#167 No Love No Refrigerator

No love no refrigerator. Time to leave Buenos Aires.

I got the phrase from my close friend Veronica as I was telling her the litany of my various woes. Added on to my back injury, my blood pressure, being ejected from my favorite place to stay, and now a trip to Uruguay, that although pleasant, revealed to me that I had invested a lot into something that had never had a chance (in terms of a relationship)

Then, upon my return to the apartment that I had found, the refrigerator was broken. That was five days ago. Thankfully, I am not having to deal with the landlord myself personally. Unfortunately, that job goes to my good friend Max. And I feel bad about it because this landlord is a jackass of the first water. And a cheap one to boot. Apparently, he has told Max, more or less, that how does he know that I’m not the one that broke the refrigerator and caused the water heater not to work? And what will be next, he asks, will I break the television, break the air conditioner, etc.? This demented old fool was obviously born on another planet when it comes to the responsibilities of property ownership. According to the local caretaker in the building, this unit hasn’t been occupied for almost 3 years. And I am sure that cheap bastard never bothered to come in, run the aircon, flush the toilets, run the refrigerator, check that the water heater was working, etc. So of course, for three years all these devices and appliances have been deteriorating. And, as soon as I got here and I started to use everything, obviously, in a matter of days, the deterioration made it self-evident. What was his rationale of how I might have “broken” the refrigerator? I put it up to maximum and left it. I almost have no words. This ignorant ancient is a classic case of a person where the adage “you cannot have a battle of wits with somebody who is unarmed.” is appropriate.

Just before I left for Uruguay, that very morning, the hot water stopped working again. And yesterday, the same thing again. As I write this, I am a little bit demoralized.

I heard from my lawyer about the passport process and although there is only one more piece of paper I needs, and I don’t think it will be very onerous, but it means my passport will be in hand no earlier than February or March. At this point the idea of staying here in Buenos Aires for even another week, let alone until the 19th of December or February, just leaves me absolutely cold. If it wasn’t for this landlord, I probably wouldn’t mind, but I seriously do not need this kind of aggravation from some ignorant old fool that fondly imagines he is in his right mind.

So, as I write, I am debating whether or not to just write off as a loss of rent that I paid for this apartment, call Qatar Airlines, and just head back to Asia.

As it turns out, I realized that today is probably the first day in almost a month, since I had my original problem with my back, that I am having a free day. I don’t count as free days waiting for somebody to come and repair a piece of broken equipment. It’s like being kept a prisoner in your own apartment. Because you can’t leave in case they arrive. The guy yesterday was supposed to be here between 2 and 5 and showed up at 630. And then worked for 4 hours and still couldn’t get the refrigerator working.

… Interlude …

I moved. Now that the forever accursed band Coldplay is not in town, I found a new apartment in a matter of minutes. 😊. So nice and fully equipped with stuff that works. And managed by a professional. The stress dropped away.

However, some administrative reasons require I head back to the Philippines anyway. So I’m heading back on the 1st of December.

The idiot World Cup crap affected the airline schedules. Not sure why (well I suspect Qatar is diverting aircraft to other routes so that they can cater to the puerile clods wasting egregious amounts of money to come in and see the matches). Argentina is in mourning because they lost their first match to Saudi Arabia.

I wish that there was a way to accurately assess the amount of money and effort that is being wasted on this folderol. According to Forbes, this is probably the most expensive World Cup ever mounted. Qatar is estimated to have spent over $200 billion getting the country ready, not to mention there were apparently hundreds, if not thousands of workers who died trying to keep all the projects on track, most of them from Third World nations, working for minimum wages. If you add on top of that, the insanity of what they pay the players, what people are wasting on getting plane tickets and hotels there … I’ve heard that it cost $1000 to get into a match. And I saw the effect upon a country when they lost a football match. This is utterly insane. If these people put that amount of money, enthusiasm, and effort into their own countries they would be so much better off. In my head, a SWAG, I am thinking that the total amount of money involved in this World Cup, especially when you include what people are spending on gambling, is probably in the range of a half trillion dollars. Sweet bleeding baby Jesus! Imagine if that money was spent on almost anything else. Infrastructure, research and development for energy sources, medical care, putting Putin out of business, helping Ukraine, the list is long, no? For God’s sake! And for what? So these idiot athletes can run around in a testosterone induced haze pumping their fists and waving national flags?! Supported by huge numbers of alcohol laden fans sitting on their fat asses in bars around the world (fondly imagining that somehow the ‘glory’ of their team’s win rubs off on them). Yay! Way to go tribalism! MORONS!!!!!

Well, now that I have that rant off my chest … 😊I’ll go post this and get to my Vietnamese lesson … That is a post in and of itself.