Neighbours

So far I have been very lucky with my neighbours. When I first moved in there was only the young couple downstairs, both teachers in their 20s, friendly and quiet.

Then a few weeks ago, the other downstairs flat was occupied by a young woman and her son about 6yo. There is no sign of a husband, unless he is away working. But they are the owners of Dolce, the cute little chihuahua who pees herself whenever she sees me. Both the girl and her dog are very friendly and she even gave me a fridge magnet of a home maintenance service if I need any work done.

Latest news is that the condo next to me has now been sold, and that one of the penthouses may be as well. Time will tell but fingers crossed for good neighbours. I reckon I've done my time with the neighbours from hell, now it's time for some peace and quiet.

A Happy Ending (aaaahhhhhh)

Ah yes we all like happy endings. Especially when it involves getting what you want. Or more specifically, what I have been wanting, waiting for, stressing over and finally despairing of.
Yes folks, the internet has arrived at Casa Zac.
After having made the decision to give up on Cablemas and investigate Telmex and Dish’s options, I called in to the Telmex office just around the corner from home. I waited patiently in line at the Customer Service Desk where eventually a bored-looking girl who could no longer ignore the fact that I was standing in front of her, asked what I wanted. Hardly an auspicious start, but I ploughed on. I want to get the internet connected, I told her, but I don’t want a phone. She looked at me like I was an alien and told me that wasn’t possible, you need the phone line to get the internet. How long would it take to get it connected I asked? 2 weeks she said, then under her breath, “mas or menos (more or less). By now I was wise to this. Ah, so it’s about 2 weeks but could be a month? I replied. No, it could be sooner than 2 weeks was her response. (yeah right, Cablemas had told me 5-8 days but it could be sooner and look how that had turned out).Ok I said, what sort of options are there? She thrust a brochure at me and was already looking at the customer behind. I had been dismissed. They don’t take the customer service bit very seriously here.
Glancing quickly at the brochure I saw that the cheapest package was 389 pesos which is already more expensive than the Cablemas deal but with no TV included. Dish would cost me an extra 150 a month, so effectively I’d be paying 50% extra every month, not to mention installation fees. Sure I’d have a phone with 100 free local calls, but it’s actually cheaper to phone Australia from one of the phone centres on every 2^nd corner here.
So regretfully, it looked like I was just going to have to bite my tongue and wait for Cablemas. I would be away from home from Thursday till Monday morning anyway, so the time would go a lot faster, and maybe next week….
I went to the CFE office and paid my electricity bill, then was heading back to the RE office when my phone rang. It was Lita, who told me excitedly that Cablemas had said they would be at my house tomorrow between 9 and 2. That was great news, and even if they didn’t arrive until 6pm I would be happy to wait at home all day for them. As it turned out I didn't have to, he arrived about 9.30 and got to work on the roof threading the cable down through the wall By about 11 I was able to turn on the TV and view my 40+ channels - at least 2 of which are in English. Not long after he connected the wifi modem, organised my password and yay! I'm in. Hallelujah!

Cablemas The End

I guess I was hoping this would have a happy ending - that some time this week I’d be able to say that YES cable TV and internet had arrived at Zac’s Shack.

After the supervisor’s visit last Friday and his assurances that the connection would be Monday or Tuesday, I decided to pop down to the office to find out which day it was programmed for so I wouldn‘t be waiting at home unnecessarily. I called past the RE office and Lita was horrified that this drama was still going on after almost a month and insisted on coming with me. She started by asking them how long a new connection takes, and they responded 5-8 days (exactly what they told me a month ago!). She then asked why this has been dragging on so long and what they were going to do about it. They put me on the list and promised to phone today and let her know when it would be. It’s now 8pm, no phone calls. I can’t believe the lies they tell - anything to keep you quiet and make you go away! And it just continues day after day - manana, manana, but manana never comes. I don’t know how these people can go to work every day knowing they have to lie continuously.

So tomorrow morning I’m going to talk to Telmex (the only other internet provider) whose office is just around the corner from me, and find out how long a new internet connection will take, prices and conditions - and get their word that if it doesn’t happen within the time promised I will get a month free. What are my chances? Who knows but it’s worth a try. If I get a reasonable response, then I will head straight up to Cablemas and tell them where they can stick their contract. While I’m sick and tired of Cablemas there’s no point cutting off my nose to spite my face unless there is a better option. And I certainly don’t want to be in the same boat waiting another month for Telmex. It would also mean that I’d have to organise TV with someone like Dish and get a satellite dish installed. I can live without TV for a few more weeks, but I’m starting to get a bit over having to go out every time I want to use the internet. Having to type up blog postings at home, save them and any pictures onto a USB and then cut and paste. I spent almost 2 hours today at an internet café with a hopeless connection that kept dropping out and could not manage in all that time to send an important attachment to someone. Every time it almost got there it died and I had to start all over again - aaaarrrrgggggghhhhhhh!!!!!

Not a happy vegemite today!

Travel Plans

From Thursday to Monday I’m heading down to Akumal towards Tulum for a conference with the RETA Real Estate Trend Alert group. The purpose of the group is to find good RE opportunities around the world - sometimes that might be “the next big thing“, sometimes it’s fire sales that represent good value - the sort of opportunities that the global financial crisis has helped create. Developers whose buildings have been empty too long and now have the banks breathing down their necks. I’m not at all sure I have the finance to take advantage of any of these but who knows? It’s certainly worth finding out more. So when it gets way too hot and humid in Playa I can pop down to my other property in…… Ecuador? Brasil? Panama?

It’s being held at the Bahia Principe, one of those 5 star all inclusives - luxurious accommodation, numerous restaurants, cafes and bars, all you can eat and drink is included. I will probably roll out of there as fat as a pig, but hopefully I can stay sober enough during the day to collect a lot of useful information and some good contacts.

