More golf....yesssss!

I got to enjoy another round of golf. This one was at the Ituzaingo Golf Club. A beautiful clubhouse and not a bad course overall. We had expected to enjoy a beer after the first 9 but this course is built like some courses in Saskatchewan (so I am told) where the Front 9 is actually 10 holes and the Back 9 is 8 holes. Nevertheless, the size of the beer made up for it. One litre bottle of Stella for 10 pesos (about 3 bucks).

I was thinking I was looking a bit chunky in the photo until I saw the next photo......

Note to self...if you want to look thin, stand next to the big guy! Meet Buddy here.

B.

Happy Thanksgiving Canada!

We enjoyed a great Thanksgiving evening this weekend. It was more than just a dinner - it was an event. Our hosts - Gary & Sheridan searched the city (three grocery stores) to find a turkey...
One guest, Jamie jumped right in to tear the bird apart (yes, after it was cooked). I think she learned this in New Orleans. No one can ever accuse Jamie of not getting her hands dirty....




Mimi was responsible for preparing the potatoes and asparagus.
My responsibility was to carry it all to our friends' apartment. So there I was, carrying a box with cooked asparagus (ready for serving) and a casserole of Elsie's Potatoes and wearing a backpack filled with two bottles of wine, camera, butter, a lemon and my jacket. This allowed Mimi to have two hands free to safely navigate the sidewalks of BA.


Dinner was for 7 of us - This included 2 Brits, whose son won the silver medal in the rowing 8's in Beijing and who are on their 23rd posting in their ex-pat career. Ian was showing us that moving 23 times requires balance in your life (ha ha ha ha!).
Jane just smiled. I am sure that her response might be a bit different...There were also 4 Canadians (we were two of them) and one stray American whose husband was back in the US on business. We had a great time.
We concluded that Elsie's Potatoes are a hit in any country (but please ensure you have a potato masher before attempting to make them!)
After dinner, we played Mexican Train Dominoes (we certainly got on this train with Go Cups!!!).....
There was no joy this night. Nope, none at all as Jamie & Sheridan can attest. I have no idea why Gary was trying to keep score..... because we all know who won!

The next morning, we had to check the photos to see what made our heads hurt. Mimi was convinced she had bumped her head. I assured her that it was something else that "bumped" our heads from the inside.

Thank goodness it was a long weekend here.

B.

Our first Canadian guest

We have hosted our first Canadian visitor!

Darcy has been touring Brazil and Argentina for a couple of weeks and stopped into Buenos Aires twice. We know Darcy from the Lake Louise World Cup events where she volunteers as well.

She came to the apartment for dinner on one evening. On her second time in BA, we met her for an early dinner before her airport shuttle picked her up at 2 am for her long flights to Bhutan to join an Operation Smile medical team. It was fun to get caught up on things back home and share experiences about Argentina.

After her return from Mendoza (wine country), I said we would meet at the corner of Maipu and Marcelo T. Alvear to go out for dinner. While I was waiting for her to arrive, I took this (poor) camera phone photo of the sign in the window.

Notice the bottom right hand corner of the photo.....small world.

B.

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.