Sunday ; Sunny and very warm, 82° F / 28° C at 4 PM.
Watched CTV’s W5 this afternoon (thanks to VPN). Episode on Romana Didulo and her cult’s “occupation” of a little tiny town in Saskatchewan. People of her ilk are truly a danger to society. And … Canada’s RCMP seem to be becoming more and more useless every day ! (I’m not a fan of law enforcement anywhere ! Collectively as agencies and individually as officers !)
On our late afternoon walk we were approached by an old gringa who had just arrived here from Michigan. She correctly surmised (based on our skin colour) that we could speak English. She asked about the safety of the neighbourhood, location of grocery stores, produce markets, restaurants, etc. I’m always admiring of single women of any age who have the courage to travel alone.
Monday ; Sunny and very warm.
This morning we took our empty five gallon water jug to be disinfected, refilled, and delivered back to us a few hours later, then walked to Mercado de La Noria to replenish milk, vegetables, and queso fresca. We took another long walk around the neighbourhood at dusk. After supper we watched last week’s episode of Survivor. Throughout the day I did some online research and browsing.
As Joanne was washing dishes after supper she let out a loud shriek ! I rushed to the kitchen just in time to see a huge cockroach scurry under the fridge. I asked her why she didn’t just stomp on it instead of hollering for my help ? Her response ? “Yeah … I’m not stomping on anything like that while wearing slippers ! That’s your job !” HA HA HA ! OKAY !
Looks like our gender roles are still pretty well defined, n’est-ce pas ? HA HA HA HA HA !
P.S. ; When I finished typing that a few minutes ago (a few minutes before midnight), my day was done. I closed my laptop lid, got my bedtime medications, and walked to the kitchen to get a cup of tea to wash down the pills. <BLINK BLINK> … STOMP
There ya go, sweetheart … problem solved ! <cleaning the bottom of my slipper> <and the kitchen floor>
Tuesday ; Sunny and hot, 90° F / 32° C when we returned home at 4:45 PM.
At noon we headed “downtown”, by bus, for an afternoon of browsing and exploring. Mercado Viente de Noviembre, Mercado Benito Juarez, Zocolo, La Casa de las Artesenias de Oaxaca … and many places in between. Bought some souvenirs, bought some gifts, had an excellent lunch on “Meat Row” at Mercado 20 de Noviembre, found a new, large panaderia and bought a LOT of pan dulce. Took a bus home.
Had a good day !
Wednesday ; Sunny and hot, 88° F / 31° C at 4 PM.
This morning we walked to Mercado de la Noria to replenish vegetables and tortillas. Before I saw Lucho, he saw Joanne. He actually pranced over to her, tail wagging, head high. HMPH … he never “prances” for me ! Seems to be a bit of a “Mama’s boy”. HA HA HA ! Not surprising, I guess. He belongs to a middle aged señora, and her elderly, abuela aged mother, each of whom runs market stalls across an aisle from each other.
This afternoon I spent forty-five minutes in online chat with a SKYPE agent trying … and succeeding … in getting a refund for the annual recurrent charge that they made to my credit card three days ago, for the next year’s worth of service … a month after I cancelled the service ! ! ! I vehemently HATE automatic recurrent charges ! ! !
We had another long walk before supper. We watched last Saturday’s episode of SNL while we ate dinner.
Thursday ; Sunny and hot, 90° F / 32° C at 5 PM when we returned home from our mall adventures.
We left home this morning just before noon. We took our bag of dirty laundry to Lavanderia Cancer, then from near there caught a bus that took us a long way down Avenida Universidad, past the large university campus, to the three shopping malls just beyond the south end of the university. The three large shopping malls are lined up all in a row, covering a fairly large piece of real estate. Picture the Mexican version of the Crossroads shopping area in Winnipeg on Regent Ave. from Lagimodiere Blvd. to Kildonan Place.
First mall we went to was Plaza TecnoModa. Three storeys. Huge, really interesting, somewhat upscale food court covering most of the second storey. Joanne’s online research led her to select three interesting food places to consider. She purchased lunch at her first choice, I selected my lunch from her third choice. Both of us were very satisfied with our choices.
We wandered around all the areas of the mall. Many of the outlets were phone, computer, and electronics stores catering to the university crowd. Everything in this mall seemed geared to the university crowd. Including the … <sputter> … large Teflon skating rink in the basement. HA HA HA … with bleachers for people to watch their friends trying to skate. And … believe me … mostly failing ! HA HA HA … yes, yes … Mexicans lack ice skating skills !