The resort of course offers wifi internet, which is pretty exciting for me at the moment with all my Cablemas dramas, so at the very least I will finally be able to do some research - will probably stay up half the night catching up!

I’m planning a trip south through Central America, from Guatemala through Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and maybe Panama. I will probably do one of those small group things like I did when I came to Mexico in 2008 and first fell in love with Playa Del Carmen. It’s a good way to see all the main sights at a reasonable cost and with someone else taking care of the logistics. The one I’m looking at is about 4 weeks for about $1000, includes local transport, accommodation, a few meals and visits to important sites in each country.

I’m also planning a bit of time in Ecuador. International Living Magazine has voted it the best retirement destination for several years running. It’s tops in climate, living conditions, cost of living, etc. The only thing I am a bit concerned about is the altitude. Quito is the 2^nd highest-altitude capital city after La Paz in Bolivia, and at 2800m it’s considerable. After having spent several days in Cusco at 3400m either lying in bed shivering or with my aching head down the toilet, and then getting another dose when I climbed to 3500m on Lake Titicaca, it’s not an experience I’m keen to repeat. I took Ginkgo Biloba pills and drank gallons of the local coca-leaf tea which is supposed to help, but it only seemed to act as a diuretic for me. A head massage with eucalyptus aromatherapy did really help but I was too ill to take part in some of the planned activities. I believe there are also antibiotics you can take to reduce the effects so I will investigate whether they are available here. And of course not all the cities in Ecuador are so high. Cuenca is at around 2500m which is not much above the 8000ft high altitude mark. I had no problems in Mexico City at around 2400m, so that should be OK. Altitude sickness is a funny thing: there is no telling who it will hit. Age or fitness level don’t seem to make any difference, you are just either lucky or unlucky. So I plan to be better prepared this time, and although I normally hate having to take medications - if it’s going to keep me upright and my dinner down, bring it on I say!

Cinema Milestone

A bit of a milestone for me today - I watched a movie in Spanish - no subtitles! OK so I admit it was Gnomeo and Juliet, which had been dubbed from English to Spanish, and the story wasn’t that hard to work out. Still, I understood most of it, probably missed some of the jokes but on the whole I was quite proud of myself. I’d been hesitating for a few days and then just decided to be brave and go for it.

Now I don’t think I will just jump right in and starting watching the adult movies in Spanish, that could take a bit more time. But slowly slowly… I’m getting the hang of it. Fortunately most of the movies at the Cinema here are shown in English with Spanish subtitles, it only seems to be the kids’ movies that are dubbed and I guess that makes sense.

My first bill arrived!

I know it seems silly to get excited about getting a bill. I gues it makes it all seem more real. My electricity bill arrived today, for 2 months (but really only 1 since I´ve been here). It was $50 of which $40 is the deposit - actually I thought it was a connection fee but the bill says deposit so maybe I will eventually get it back.
Which leaves a bill of around $10 for the month, pretty good I reckon. I haven´t used the air con much but the heat has started in the last few days so maybe next time it will be more. Actually it will be more because I now have all my appliances, and working hot water which I didn´t for a few weeks. From what the bill says, the production cost was 589 pesos of which the government contribution was 486 - I like the fact that the Mexican gov helps pay my bills!

I had a nice beach walk this afternoon, checking out the inevitable wedding on Playa Mamitas, kids playing beach volleyball and people relaxing to live music. I stopped for a margarita for only 25 pesos, not very large but enough to make my head spin! Walked home smiling and thanking god for my life - even without cablemas!

Italian Cooking Part 4

It was my final day at my cooking class today. We made a wonderful thick leek soup with bruschetta and a crusty top. While that baked, we made a delicious mushroom risotto - stirring, stirring for 20 minutes then letting it rest with butter and parmesan.

Both dishes were absolutely delicious, and things I can do without a pasta maker. To buy a pasta machine here is around $80 - I had one at home that I only paid about $20, so I will bring that next time I return.

The next classes in part 2 are for main courses: beef, pork, chicken and seafood. I’m going to give it a few weeks’ break before I return as the investment of 1100 pesos is considerable. The course is certainly worth it, as well as learning something new, all the ingredients are paid for and you get to bring home plenty of food. I still have lasagne in the freezer and will also have to freeze some gnocchi. I’ve hardly had to cook at home since I started the course.

I have to return to the Italian centre one day next week to collect my official diploma. And then I need to repeat as many of the recipes as I can so that I remember the technique. Adriana gave us the recipes for everything we cooked, and at the end of each class we had to sit down and write out the instructions ourselves, in our own language. She says that helps us to remember them better than being given them all complete. I’d love to do the ravioli again but suspect it will be very very hard work rolling out the dough without the machine; I don‘t even have a rolling pin.  And there are a couple of places here where you can buy fresh pasta so I may just do that and make the sauce myself.

Cablemas round 4

After the promises that the supervisor would definitely come around either Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning, and that I would have a phone call by 12noon on Thursday to tell me what was happening, phone remained silent.

At 2pm I went past the RE agents office but neither Arturo of Jorge were there, so I continued up to the Cablemas office and presented myself to the girl who had made the promises,  who was chatting with another employee. I reminded her of her promise and she phoned the supervisor’s office, then told me that he hasn’t been able to get there but was definitely going within the next 2 hours, so I would have an answer by 5pm. I managed to find the words to tell her I didn’t feel at all confident as I have given empty promises for 3 weeks, but she assured me it would happen. I’m sure their training is more in lying to the customer to shut them up, than actually fixing the problem.

