The 'Small' pooch patrol

Usually dog walkers have a mix of dogs (big and small) in thier pack. This morning, I noticed a gang of only small pooches out for a walk.

Dog is 'perro' in spanish. These guys would be perritos.

B.

Now it's the microwave...

I was warming up some milk for cafe con leche this morning when I heard some sizzling coming from the microwave. It wasnt the milk boiling and it sure wasnt the smell of milk boiling. I shut the microwave off and the sizzling continued. It was coming from the back of the microwave.

Now we are without a microwave and Mimi is hosting 13 ladies today for Mah Jong.

The new refrigerator gets delivered on Friday.

The toaster still works.

B.

Manifestacion - It's a rally, it's a gathering, it's a protest, it's a Tuesday!

Email recieved by all of our BA staff this morning, as a warning :

Avisaron de la recepción de abajo que a las 14/14:30hs va a haber una manifestación frente al edificio y van a vallar la calle (para que los que tienen autos estacionados en frente en la calle).

The WorldLingo translation :

They warned of the reception of down that to 14/14: 30hs is going to have a manifestation in front of the building and are going to fence the street (so that those that have cars parked opposite in the street).

We had barriers up in front of our building this morning and then the protesters came just after the lunch hour with drums and noisemaker firecrackers and speeches and pamphlets (which were just thrown up in the air to scatter in the breeze and litter the parking lot and nearby park).

They came to protest against ARCOR - a food processing company which is located on the second and third floor of our building. The crowd was about a hundred paid protesters.

They banged away at the drums for over 2 hours, shouted things with a megaphone, fired off a pile of fireworks and generally made noise. No injuries or damage to the building but there were eggs tossed at the windows. After that, they just rolled up thier banners and walk away and left their mess....literally.

A city cleaning crew then came in behind them and picked up the mess, washed down the spray painted sidewalks, cleaned the windows, used leaf blowers to gather up the pamphlets. Things were all cleaned up in a couple of hours. Other than a few loose pamphlets, you wouldnt know they were here. These protests happen every day somewhere in Argentina.

With the warning, the protest, the clean up and the resumption of normalcy - the circle of life exists within an Argentine protest.

They havent been around for awhile. It has been at least 2 months since they were out front.

There you go, 'Protest in a Bag'....

Ahhh....it feels good to be alive in BA!

B.

We left town for the weekend

We went to the beach. Mind you it is late 'winter' here but it was a great opportunity to get away from the city, enjoy time with new friends and to see another part of Argentina.

We were invited to stay with friends who have a summer house in Carilo, an oceanside community that apparently is overwhelmed by porteno's (people from Buenos Aires) in the summer months. I knew I would like this place because, if this sign was lit above the fireplace, it meant the bar was open (and Lothar never turned it off the entire weekend!).

We had hoped to play some golf but it rained all day Saturday, so we hung around and watched the Ryder Cup. Late in the day it did stop raining so we went for a walk on the beach which was about a half mile from where we were staying.

Ok, it was a bit breezy and cool on the beach.

There are some pretty nice shacks on the beach. In the winter, you can rent quads and jeeps and drive up and down the beach as well. In the summer, it is wall to wall people vying for a spot on this huge beach.

Carilo is known for the forest that it is set in, the size of homes and a pretty spectacular beach that goes for miles and miles. The trees are full of parrot's nests and you can hear them squawking all day.

Lili, our host prepared a traditional assado for us. They have the perrilla inside their home. It is a large charcoal BBQ and you cook various cuts of meat and they are each served as a different course. Since Lily's husband, Lothar is from Germany - he and I enjoyed a few beers (Ok a lot of beers).

So, you mix this:

With this :

And this:

To get an amazing meal - so amazing even the chicken was exhausted!

Lothar pulled out his guitar and sang a few songs for us. It was a real treat to be part of it!

We did a bit of touring of Carilo and Pinamar on Sunday - this is how they deliver bread in Carilo......

The drive to Carilo (3 1/2 hours south of Buenos Aires) was just like driving in rural Alberta. Plains (or pampas), crops, cattle, horses grazing and except for the parrillas that you would find along the way, you could be driving Calgary to Red Deer.

Yes, those are cow parts grilling above charcoal on the side of the road.

B.

You can find everything on the Internet - including 'Moose Milk'

I did a quick search and here is one recipe for Moose Milk......

Moose Milk

• 1.14 litre dark rum
• 1.14 litre Kahlua
• 1.14 litre vodka
• 4 litres of vanilla soft scoop ice cream
• 4 litres of partly skimmed milk (have to be health conscience)

Mix gently until frothy with still a few ice cream lumps.

Liberally sprinkle nutmeg over top.

Enjoy and give vehicle keys to a designated driver.

There are other versions including ones with rye ("Canadian" Whisky) but it also had a dozen egg yokes in it......and that wouldnt be so pretty in the morning.

B.

Nothing says Canada like Moose Milk. Moose Milk?

We have been invited back to the Canada Club Happy Hour!

What was sent to us (in English, Spanish & French) :

You and one guest are cordially invited to the Canada Club Happy Hour! Thursday, September 18 2008 from 7:00PM - 10:00 PM (doors close at 9:00 PM).
The Canadian Embassy, Buenos Aires Tagle 2828 (between Av. Figueroa Alcorta y Juez Tedín -- Palermo Chico).

Come out and meet our new Canadians and enjoy some Moose Milk!

Phone: 4808-1000
FAILURE TO RSVP IN ADVANCE, MAY RESULT IN NO ADMITTANCE.
To gain entry to the event you must RSVP, so please respond to this message before noon, September 18 with your name, phone number, ID type and number (and that of your guest, if applicable) via email.

Please bring picture ID as all guests are required to sign in.

See you there!


