Task of the day - break in to our own mobile. Long ago - like last February - shortly before leaving Cyprus we switched mobile phone providers and acquired a new SIM card. Good reason for the change: our previous had gone to the nasty North American habit of requiring a top up every month. CYTA, our new provider, required top ups only annually. However, its SIM had a quirk of its own - a PUK (personal unlock key, PIN of sorts) that was required to unlock the phone after it had been shut down. Only inconvenient initially, but nine months later mentally irretrievable. Yes, it was written down with the initial purchase info and, actually, not thrown away. But not something that it occurred to me to bring along this winter. But we're now in Cyprus and Paphos has a CYTA office, so presumably the problem is soluble - and I can't be the first to experience it.
CYTA office is about two miles away, uphill. Well, it isn't uphill both ways. And there's a green grocer half way along that's always worth a stop. At the top of the hill, looking for final directions, we find a mobile sales and repair shop that sells CYTA products. The owner is nice in a low key way. The CYTA shop is closed - early closing on Friday - and not open on Saturday. He can probably phone through, though. But it turns out they won't release the number without more info - like the phone number, easily retrievable if we could open the phone. However our friend has a plan B, which basically consists of leaving it overnight while he hacks in - though this is not presented anything like so crudely. It will be working in the morning, 100% sure. So we leave with no phone and, actually, no receipt. In a one man shop in a country where everything is based on personal relationship it would be too rude to ask a man who has been so helpful over the past fifteen minutes to provide one. And the mobile is neither new nor smart.