marcela to collect some papers from the Notary. It\’s definitely going to be another hectic day.
An Englishman in Colombia 