Sunday ; Sunny and warm. Joanne has been sick for one week, Daniel for five weeks.
This morning we walked to Mercado de La Noria to buy some cilantro and pineapple for tonight’s supper. And … for me to have my regular visit with Lucho, a big, old, hairy dog that belongs to one of the mercado’s vendors. Lucho accompanies his person to work at the market each day, and just hangs around the market, mostly just snoozing unobtrusively in secluded corners of the market. I have been visiting him for the month and a half that we have been here. It took him about half that time to lose his wariness of a light skinned gringo, speaking an unfamiliar language, squatting down to talk to him and pet him. Consistent with local culture and attitudes, he’s ignored by everyone while he snoozes all day, occasionally taking himself outside to relieve himself. He now recognizes me as a friend, especially since I began using his name.
Today was a milestone. We entered the market, Joanne went off to buy produce, I went looking for Lucho. I found him, and interacted with him for a minute or two, as usual. As I rose and walked away … he stood up and came with me, accompanying me, his tail slowly wagging, as I rejoined Joanne and we did our shopping. As we left the market, he returned to a corner to resume snoozing. Thanks for the escort, Lucho.
We walked to Lavanderia Cancer to pick up our laundry. It was scheduled to be ready yesterday after 6 PM, but … at that time it was raining, the first rain in the month and a half we have been here, and we didn’t want to go get our laundry in the rain, so we delayed picking it up until this morning. When we arrived there this morning we discovered … <sigh> ... the lavanderia is closed on Sundays.
We have just returned (at 6:30 PM) from our late afternoon walk. HMPH … it’s chilly and windy tonight.
This morning we were planning to go by bus to the area around / between the two big mercados and the Zocolo, to shop at three different stores Joanne was interested in. When she showed me on the map the locations of the three stores, it didn’t make sense to me to go by bus. We walked to each of the three stores, shopping on the way, ending up near the Zocolo. We walked to a restaurant Joanne was interested in, to have lunch, but when we got there I wasn’t impressed with their offerings and asked to go elsewhere. Joanne consented, so we walked to the nearby location of Chili Guahili, the second location of that “fast food” chain in Oaxaca. We had lunch at their other location recently, and I really liked it.
After lunch we continued shopping, and heading back in the direction of our apartment. On the way home we stopped at Lavanderia Cancer and picked up our laundry, which has been there since Friday. I’m still sick enough that five km. / three miles of walking and shopping over a four hour period exhausts me !
For supper Joanne made chicken leg quarters in mole negro, served over rice. MMMMM !
Tuesday ; Sunny and very warm, still a bit windy, 84° F / 29° C at 5 PM.
I was expecting a package delivery today so did not want us to leave the apartment at the same time today, leaving the apartment vacant. This morning I took our empty water jug to be refilled (and delivered later), then returned home. Joanne then went to Mercado de La Noria and did some vegetables, eggs, buns, and cheese replenishment.
Doing some online research of my persistent “cold / flu” symptoms I have concluded that I now have bronchitis, and probably pneumonia. I am resistant to finding and visiting a local doctor at a cost of $1000 pesos, only to be sent to a lab for “tests”, at a cost of who knows how many thousands of pesos, then return to the doctor, for another thousand peso visit, likely to be told “yes, yes … you have some kind of cold / flu / respiratory viral infection, maybe a respiratory bacterial infection, I will prescribe antibiotics, probably amoxicillin or ciprofloxacin. Take the antibiotics for a week or so, then return for another thousand peso visit and we’ll see how you’re doing, okay ?”. All of that done with considerable language barrier, and transportation by taxi or bus.
So … this morning I began taking ciprofloxacin … twice per day, probably for five days or a week. A few weeks ago I took amoxicillin for five days, and temporarily improved quite a bit, then relapsed. Wish me luck !
This afternoon I received my replacement water flosser. I hope it survives the next month and a half, until we return home. That was the “life span” of the original one, the one I received from Santa for Christmas.
I cooked Tilapia fillets for supper tonight, using my special pickerel fillet recipe / technique, with the addition of “Tajin” a Mexican spice in our kitchen cupboard. WOW … it turned out great. I think I want to take some “Tajin” home with us.
Wednesday ; Sunny and hot.
After an early lunch we walked to Chedraui and did our weekly grocery shopping. On the way home I stopped at a health food store and bought some melatonin.
We have discovered that pummeling on my back permits me to cough up a lot of phlegm out of my lungs. Joanne has been pummeling my back for the last few days.