So I returned home and waited, and waited. Four o’clock came and went, 5 also. By this time I had decided to cancel the contract and go with someone else.  At 6.45 the phone rang and the girl told me the supervisor was waiting out the front (why don’t these people just ring the bell?) so I let him in and he inspected the cable outlets and asked me where the cable inlet was. Of course I didn’t know and Martin by that time was gone. We checked upstairs but without lights we couldn’t see anything.

He promised to return the next day, I told him I couldn’t be there in the morning so he promised to be there at 1pm. I dashed back from my cooking course, one o’clock passed, then two. Finally at 3.05 he appeared and spoke with Martin, who didn’t know where the inlets were either. He inspected the roof and then looked inside the cable outlet in the living room.

The outcome is that yes, I can have cable, they will bring it in overhead lines. But it’s not going to happen today, nor probably tomorrow. Most likely Monday or Tuesday - he says they will phone and give me a date but not a time so I just need to wait in all day.

In the meantime I have bought another DVD player which took me 2 days to get going, but at least now I do have some sort of entertainment.

Two weeks in a row I have missed my volunteer work out at Coco’s cat refuge waiting for Cablemas. Hopefully by next week it will be connected and I can go.

Another one of those days

Manuel from the furniture shop had promised to call me on Tuesday to arrange for a new TV unit to replace my damaged one. It´s now Thursday....  It´s almost a full time job just keeping up with all the people who promise to do things and then don´t.

so I decided I´d come across to Plaza Maya to have a chat with him. The shop was open with another young man behind the counter. Where is Manuel, I asked. Oh, he´s in our other shop today. That would be the shop just around the corner from home, which I probably passed while walking to the bus stop....

I might as well go to Soriana and have a coffee. I was pleased to see the coffee machine had returned, but although they were advertising Coffee and Donut for 16 pesos, there were no donuts. I went to the cashier and explained the problem to her, she asked another girl, who asked someone else. The answer came back, no we have no donuts. Now the cafe is right beside the bakery from where even I could see at least 100 donuts winking at us. I offered to go over myself and get some for them. Oh no senora, those are THEIR donuts, we don´t have any more of OURS. But isn´t this the same shop, don´t your donuts come from them? Useless trying to understand, but there was no way I was going to get a donut there unless I bought it myself. They seem to be suffering from a serious lack of forward thinking, this was after all only 11am, so the whole day people are going to be asking for donuts.

Cablemas, who yesterday promised, hand on heart, to phone me by 12 noon, have done it again. It´s now 12.45 and not a word. I think the only option is to cancel the contract, they seem to have so little regard for customer service that even if I did get it connected I can see I´m going to have lots of problems dealing with them.

The only good thing so far today is that I have successfully sent the dead DVD back to Mexico City, where it will supposedly arrive next Tuesday and hopefully I will hear something within a few weeks after that. I´m almost resigned to having said goodbye to the DVD inside it, A Good Year.

Stay tuned for round 4 of Cablemas. I´m heading back there now to give them a blast.

Cablemas Round 3

After having promised me that a supervisor would call me on Monday and organise the immediate connection of my cable TV and internet, my mobile remained resolutely silent on both Monday & Tuesday. I seem to have become a no-go zone as far as Cablemas are concerned, which doesn’t augur well.

Wednesday morning I returned to my cooking class where we made Gnocchi by hand with a tuna sauce, and afterwards with my Tupperware bowls still warm and fragrant, I decided to visit the real estate agency to see whether they could help, hoping the smell of lunch might help persuade them! Arturo accompanied me to the Cablemas office not far from his own, and explained the whole situation in much more fluent Spanish than I have been able to offer them so far. And he even managed to get an answer. Much as I dislike asking for help, sometimes you just need a native speaker to sort out the truth.

The outcome is that either this afternoon or (no not again) manana morning, a supervisor will definitely come out and ascertain whether the connection is possible or not. Forgive me for being cynical, but would that be the same supervisor who should have phoned me on Monday? Don’t even go there. It seems that there are points of either 4 or 8 outlets, each house is connected to an outlet but at the moment there are no free outlets near me. Someone needs to check whether an 8 can be put in place of a 4 or whether they need to add new points. Then, supposedly, the girl will phone me tomorrow by lunchtime to tell me definitively whether they can connect Cablemas or not, and hopefully when!

Arturo says if they haven’t phoned by lunchtime to come back and we will go around again, make a scene and either get it done or cancel the contract and go with Dish which is a satellite type installation. The problem is that I have already researched this, and while Dish seems appealing, they only do TV so I’d still have to organise the internet with someone else and the whole thing would cost me more not to mention the hassles of dealing with 2 different companies. So let’s hope Cablemas come through this time.

Yesterday I phoned RCA and got the info I need to send the DVD player back to Mexico City, and better still, the freight co is right around the corner no more than 200m away. I have copied the receipt and written out my details and I just need to pack it securely - of course having kept it for 2 weeks, I threw the box away just a few days before it died. But I am trying to do something with the microwave box which isn‘t really cooperating. And of course I don’t have packing tape.

In the meantime I’ve been to a few shops looking at prices to get another DVD to use while I‘m waiting, but they all seem to have inexplicably sold out the cheap versions at the same time. Walmart have a home theatre system with speakers for 1430 pesos ($120), which seemed like a good idea until I realised that the speakers wouldn‘t have a place to plug into the old DVD when it comes back from repair. Need to think that one out more.

I’m trying to leave tomorrow free in case - maybe - just perhaps - Cablemas comes through. Need to think positive thoughts!

Making Lemonade

Although life’s dramas sometimes get me down, particularly when the bad things all happen at once, I always manage to get over it fairly quickly and to make the best of things. When life hands you lemons, make lemonade! Life’s all too short and it’s a shame to waste it feeling cranky, things are as they are and no amount of swearing, crying or fuming will change that. This week I’m learning patience, and what’s really important in life, which is NOT cable TV.

