La Coruna
Magnetic Attraction
Roger and Margaret Pratt
Thu 2 Jul 2009 20:38
|
Starting not to know what day of the week it
is... In fact it's Thursday, and the first full day in la
Coruna.
One of the great joys of being somewhere with wi-fi
is that we can stream the BBC. So we had the Today programme on early;
listened to Torchwood which was the afternoon play; and had the world service on
this evening.
The intention was to go early to the market, before
it got too hot. The intention was overtaken by the need for a full set
piece battle with Nat West over how to make a payment to Gemini for our
cushions. We had a voicemail from Helen Shaw yesterday when we arrived to
say that Roger's credit card payment for the new cushions had been
declined. I rang the new owners of Gemini to confirm the detail - but it
was still declined. No worries; I could pay by internet banking. But
that didn't work either - I had the card reader/random number generator, but it
wasn't congruent with the card I was using. No worries: I have the
fallback of Private Banking, for which I pay £200/year to have a person on hand
to solve all my problems personally. So I rang at 9am; explained what I
wanted to do; was put throughto 24/7 telephone banking; ascertained that because
I am not registered with 24/7 (!!!) they can't help.... back to Private Banking
with steam emerging from my ears at that stage, to try to find out what they
could do to help. In the end I used the trite phrase "may I speak to your
supervisor please" but she wasn't there either - but rang me back later.
What I did manage to get was the phone number for the charge card office
where after a couple of false starts and having to get me (as card holder) to
confirm a number of details Roger managed to get the card reopened for business
- I think the problem was that the payment was submitted after we started
using my card in France and they thought a fraud had been undertaken. So
I'm left wondering what I am paying for other than very very nice people who are
well trained in anger managemnt, but can actually do very little, To quote
my friend Susan Conner, I gave very candid feedback. But as usual, the
administration always wins.
Anyway, here are some pix from today.
Here is the Market in La Coruna. The market
is open mornings only, and there is a Gades supermarket underneath. We
bought cherries, Gambas (500g of real whoppers - they cost 8 euros!) and bread;
then adjourned to Gades for a goodly chunk of ham, wine, icecream and peas for
the freezer and generally have a scout around.
 The route through to the market is via the Plaza
Maria Pieta - a heroine who managed to grab Drake's ensign on one of the
occasions the English came to sack Coruna. Here are a couple of pix of the
square, showing the classic gallery windows that cause this to be known as the
crystal city,
  After lunch (ham, pork cheese from Loctudy and
salad) we had a siesta and then went for a long walk around the head of the
bay. Roger had an over-optimistic view of the scale of our tourist map and
we were walking over two hours! But apart from the gyp given to the impact
exercise on the knee, he's OK - and more likely to want to take the bikes next
time! Walking in the breeze was very pleasant, and with factor 30 and hats
on we were just fine. The headland had a sculpture park with memorials to
the fallen of the civil war, as well as the Torre Herculeo, a Roman
Lighthouse.
  There's also a picture of the lighthouse, but I
can't get the file to copy accross in the correct orientation.
Tomorrow is another day.... additional beuty
sleep now calls! Roger's already retired hurt....
|