Anyone know what we Canadians are calling 'Moose Milk' these days? We havent been away that long!

But really? All that security just to get a beer?

Instead, we will be at Granda Bistro for dinner with friends.
It will be Canadians having dinner with Kiwis in a French restaurant in Argentina.

B.

We are averaging 1.5 restaurants per day

Believe it or not, it's true. It has been a great run.
The refrigerator failed and had to be taken away for servicing. A rental fridge was located and was brought to the apartment and the broken one sits in the back stairwell waiting to be picked up.

Eating out every day is not because we have a rental fridge but because we have many friends.....who dont cook either!!!

• Thursday night was an industry reception at the Emperador Hotel Polo Club Room - new work friends.
• Friday's dinner was at Bice with the two Superintendents who are on a 30 day rotation and Friday was crossover day - old work friends.
• Saturday morning was at Amaranta for as good an Eggs Benedict as I have ever had. Mimi had waffles.
• Saturday night was at Kebaytina, a restaurant owned by a Haitian Canadian from Quebec - dinner with new BA friends.
• Sunday lunch was at the restaurant in the Malba Museum of Latin American Modern Art - where we met two Canadians who moved here from Edmonton and bought a vineyard in San Rafael.
• Sunday dinner was at El Manto, an Armenian restaurant with 2 other couples. It was our latest reservation yet - 9:30 pm and it was on a school night. Mimi and I had Spanish lessons at 8 am the next morning.

Tonight we are staying home for home-made empanadas. Ok, we are having empanadas that Esperanza made (we dont cook, remember?).

B.

I am now in the club

After 7 months of processing including translations of birth certificate, marriage licence, passport, proof of residence here, 4 visits to the Immigration office here with 'advisors', a trip to Toronto to visit the Argentine consulate, 5 sets of finger prints...and tremendous assistance from several staff here in our office - I now have my DNI.
The DNI is the Documento Nacional de Identidad. It comes in the form of a little booklet with a burgundy cover. It has my picture, thumb print, address, birthplace, signature and yes, it has a number. My number. It is an 8 digit number (just like phone numbers here).

It is used for everything. Voting, moving, organ donoring, car rentals, getting the 'locals' price on airfares, paying your dinner bill (they ask for a document number when you pay with a credit card), getting stopped on the street by a cop, having a bank account, transferring money to Canada, you name it.

The photo is one of those - 'quarter turn, no smile, no glasses' pictures....and I noticed that I am starting to look old.

So when they say 'ver are zee papers?' (in Spanish, of course) - I flash my little burgundy book!

B.

BA burned while we went to the Philharmonic

Wasn't there something similar said about Rome?

It was an interesting day yesterday.

First thing every morning, I read the BA Herald. It is the local English paper and it gets delivered to the apartment.

The headlines show 7 cars of a Greater Buenos Aires commuter train burned to bits. The reason(s) given are commuters got tired of sitting on a relic of a train that had been stalled on the tracks for 2 hours and they were all very late for work....or it was left wing militants who did it. They trashed the local Castelar train station as well.

Either way, it seemed like.......just another day in BA.

The fact that the other headlines described the possibility that the government would have to eat a nearly $1 B debt for nationalizing the Aerolineas airline and that Black Thursday had hit the stock market. I was afraid to turn the page to see what other problems had happened overnight!

Anyways, it was a quiet day in the office. We met with partners, we produced some oil - no mention of trains being burned up - although we do fly LAN not Aerolineas when flying in country.

We did end the evening by attending a free (with a donation) concert performed by the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional who were accompanied by the Coro Polifonico Nacional. The concert was held at the Facultad de Derecho to enjoy Hayden's 'La Creacion'. Translated: National Symphony Orchestra with the National Choir performing Hayden's 'The Creation' at the Faculty of Law building.



It was a delightful 2 hour concert in a beautiful hall that seated about 800 people. La Creacion is sung in German so we could follow along equally as well as everyone else!

There was one stick swinging incident. The lady sitting in front of Mimi had put her hair up with a chopstick and she kept moving back and forth in her seat. I thought Mimi was going to pull out the chopstick and stick it somewhere else.
The concert was part of a Friday night series put on by the National Symphony Orchestra. I think we will go back....we don't have to take a commuter train to get there.


Then we came home from the concert and found that our freezer is on the blink. Esperanza had spent the day cooking for us. I could be eating 30 empanadas and 2 containers of pollo and rice today.


In the Saturday Herald - the president, Cristina says "Arson is useless." A hell of a response.


B.

Now where did I put those M & M's?

One of those days...

It happens once in awhile...call it :

• the post-wedding celebration blues;
• or you just got the bill for the wedding;
• or your brand new white golf shirt just got washed with Brian's new red maple leaf boxers;
• or the unions just wont give you a break and then they want to get paid for the days they were on strike;
• or you just stepped in BA sidewalk dogsh*t.

"Alexander" days dont happen very often but when they do, we have a stash of Fruit & Nut bars and M & M's in the apartment.

We can also get Freddo's ice cream delivered to the apartment. We have the number on speed dial.

B.

Dont just send them a ticket or an invoice......

....climb to the top of the building and slap stickers all over their billboards.



On the day we returned to Buenos Aires, we noticed big 'stickers' on many of the large billboards in the city. In the Buenos Aires Herald the next day, we read that these billboards are breaking the law.

If I understand it correctly, the family of the elected official known as the 'Minister of Public Information' (or equivalent) OWNS the company that is responsible for ALL billboard advertising in the city. This company has annual revenues of $100 MM pesos (~ 30 million bucks). That is a whole lot of billboards (big and small), banners, signs and sides of buses & buildings.




His department slaps stickers on your billboard and you then write his family a cheque to get the stickers removed. That is one smokin' hot deal.



I plan to run for office in the next election.



B.