So, feeling much more positive today I have decided that if nothing happens with Cablemas tomorrow, to buy myself another Dvd player. The cheapest I’ve seen is about $25 which in the whole scheme of things is nothing, and then at least I will have a spare, or I can use it in the guest bedroom when I eventually get another TV for there. Hopefully it will last until the other one comes back from the repairer!

I also realised that there is something I CAN do at the moment with my laptop, which is starting to make up the pages of a book of info for my guests when I rent the apartment. What buses to catch to the various shopping centres, where to go for internet, which Laundromat is best, recommended cafes, etc. That’s a task which will take quite some time, including research about prices and websites. I can make a start now and then fill in the extra info I get from the net once it’s connected here.

Cranky Saturday

I was seriously cranky yesterday afternoon. The disappointment of the Cablemas saga really made me sag, and then when I took my almost new DVD player back to the shop where I bought it, they told me they wouldn’t do anything, I would have to phone the company myself and arrange to send it back to them. But they are only open Mon-Fri and of course Monday is a holiday so it will be Tuesday before I can even talk to them. Which means I’ll be without a DVD player for about 6 weeks because the guarantee says the turnaround time, once it gets to them, is within a month.

I went to talk to Manuel at the furniture shop because the guys had inspected my damaged TV unit and promised they would speak with him and arrange a new one. No, he tells me, nobody has spoken to me. But he knows I’m a good customer as I have already bought 6 pieces of furniture from him, so he has promised to phone me on Tuesday and let me know when they can deliver it.

As if to add to my mood, there were no interesting specials at the supermarket and even the coffee machine had disappeared. I collected the movie program for that week and was pleased to see some new offerings, bought myself a chocolate cone from Maccas and headed over to Sam’s Club to check out the price of DVD players, thinking that it might even be worth it to buy a new one. At the moment I’m totally without entertainment - no TV connected, no internet and no DVD, and I’ve read all my books. Even though I hope it’s only a few days until Cablemas comes through, the evenings can be long twiddling my thumbs!

I’ve been trying to organise a visit to Puerto Vallarta, and even the flights are proving bothersome. There are no direct flights from here so I need to change in Mexico City, but the one daily flight to Puerto Vallarta with the low cost airline leaves an hour before my flight from Cancun arrives.

Dolce the Chihuahua was as usual very pleased to see me when I got home - nice to know someone cares! I cooked myself a delicious dinner of baked chicken breast with potatoes, garlic and rosemary and had an extra glass of wine.

Sunday dawned warm and sunny and after squeezing my orange juice I headed to the beach for my swim and walk along the sand. The beautiful turquoise Caribbean made me remember how lucky I am to be living here. But it was quite windy which blew sand everywhere so I only stayed about an hour, then back to a small café for breakfast. 38 pesos bought me scrambled eggs and bacon, sliced banana, watermelon & papaya, orange juice and coffee (or something resembling coffee but tasting of cinnamon). Home for a shower and try (unsuccessfully) to get the sand out of my hair and ears, and now I’m listening to music and relaxing with a real coffee and donut, and planning my afternoon movie which will be either “the Rite“ with Anthony Hopkins or “Unknown” with Liam Neeson. I’m particularly looking forward to getting some new books, think I’ll choose 4 this time just in case Cablemas doesn’t come through. I need to remember that my having TV and internet is not life and death. I might start the latin dance lessons tomorrow night, that will occupy my nights for the week. Plus I have my date with the Canadian now I’m feeling better.

Elastic prices

Prices here seem to be quite elastic, changing from day to day.

The water I usually buy cost me 9.9 pesos for 4 litres last week, but this week when I went to stock up, it had risen to 14.9 - a 50% increase! Walmart had it advertised for 9.9, but both times I went there they didn’t have any. I ended up buying another brand, but when I went back to the original shop the next day, it was back down to 9.9. Makes no sense to me.

The white wine I’d been buying for 40 pesos a litre, has suddenly jumped to 52.

Similarly, my usual milk jumped from 8.9 to 11 in a day, so I think I’ll hang on for a few days and see what happens, maybe it will change again.

There are price differences even between various shops of the same supermarket chain, so the prices are obviously not set by head office. And between different supermarkets prices can vary quite dramatically - when Mega had oranges for 2.9 a kilo, they were still 10.7 at Walmart. Each supermarket sends shoppers to the others so with their docket they can prove that their own prices are lower than the competition, but in the end you just work out which shop to go to for each item you want. Walmart’s donuts are always cheapest at 3 pesos each, Chedraui are 4.1 while Mega’s are 5.5. The Soriana at Plaza Maya used to have a great deal of 14 pesos for both coffee and donut, but their coffee machine has disappeared recently. Hopefully it will return.

Waiting for Cablemas....

Yesterday they told me that the serviceman would come between 8am and noon “manana” to connect up my cable TV and internet.

I dutifully got up at 7.45 and dressed quickly so that I wouldn’t be still in my pyjamas when he arrived. For some silly reason I had it in my head that he would arrive first thing and that it would all be sorted by 10am and the rest of my day would be free for the other things on my list, like checking out the gym I just read about. I needed have bothered. I guess it’s Murphy’s Law, that had I slept in he would have been knocking at my door at 7.58, but in fact I could have slept in till 10.30, had a long, leisurely shower, made breakfast and still have been ready in plenty of time to receive him.