From Plaza TecnoModa we walked to the next mall, Plaza Del Valle. This was a large mall mostly dedicated to upscale, youth oriented, clothing stores. We wandered all around this mall, then headed to the last mall, Plaza Oaxaca. We had been here before, but had not wandered around the mall much, mostly we had been here to shop for groceries at Soriana, the huge supermarket anchor.
This time we wandered all around the mall, finding nothing much to interest me, Joanne found interesting clothing stores to browse. When we FINALLY … <sigh> … were finished browsing at clothing stores we went to Soriana and did our weekly grocery shopping. The bus trip back home seemed simple and easy, since we had done it once before.
Even though we took a bus in both directions, we walked 6 km. / 3 ¾ miles today.
Friday ; Sunny and hot, 91° F / 33° C at 4:30 PM.
Well ! HMPH ! Today we experienced the ultimate exhibition of “Mexico time” ! ! !
Two months ago I made appointments for two dental cleanings for today at 1 PM. I made those appointments with la doctora herself, face to face, in her office, assisted by her ten (?) year old daughter who spoke less Dick and Jane English than I speak Dick & Jane Spanish. Today I had in my wallet, wrapped around a thousand pesos, the cost of the two dental cleanings, the small post-it note la doctora gave me at that time, with “Marzo 15, 1 PM, limpieza dental” written on it by her.
We arrived at her dental office at 12:50. It was closed and locked. At 12:55 Joanne suggested I phone her. I did. It was a difficult and frustrating phone call. Before she even said “Bueno” (bwayno) upon answering, her baby was wailing into the phone. She must have been holding her loudly crying baby when she answered the phone. I identified myself (Esta gringo Daniel aqui), advised her in Dick & Jane Spanish that we were waiting outside her office for our 1 PM dental cleaning appointments.
Her response was in rapid fire Spanish … of course. The only part of her lengthy response that I could comprehend was that she thought our appointments were for May 15, not March 15. PHHHHHTTT ! The rest of her response was lost on me. I repeatedly explained “no comprende”. Eventually she hung up. I had no idea whether she told me to wait … or what ? Was she going to be there soon ? ? ?
We waited twenty minutes, then returned home to have lunch. As we arrived back at our apartment, I received a text message from her. One word. In English. “PLEASE”
WTF ? ! ? Did she mean “sorry” ? ? ? <shrug>
Oh, well. By the time we return home in 2 ½ weeks Joanne will be eligible to register for Canada’s new dental care program. I’ll be eligible in two months. I guess we’ll be getting our next dental cleanings at home in Canada, (mostly ?) paid for by the taxpayers.
At 6 PM we walked to Lavanderia Cancer to pick up our laundered clothing. Late in the evening we watched Wednesday’s season premiere episode of Amazing Race.
Saturday ; Sunny and hot, 91° F / 33° C at 4:30 PM.
Late this morning I walked to Aqua Purificado La Noria with our empty five gallon water jug to have it disinfected, refilled, and delivered to us later in the day, while Joanne walked to Mercado de La Noria to replenish fruits, vegetables, and queso Oaxaqueño. After dropping off the water jug I met her at the mercado. I didn’t see mi amigo perro Lucho today. Maybe Saturday is his day off ? HA HA HA !
We delayed our late afternoon walk, waiting for our water jug to be returned. The refilled water jug is usually returned to us within a couple of hours, but on Saturdays it takes longer. I suppose Saturday is a busy day for them. The refilled water jug was returned to us at 6 PM, and then we went for our late walk.
We needed some sandwich buns, so we walked about six blocks to Panaderia y Pastelaria Quemen and bought a couple of bolillos. Oh, my … how fortuitous … <snicker> … they sell rebanadas grandes de pastel tres leches con chocolate / large slices of chocolate “three milks” cake. HMMMM … I bet that’ll make an excellent bedtime snack. HA HA HA !
A few days ago I bought a package of pudding mix at Soriana. Yesterday afternoon Joanne prepared the pudding mix following instructions. Something went wrong. It wouldn’t solidify, just stayed a bowl full of liquid. We were going to discard it, then I thought … maybe I could make licuados / milkshakes with it ? Our apartment has an excellent blender. I emptied an entire tray of ice cubes into the blender, pulverized the ice cubes into slush, added some pudding liquid, ran the blender a bit more, et voilà … excellent milkshakes !
Today I received more 2023 tax information slips so tonight I continued working on our income tax returns.
So … at midnight I shut the lid to my laptop, turned off the desk lamp, and was taking my empty tea cup to the kitchen sink … AH, SHIT … STOMP !
DSK
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