Our rehabilitating pool got its first coat of paint last Monday and today the second coat was applied. Now the clever young man who did the tiling before, has returned to tile all horizontal surfaces. As I noticed last year, he is a methodical and careful worker, and does a very nice job. We can probably fill the pool again by early next week? It will look high class and designer-like according to Steve.
Many friends (all Canadians) left the development this last week. Two were off to the Toronto area to do taxes, and to collect, collate etc. their papers to apply for pensianados. They should be back in six to eight weeks. We will miss the card games! Two more left permanently after the husband had a bad fall a fewmonths ago, and was comatose for some time. He was medi-vaced, and his wife has also left. Their home is now for sale. That one was a tragedy for them as both felt so well here and they loved the home they built. I hope to keep in touch Lastly, one of the first to move into the development left to join family in the Ottawa/Toronto area. He amused us and educated us due to his persistent searches for information, and those long chats over a beer will be missed very much. His wife left after Christmas, and their dog died soon after, so their lives have changed also, but after five years here, he said enough - that is all they had planned for. More homes are being built this year, so there will be an influx of new folks to get to know.
We watched three movies of note: the name of the first with Jason Statham escapes me and as all titles are in Spanish, it is sometimes awkward to know what the title of a movie would be in English. "Grease" became "Vaseline"! Wonder how that would go over in NA? We then watched "Feast of Love" with Morgan Freeman, Greg Kinnear and Billy Burke - nice, poignant, good cast. Finally, I got to see "Divergent" which is an unusual story to say the least! Chris hated that one, but I enjoyed it. One thumb up, one down. Luckily, those were the days the electricity stayed on.
Last Friday evening we went with some pals to the Opening of Los Vientos, the newly-built clubhouse at Andromeda. It is very nicely done - huge 100 ft pool, lots of open space, and furnished with quality stuff! I hope ours turns out as nice, although ours should be smaller. I learned to salsa while there- what a lark. Our teacher was a built young dancer from Panama who spoke good English and did a great job with all the old ladies who got up. As is my usual bent, I was up first, and had a dreadful time trying to get the younger women up (!) who were most reluctant but no doubt lovely dancers. Anyway, it was fun. I did fine with no music, but I found the music too fast and the beat hard to pick up so kept getting behind. With ballroom dancing, I have no issues about the beat, and always know what to dance...salsa is probably the most danced rhythm here!
After the wine and cheese, and the dancing lesson, we were off with Tom and Teresa for our second ice cream treat of the week. Sitting in the town square watching the locals, and offering a begging dog the rest of my cone was the final highlight of that evening! All in all, a mixed bag week.
Sunday dawned with Chris letting little Toby into the house (third time he's tried this) and the result was a mad 30 or 40 minutes of cat herding. Lucky got in also, and we "herded" Toby everywhere but out the door as a result. Finally, we opened the French doors, got Lucky out, then coaxed and chased until Toby finally left. I needed another night's sleep after that! Lucky loves to come in, sniff Cagney and Mitzi then explore a while. Toby runs around closely followed by Mitzi and once even hid so long, we figured she had fallen asleep somewhere. This last adventure, Cagney lay calmly in the hall watching all the whispered commands as we attempted not to spook Toby, probably laughing cat-wise at our silly shenanigans!
This week started on a high note with a lunch at El Sitio with the Curries. Playa Venao was busy with surfers and our lunch was most pleasant - good food, beer, dleicious ice cream dessert, and the beach activities to watch - free entertainment! Their daughter is visiting from the Toronto area, and it was lovely to see her again after two years.
 |
| Some smaller waves - it's hard to predict when the big ones are coming! |
 |
| 3/4 of the Curries plus the two of us - me with my new haircut! |
 |
| I insist this says "Don't piss on the grass" |
 |
| Entrance to El Sitio |
So, despite the continually frustrating issues around electricity (much worse this year so far!), we manage to keep laughing, have fun with friends and to not complain continually (which would be a drag). Yes, the garden is bedraggled, we have had no pool for a long time, the Canadian dollar is predicted to drop even lower, money is tight, and are we having fun yet? Hard to say some days. Thank goodness for pals, cats and Chris' slowly growing beard! Our eventual return to Canada should be full of anecdotes, silly stories, many photos, local souvenirs (mostly shells), and a trove of memories, way less furniture, and plus two or more cats...
Ciao....
No comments:
Post a Comment