It’s now 12.20 and there’s been neither a phone call nor any sign of him. I remember when I lived in Italy and I was waiting for the hot water to be connected, and that the lesson I was meant to learn over those weeks was “patience”. Well, if I learnt it then, I’ve certainly forgotten it by now. I’m finding it hard to sit still. I have made and eaten pancakes, washed the floors, dusted, trimmed my nails and read several articles in a magazine. I’ve cleaned out the fridge, taken out the garbage and re-organised the pantry. I have written shopping lists for 3 different supermarkets, lists of things I need to do, lists of things I need to research on the internet, possible travel itineraries. I’ve tried plugging in the DVD player to 3 different power points, hoping it will magically come to life again (no hope). All while keeping one ear open for the sound of the intercom, or jumping up every 15 minutes to check the road outside for Cablemas vans. It doesn’t help that I spent 6 hours yesterday waiting for him, so I’ve already done pretty well everything I can do to pass the time - all the drawers and cupboards are already tidy. I have no books to read, I can’t watch a DVD and of course I can’t go out. Aaaaarrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhh!

At 12.30 I went out to ring them and give them a blast. I found out yesterday that the free call number of course isn’t free from my mobile and I didn’t intend to waste another $4 or $5 waiting while they investigate, again! I’m experienced now in pressing the right button and asking could they transfer me to someone who speaks English, and I ended up with the same young man. On checking my file, he told me “I’ll be honest with you, no-one will come today”, and then told me he would put in a report to find out why several appointments have been broken. So now I will get a phone call from the supervisor. The bad news is that it’s not going to happen before Monday, however he assures me that the technician will also come on Monday to connect it. I’m not holding my breath, and I need to keep reminding myself that this is Mexico, after all it’s not much more than a 3^rd world country and I shouldn’t expect too much. Stay tuned…

In Vino Veritas

I am enjoying trying the different types of wine here. Although Mexico is not known for its wines, in a few days there will be a wine festival here so I’m hoping there will be tastings.

I bought a litre bottle of white wine for 45 pesos, mainly because it came in a carafe-style bottle with a lid, and I wanted but hadn’t been able to find a carafe anywhere. The wine turned out to be quite drinkable, a bit sweetish although that’s certainly preferable to being like vinegar.

The 1.5 litre bottle of sparkling peach wine for 65 pesos was also surprisingly tasty. Again I bought it for the gorgeous bottle. It’s starting to sound like a habit.

The lambruscos imported from Italy have all been good, and at about 70 pesos a bottle they are quite reasonable. Wines imported from Chile and Argentina are usually in the 80-120 peso range. Casks (Chateau cardboard we call them in Australia, and the quality is excellent) don’t seem to have arrived here, but I have seen some 2lt bottles which I might try now I have a carafe. But I’ll certainly need my trolley to bring home a glass bottle with 2lt of wine, and I don’t know how it will go bouncing up the steps to casa mia.

I’m definitely drinking more water here in a hot climate, even bringing home 4lt bottles at a time, but I do like a glass of wine with dinner. I am reminded of a cutting I tore out of a magazine recently:

In wine there is wisdom

In beer there is freedom

In water there is bacteria

Happy drinking!

Vaselina!

I’ve bought so far 18 DVDs, not that I can watch any of them now as my DVD player is dead, with A Good Year stuck inside. The most I have paid is 60 pesos $5, the least 15 pesos $1.25. The age of the movie doesn’t seem to have any bearing on the price, and I’ve found some old movies like “My Best Friends’s Wedding” still costing 100 pesos, while A Good Year cost me only 30. And the prices can vary from shop to shop so I search every shop for new acquisitions.

Most times you need to rummage a bit through the shelves to find something interesting, and that was how I found that famous movie with John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John called Grease. Unfortunately in Spanish that seems to translate to Vaselina, and while “Grease is the word” might have a certain ring to it, “Vaseline is the word” most certainly doesn’t.

The movie “Sideways” translated somehow to “Between glasses”, and I wish I hadn’t wasted 30 pesos on that, can’t understand how it won an oscar and 2 golden globes!

There is a new 2^nd-hand shop here where you can sell items you no longer want, I’ve already bought a few things and I’m thinking I might take some of the less successful DVD experiments and try to recoup enough for a coffee and donut!

New Opportunities

I felt the need to walk on Wednesday, so decided to hoof it to my evening yoga class which is more than 20 blocks away, a walk of about 30 minutes. As it’s closer to the beach, I usually walk in a zigzag fashion 2 or 3 streets across and then one down, so that every time I end up wandering down new streets and finding new things.

On the way I passed a large sports field and I could hear the latin music as I approached, and remembered that a friend had told me there were salsa classes there in the evenings. There were at least 60 people, who all appeared to be enjoying themselves immensely. The classes, I read on the gate, run Mon-Fri from 7-8pm, and the cost is only 100 pesos for the week. That’s definitely something for me and at $8 it won’t break the budget, but it will be good to meet new people.

After my yoga class I picked up from the noticeboard a new map with lots of ads for things to see and do in Playa, and found an ad for yoga on the beach on Saturday mornings. When I checked out the website, it’s a full gym with lots of classes including yoga, pilates, aquarobics (yes they have a pool) and latin moves. The cost is 750 pesos a month which is only about $60, and they seem to have lots of specials like pay for 2 months get the 3^rd free, or join for 6 months and get 6 months free. I’m heading down there tomorrow to get some more info and maybe try out some classes.

Another friend, Lou, who has been guest teaching at my yoga school, just phoned and invited me this evening to a bar where a friend of hers is playing. She said it’s good rock and roll type music, so it sounds like fun.

My first month of yoga finishes on Tuesday and I‘m due to pay for the next, so I’m thinking I might take a short break and try out some new activities.

