Cash Withdrawal Symptoms

Most of today consisted of us wandering around our neighbourhood, happy and mesmerized.
It's Saturday, and local artists lined a nearby street, offering a variety of impressive works. Everywhere we look there seem to be art studios or paintings for sale, in many different styles and always brilliantly done.
We stopped at a stall where a man painted abstract portraits in vibrant colours. He informed us that Fidel lets artists using a pop/modern style to congregate here each Saturday, and on the occaisional public holiday.
His stuff was great, and despite being a bit pricey I finally bit the bullet and bought one. When I said they'd look great in a bigger size he said Fidel only allows works up to a certain width and length - but we couldn't get to the bottom of why.
He gave us his card, telling us to check out his website, and explained that he exhibits bigger pieces in Miami (there?s a large and influential Cuban community there). He even told us to call him anytime if we wanted to go and look around his studio.

Now all I have to do is get the thing home in one piece.

There were also more heart-in-mouth shennanegans today, as we hit the bank to try and withdraw the cash to fund this trip. We only bought over half of what we'll need, and the banks here are famously unreliable - or simply don't pay out at all.
After being told by her bank that her visa card would work in Cuba, Lucy wasn't as worried as me. My crap card barely worked in Mexico though so I knew I had no chance.
So when Lucy's card was declined (it's issued by a US bank), I mentally drop-kicked a Korean bank teller as I stepped up to the counter feeling sick to my stomach. If my card failed we'd have no choice but to cut our stay in Cuba in half.
My bank is called Natwest, and often gets called Shatwest as they're borderline inept. Confidence was low.
It seems that miracles do happen though; the machine indifferently churned out a receipt, the teller nodded knowingly, and I realized I'd been holding my breath for three minutes straight.


Sidenote: When you walk into a bank, and the man in charge of making sure everyone goes to the right window is wearing a football shirt, don?t be surprised when he follows you out of the bank and asks you for money.