At 7:30 PM we went out for supper to Del Metate de la Abuela, a local “hole in the wall” restaurant open only in the evenings. This restaurant has been on Joanne’s restaurant radar since our arrival here. It’s a very simple operation, set up in the courtyard of a local residence, operated by three men, probably brothers, simple meals, done well, priced well, prompt and efficient service.
Thursday ; Sunny and hot, 91° F / 33° C at 4 PM.
This morning on our early exercise walk Joanne wanted to stop at Juguilita (hoogwiLEEtah) Mole y Chocolate [local chocolate (shockoLAtay) and mole (MOlay) manufacturer] to buy a package of their ChocoLita chocolate milk drink mix. While there the owner was trying to entice us to buy some packages of moles. With a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding we told him that we have already bought quite a few packages of moles from him and the ones we haven’t yet bought are because we haven’t found them in powder form (to take home to Canada), only paste form. He offered to custom make the moles we want in powder form, listo mañana / ready tomorrow. <blink blink> WOW … OK ! We’ll pick them up Saturday. He even offered to deliver them to our apartment, but we declined that offer.
Finally … six days after they were due, my BMO bank statements were accessible on my online account. This is the second time in the last three months that the Bank of Montreal has been unreasonably late in posting bank statements.
This afternoon, with “nothing to lose”, I attempted to “dissect” my broken water flosser, to see what I could learn … or cannibalize. I managed to disassemble it, with considerable difficulty, but no damage. I discovered the source of the malfunction, and, with a bit of MacGyvering, actually “repaired” it … functionally, if not cosmetically. HA HA HA … some duct tape was involved.
I also discovered, to my chagrin, that the rechargeable battery inside is a 1500 mAh battery. The manufacturer heavily brags about the 2023 model being “upgraded” to a 2000 mAh battery. Is he deceiving his product’s buyers ? Or is his factory in China deceiving him ? Since I have been in communication with him via Amazon messaging, I intend to ask that question of him !
Friday ; Sunny and hot, 90° F / 32° C at 5:30 PM.
This morning we left at 11:15 AM for a day of exploring and shopping in the downtown area. Joanne had “saved” in our map app the location of farmacias between our apartment and downtown. We needed to find some medications. We wandered to the first farmacia, and found one of the medications we were looking for. We wandered to a few more farmacias, and did not find the other medications we were looking for. We have decided to stop looking for those two medications, as we have been looking for them for our entire time in Mexico, and in three different cities. Time to give up on those.
We went for lunch to a restaurant that was on Joanne’s online research “radar”. It has a “prix fixe” menu of daily specials. Lunch was very good. Their reasonable price included soup, salad, entree, dessert, and drink. Soup was cream of garbanzo. It was similar to pea soup. Joanne’s entree was pollo milanesa / breaded chicken cutlet, mine was bocadillo atun / translates as tuna snacks, I would describe it as tuna croquettes. Each served with green salad, macaroni salad, and rice. Drinks were aqua fresca Jamaica (ham eye EE ka), a popular local fruit drink. Dessert was strawberry Jello topped with strawberry yogurt. Price for each of us was MXN$75 / CA$6.07.
After lunch we continued shopping for some gifts we wanted to purchase. We bought what we wanted, but … the atrocious service at a couple of the downtown large stores aggravated me immensely. We were undecided about whether to walk home or take a bus. We decided to walk, I need the exercise and sunshine. On our way home I used our map app to find a panaderia that we have not been to before. It required an eight block detour but … WOO-HOO … it was worth it. Mucho pan dulce para gringos viejos ! HA HA HA !
We arrived back home at 3:45 PM. Pretty tired ! Fours hours, five km. / three miles !
Saturday ; Sunny and hot.
This morning we walked over to Juguilita Mole y Chocolate to pick up our custom blended mole powders. Not yet ready ! I should have known … that on Thursday when he said it would be ready on Friday … that he really meant … maybe Monday ! ! ! <rolling my eyes>
Next stop was Mercado de La Noria for fruits, vegetables, and queso fresca. And a brief visit with mi amigo perro Lucho. A short while after returning home I took our empty five gallon water jug to Aqua Purificado La Noria to be refilled and delivered. Until recently I didn’t know the name of our nearby water purification business. Inexplicably (to us foreign gringos) businesses often don’t display their name. Nevertheless, “everyone” seems to know ! ?
If you haven’t figured it out yet, our barrio / neighbourhood is called “La Noria”. The main street running through it is Calle de La Noria. I suppose it’s not surprising that many of the businesses nearby are named Something or Other La Noria. Something seems to get “lost in translation” because La Noria translates as … The Ferris Wheel ! ?
Late in the evening I watched Mission Impossible ; Dead Reckoning … <blink blink> … WOW !
DSK
No comments:
Post a Comment