The evening at Zenzi Bar on the beach was very nice, great music and a good atmosphere. There were mostly gringos there, but near us was a table of older Mexican women, celebrating the 81^st birthday of one woman, and when they got up to dance they really enjoyed themselves. It was great to be able to sit at tables on the beach with your feet in the sand, dance barefoot, and have the sea breeze cool you. It reminded me of why I’m here, and to forget the problems and just enjoy the moment.

Italian Cooking part 2

Today we made hand-made ravioli filled with mushrooms, and finished them in a butter and parmesan sauce. It was quite time-consuming, making the pasta, kneading it, putting it through the machine several times and then filling and cutting the ravioli. But what a magnificent result! I reckon it’s one of the tastiest dishes I’ve made, with a silky texture and delicate flavour, and was definitely worth the trouble.

The second pasta was completely made by hand without using the pasta machine, and it’s called Strozzapreti. It was hard work first kneading then rolling out the pasta, then you had to roll it between your palms like plasticene until you had thin sausages, which you then cut into 1½” lengths. It was accompanied by a broccoli sauce - you cooked the broccoli first in boiling water then added the pasta which cooked and rose to the top in just a few minutes. You then transferred both pasta and veges to a sauce of tomatoes and garlic. This pasta was a lot firmer and as there were no eggs in the mixture, a bit heavier, but with the sauce it was very tasty. This is what the Italians call Cucina Povera - Poor cooking, as all you needed was flour, water, tomatoes and whatever vegetable was in season. Rather than waste the goodness you could then use the water in which you had cooked the broccoli to make a vegetable soup.

Here are some pictures of us at work and of our hand-made pasta drying. I’m looking forward to next week when we will be making gnocchi, both of flour and of potato.

Rainy days

There have been a few sudden downpours since I’ve been here, and I do have to be aware when I leave home if it’s looking overcast, to close the windows because the rain comes in onto the lounge.

It’s similar to when I was in Merida last year, the streets very quickly  become covered with water. There seems to be 2 reasons, firstly there are no drains at the edges of the roadway, and secondly, rain falling onto the house roof gushes out of a spout directly onto the ground instead of being carried to drainage pipes underground. The rain usually only lasts half an hour and it doesn’t take too long for the water to drain away, unlike Merida where it sometimes took days. I still remember the day I first arrived in Merida during a sudden downpour, the gutters filled rapidly and every vehicle that passed the house brought a new wave of dirty water surging over the footpath and straight into the house. My landlady fought a valiant but losing battle with her mop and bucket, and every time it rained there I had water in those front 2 rooms.

At least here I’m on the 2^nd floor and only get rain inside through open windows.

Italian cooking course

As a birthday present to myself, I started today a course at the Italian Centre in Playa. The course runs for 4 days for a total of 9 hours, and we started with handmade pasta. A great opportunity to get up to my elbows in flour (wearing black was NOT a good idea) and learn how it’s done from the basics.

There were 3 of us doing the course, a Mexican girl, a Spanish girl and moi from Aus, and our teacher Adriana from Udine in the north of Italy. Today we made lasagne first - starting with the bolognaise sauce. She showed us how to use the knives, how small to cut the vegetables, how to smash the garlic clove to peel it. After frying the veges we added the meat - ½ pork and ½ beef mince, and then tomato concentrate and the various spices. Although it was only 10 in the morning, my stomach was already growling with the wonderful smells! We left the sauce to stew, and moved onto the béchamel, a different way to how I have always done it, but it came out smooth and very creamy.

Then it was time to start working the dough and after several passes through the pasta machine it was so thin that it didn’t need cooking before assembling the whole lot and into the oven.

We started then on the pappardelle, a thicker pasta cut by hand or with a little wheel contraption, and left them to dry while we made a Salsa di pomodoro. The pasta took only about 5 minutes to cook and then we tossed it through the sauce and took out first mouthful - ahhh!

By then, the lasagne was cooked and what a wonderful fragrant dish emerged bubbling and golden from the oven, and how ambrosial it smelt!

We took both the dishes home, just in time for lunch! I stopped at the supermarket for some fresh bread rolls. I’ve only tasted the pappardelle so far, the lasagne will be dinner tonight.

The course cost about $90 for the 4 days, including the ingredients and 2 dishes to bring home each time. I think I’ll be lucky to get through all this food myself as the class runs every 2^nd day, and may have to freeze some. Next time we are hand making ravioli! After this, I can continue with the same format for main courses and then desserts, by which time they might need a crane to get me up the steps to mi casa!

New Yoga school

On my way home from yoga last Friday morning, I stopped for “breakfast” of coffee and pain au chocolat at a French café at the beach end of 4^th street. An older north american couple were sitting outside and when they came in to pay their bill they noticed my yoga mat and said that they had just also finished their yoga class at Yoga By The Sea. They asked about my school Ananda and when I sung the praises of my favourite teacher Melanie they told me that she also teaches at their school on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings. I’ve not been to Yoga By The Sea, but I know they have a studio in the Alhambra Hotel overlooking the ocean. I checked their website and couldn’t find anything about who their teachers are, apart from the director Arielle, so I asked Melanie next time I saw her and she said yes, although Ananda is her own school, she also teaches at other studios. “I have to pay the rent” she told me, “but it‘s a different style of class there“.

It’s not that I’m not happy with Ananda, quite the opposite I feel very comfortable there and people already recognise and greet me. But their studio in Palapa Suuk is on 46^th and 5^th, about a 25 minute trip between bus and walking, where the Alhambra on 8^th is about a 10min walk and much more convenient. Their website is totally in English, so I suspect their classes will be as well.

I finally tried one of Melanie’s classes at the Alhambra studio almost a week later. It’s a gorgeous space, looking out over the sea and the sound of waves crashing on the beach below is a lovely soundtrack to the class. It’s not a large room, but the walls are whitewashed, there are blue billowy curtains and Moorish details just like the real Alhambra. Although it seemed almost weird to do a class in English, I really enjoyed it, and the school would be perfect for my guests who want to practise yoga but don’t speak Spanish. The cost for a month is 550 pesos and they offer 11 classes a week including Saturday morning which Ananda don’t, so I’m considering going there as well as to Ananda. If I did 4 classes a week there and 4 at Ananda it would still only cost me $24 a week altogether, which is less than the cost of 2 classes in Australia.

On the way home a nice Canadian man I had seen previously starting chatting to me, and he has invited me out for dinner next week, so it will be nice to share a meal and have someone to do things with while he’s here. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I also found out that my new fav café has wifi so I can bring my laptop & check my emails while having coffee or a meal. And then I walked home past a bathroom fitting store and found a really nice set of 5 fittings including towel rail, toilet roll holder, hand towel ring, soap and toothbrush holders, all for only 289 pesos. Since my condo doesn’t have towel rails and I’ve been searching unsuccessfully until today, it was a great find. They didn’t have any in stock, but the young man told me they will arrive tomorrow so I’ll pop up to collect them after lunch. I’m still hoping the blinds and/or the Cablemas man will come tomorrow too ….

La Perruqueria

Peluqueria is Spanish for hairdressers, and perro is the word for dog. Put them together and you have a gorgeous little shop down on 6^th and 25^th. But this is not just a dog grooming parlour. Their little flyer advertises the place as a “Dogs Spa-shower & Boutique” and the beauty services offered include relaxing baths, paticure (nail painting), and anal gland cleaning among the usual anti-flea treatments, poodle clips and haircuts with blowdry.

In the boutique you can buy all sort of little doggy coats, tshirts, hats and jackets. They have VIP collars with pearls and semi-precious stones, shampoos, perfumes and deodorants and even mouthwash.

Inside, even the mirrors are shaped like bones, and there are little doggy beds for tired customers who are awaiting their turn with the paticurist or sleepy after relaxing in the bathtub with some aromatherapet.

I must say that although I have seen plenty of hairdressing salons here, none of them so far compare to this place in style. Wonder if they take human clients?

The Blue rock house

I see all sorts of interesting things while I’m out on my daily walks. Usually when I don’t have my camera with me! House styles are amazingly varied from the ultra-modern to the just-barely-standing - unfortunately more of the latter. But Mexicans certainly are not afraid to experiment with colour, and yellows and bright blues are quite common.

But blue-painted rocks doesn’t sound appealing does it? As far as design features, I would never have thought of collecting a whole lot of large stones, sticking them on the outside of my house, and painting it all sky-blue. Particularly when the house next door is yellow. And yet, surprisingly, it seems to work here. The white beside it really gives it a lift, and the terracotta features and rounded windows work well. What do you think?

Yes it’s for sale too, let me know if you are interested and I can send you the realtor’s phone number. It doesn’t look like a large home, looks like it would have one room on each floor like some old places I saw in Italy when I was searching for my home there. You’d certainly get fit running from the top floor to open the door to visitors! But the patios look delightful.

Carnavale comes to Playa

Carnaval Time - all the fun of the fair!

Playa del Carmen’s Carnaval is on at the moment. On the last 2 evenings there has been salsa music playing at very high decibels till the early hours of the morning, and although the stage is near the council chambers on 25^th and 8^th near Walmart, it sounds like it’s right next door, I think maybe there is a repeater speaker up here. So I thought I’d head out tonight to check out what’s happening. It’s Saturday night and there are sure to be lots of people about. Well it turned out to be all quite an event. There were sideshows ranging from the 2-headed child to the cat woman, snakes and wild animals, those clowns with the smiling open mouths and several other games, all with the obligatory large fluffy stuffed animals as prizes. There was even a fortue teller - 25 pesos a question

On the large stage erected in front of the council carpark, there were dance troupes in revealing costumes and feathered headdresses doing the samba, and a latin band belting out the rhythms. Many couples in the area in front were also dancing, and those just looking were swaying to the music.

There were stalls selling quilts and blankets (I don’t think you’d ever need them here), saucepans and plastic ware, shoes, clothes and miscellaneous small items. I bought myself 3 tops for 100 pesos, and 5 fridge magnets for 20.

There was food of every description from hotdogs and chips to nutella crepes, and plenty of beer, but no one appeared to be drunk.

Maybe the fact that there were also lots of policemen around helped keep the crowd under control, and crime to a minimum. It’s one thing I have noticed in Playa, the police presence is everywhere in the evenings so anyone behaving badly is quickly discouraged, and I always feel very safe walking around, even very late at night. Not that I’ve been out very late yet, but it’s time to start getting out and about.

My friend from yoga tells me there are salsa lessons at the Cuban restaurant on 5^th Ave on Wednesday nights, followed by dancing into the wee hours. Sounds like my sort of scene.

I also noticed a poster for Tango lessons at an Argentine restaurant. Having spent several weeks at a Tango school in Buenos Aires, I’d love to improve on what I learnt which wasn’t much more than basic moves. Tango so much depends on having a good partner who knows how to lead, assuming of course that I know enough steps to understand his directions. But I love Tango music and watching good tango dancers, so it may be worth it even for entertainment value, and will certainly get me out and meeting new people.

End of week 2

This last week has really flown, but I’m pretty well settled in now. TV and internet sorted, I’ve ordered the blinds and bought everything I need for the house for the time being, I’ve been going to yoga every day, and to the movies twice so I’m settling into some sort of routine.

I even got my first junk mail today! The local dentist has free exams, 2 for 1 cleaning and 50% off whitening. Wednesdays are 2 for 1 roast chicken days. There are no letterboxes at the front so I guess any mail is just stuck through the gate like this was. Since the Mexican postal service has such a terrible reputation, I suppose no-one bothers to use it and that’s why no-one bothers with letterboxes.

I have a new neighbour, the other ground floor unit, and they have a cute brown & white Chihuahua which is so thrilled to see me when I come home she pees on the floor. Still, the welcome is very nice!

The weather has been warm and sticky during the day but the nights are still pleasantly cooler so I sleep reasonably well. But they are still building next door, and my days start with the sound of large hammers thudding at 7am - 7 days a week!

It looks like next week all the paperwork for my apartment will finally be finished at the solicitor and I will be able to sign. Arturo came today and took photos of the things I want repaired, they are going to submit the list to the developer and I won’t sign until everything has been done or organised to be done. That includes the painting & cleaning, so I need to make a decision about the colours this weekend. I’d like to keep the place fairly neutral but I think I’ll have a burnt orange wall next to the kitchen, and I may do a cappuccino wall in my bedroom.

I’m excited about week 3. The TV unit will be delivered on Monday, and with some luck the cable TV and internet may be connected this week, or early the next. It will be great to have internet here when I want it rather than having to copy text and pictures onto my USB stick and go out to update this blog.

The blinds should also be here by the end of the week, giving me some privacy at last. Martin the caretaker appears regularly outside my window to tell me things, and I can’t be wandering the house in my lacy pj’s.

Quotes are being sought for the painting and final repairs on my apartment, and the paperwork the solicitor needs to finalise the sale should be ready so as soon as I am sure the work will be done, I can sign and suite 202 of Coral Maya Suites will be officially mine.

I can then take some photos and start investigating the possibilities for both vacation rental and house swap. Yes I know I’ve just got here, and it’s not that I’m in a hurry to leave my new home by any means. But my potential renters are already planning their holidays for later in the year and I don’t want to leave things to the last minute. If I advertise the place for rent and get a good short-term offer, then it’s a good excuse for me to go travelling. I can spend a week in Cuba including airfares, hotel and food for about $350. I can catch the bus down to Belize or over to Guatemala and spend time there for even less. So as long as the rent covers my own travels and a bit more, I’m happy. I’m keen to go to Europe in summer and visit my friends in Italy and Spain. I hear there are some very good real estate deals to be had in Spain and I’d like to investigate them.

McLunch

McTrio of the Day

I’m not really a big fan of the McScottish restaurant, but sometimes the value is too good to pass up. Today at Plaza Las Americas, my lunch was a BBQ chicken burger with fries and what they called a medium drink and I thought was rather large, what they call the McTrio, different each day and all for $3. For another 10 pesos you get a 12oz coffee. I struggled to get through it all, I think my eyes had been too big for my Mcbelly, or rather, my Mcbladder. So what was I doing at the Plaza? Well it all started with a misunderstanding….

I misread the email from my yoga school inviting me to the Forgiveness meditation, thinking it was at 9am instead of 9pm. I had brought my mat for the yoga class afterwards, at 10am, so I had an hour to kill. I started with an iced coffee from the Oxxo shop, then started wandering, turning down streets I’d never been before. You can’t really get lost here because the streets are numbered rather than named. I found a lovely little neighbourhood with a small park where I drank my coffee sitting on a swing, watching the council workmen painting a small building a lovely bright red. I wandered past interesting houses and admired their gardens. Ending on a fairly busy road, I crossed to what I thought was a park but turned out to be a small housing estate, all set around a delightful central park, palapa and BBQ area. I will have to take my new friend Janet there, she paints pictures of interesting doors and there were plenty of them there, including one where the door handles were gold hands!

By this time it was nearly 10 and I was enjoying myself so much I decided to keep wandering and skip yoga.  Eventually I found my way back to the main road, and the first bus to come along was going to Plaza Las Americas. I remembered that I’d read a new WalMart had opened just near it, so I decided it sounded like a good excursion. The bus trip for 5 pesos went all around the small housing estates, around the world for sixpence, and the driver dropped me off at an intersection, car drivers beeping angrily behind him, with instructions to Walmart La Cruz. I was hoping for a café inside like many of the other supermarkets here have, to enjoy a coffee and donut, but this store didn‘t have one. It did however turn out to be a good choice for shopping, because I found some cushions I really liked for the lounge, some double sheets in plain white, and my favorite Sangria which I haven’t found in any other supermarket (so I bought all 4 litres), and a 20 peso sunhat. Wearing the hat against the hot midday sun, I then walked about 800m further on to Plaza las Americas, where I had my Mclunch and picked up a few other items I needed. I ended up balancing 4 plastic shopping bags, the 2 cushions, my yoga mat and handbag on the bus home, and was glad I didn‘t have to walk far with all that.

It was warm and sunny when I got home and I decided to go up on the roof and test the Jacuzzi; I hadn’t been up since I arrived. The water was cool and I found a shady spot to read with my feet dangling in the water, and passed the rest of the afternoon relaxing. Pretty happy with my life at present.

Yoga tonight to make up for this morning’s missed class, and maybe the Forgiveness Meditation afterwards if I’m not too hungry.

The road that goes around the tree

The street where my yoga school is based, is a wide avenue of 2 lanes each side with a grassy bit in the middle. Halfway down the street there is a large tree in the middle of the roadway

The base of the tree is painted white and the road continues around it. If you look closely at the picture you will see there is also another smaller tree in the roadway just in front of where the red car is going, and this is the same. They didn’t cut down the trees just because they were in the middle of the road. If you weren’t used to the road and driving at night, it might give you a bit of a shock to find a tree in front of you, but there is no evidence on the tree of cars having crashed into it, so I guess the locals all know to avoid it