Author: hwilkie@mhwcom.com

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Saturday Afternoon Tango with Gustavo!

On Saturday afternoon a few of us went up to our favourite people-watching haunt, La Biela. As on other occasions, there was a professional tango dancing couple doing their thing. I asked the guy, Gustavo, if he was willing to dance with us and he said of course. So Lina and I had a go.

A word of explanation. The word milonga has two meanings. It’s the place where you go to dance tango, but it’s also a dance in its own right, or at least a variation of tango. While tango tends to be quite slow and dramatic, and usually melancholy, milonga is a faster happier dance. It’s also quite tricky. When I asked Gustavo if we could dance milonga, he suggested we dance a tango first—Lina and I agreed that he wanted to be sure I could keep up first before he risked milonga! Anyway, I must have passed his test, because he was happy to lead me in a fun, upbeat milonga too.

As I told him Lina was a better dancer than I am, having danced tango much longer, he just went straight into the milonga with her.

We were both ecstatic about the whole thing. We are missing tango so desperately we are considering going up there every weekend and giving him a big tip just to dance with us!

I hope you enjoy our videos—thanks to Jayne for taking them!


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Afternoon on the Port

Today is Friday, and a beautiful late summer day. I worked hard this morning, but then played hookie for the rest of the day!

Venetia and I took an Uber (since we’re not allowed to use public transportation) to Olivos, where Cecilia lives. Cecilia and her dog, Mora, met us there and we walked over to the Port of Olivos and had lunch at a lovely parilla called La Nelly. As we are also currently barred from eating inside restaurants, the outside tables were all full and we were lucky to get one.

After lunch we walked down by the marina and had a look at all the boats. There’s a recurring problem here with these water lilies, which reproduce rapidly and can end up choking the waters and the boats can’t get out. It looks as if it hasn’t reached that point yet, but somebody had better get them out of there before too long!

We are having an incredible run of beautiful sunny days, even though we are into fall now. So we are taking advantage of it while we can.

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A little ticked off

I just realized I forgot to post this during the week, probably because I’m not focusing on it.

I got my appointment to be vaccinated last week, 8.45 am bright and early at the Cultural Centre, just five minutes from home. I showed up in good time, and things seemed to be running very smoothly, everybody very nice and helpful.

I waited only five minutes before being taken into the consulting room. They asked about allergies, and when I admitted I was allergic to penicillin it all changed. I had to go see the doctor, and she told me if you are allergic to anything, you have to be vaccinated in a hospital setting! Bummer. Now I’m waiting for a new appointment, which she said would be in a couple of weeks. Assuming, of course, that they haven’t run out of vaccine again!

Oh well, it’s just a delay, not the end of the world. And I think it’s good that they are being cautious. But I’m still ticked off.

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My New Chairs

I’ve been wanting to buy new dining room chairs for a while, and I decided I’d do it as soon as the painting was finished. So the other day I went to the store where I had seen them. I had to take a taxi, because in the second Covid wave we are not allowed to take the bus—which is a big deal here because everyone I know uses public transport even if they have cars.

Anyway, I bought the chairs.

“When can they be delivered?” I asked.

“In an hour,” said the guy.

“No, no, I need time to get home!”

“OK, how about two hours?”

And sure enough, two hours later they arrived. As my friend Alejandro said, tongue firmly planted in cheek, Argentine efficiency!!

Anyway, the legs were a light blond wood, which I didn’t like. So I painted them black, as you can see in the photo. I like them much better like that, and I’m very pleased with them. Like them?

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Eco Parque

The old Buenos Aires city zoo was closed a couple of years ago. I think it was mainly because it was outdated and the conditions were not best for the animals. The good news is that over quite a number of months, they have made a lot of changes, and the grounds have once again opened, this time as an ecology park called Eco Parque.

I went there recently with Venetia and Sally. It’s a wonderful space for both flora and fauna, and we had a great day for it. We are into fall now, but the weather is still more like late summer, with temperatures in the mid-twenties and lots of sunshine.

I took my sketching things with me, but I had a commitment afterwards and didn’t have time to stop. I did, however, resolve to go back there soon to sketch.

Meantime, here are some photos I took.

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I can’t believe it’s almost the middle of April …

… and I haven’t posted here since the end of March! The reason is that I’ve had painters in my apartment for three weeks and it has disrupted everything completely.

When they told me it would take three weeks to paint my apartment I couldn’t believe it, but in fact it was three weeks on Friday and they still have to come back tomorrow to finish. Of course, as a friend said to me the other day, whether it’s painters, plumbers, carpenters, electricians — they always have to come back!

The first couple of days were OK as they started in the kitchen and passageway, so I could sleep in the bedroom. But then my friend Cecilia had a health issue, and I went to her place for a few days to be with her. Because her upstairs bathroom is being renovated, and anyway it was difficult for her to get upstairs, she was sleeping on one couch in the living room. To make sure I was close to her during the night, I slept on the other couch. I was there for four days.

Then I came home, only to find the painters had started work in the bedroom, so I had to sleep on my own couch — I was beginning to feel like a couch surfer. I’m still there. Although the bedroom is almost finished, my bed is still under plastic wraps and the paint smell is too strong to sleep there anyway.

One good thing is that I had someone come in on Saturday to give the place a thorough clean (except for the bedroom of course), so it’s no longer thick with dust and I’m not feeling as if I need a shower all the time. And the upside of all this is that the apartment is looking nice and bright and clean. By midweek I should be back to normal — from my mouth to God’s ear.

Yes, we are in the second wave

The numbers of Covid infections has now soared to the point where there’s no longer any doubt we are in the second wave. The regional responses across the country are varied. In Buenos Aires, they are trying to shut down as little as possible in order to preserve what’s left of the economy, which I believe is a good thing.

In theory, public transportation has only been for essential workers all along, but we have all been using the buses for weeks. However, now they are back to enforcing the rules, so no buses for a while.

Restaurants, bars and cafes remain open, but must close at 11 pm as there is now a curfew from midnight to 6 am every night. So we can still eat out and support the restaurant industry, and since we can’t use the buses we are also supporting the taxi industry!

Today I’m joining half a dozen friends for an Indian lunch, and then probably a stroll around the artesan market in San Telmo — although there’s a distinct autumn feel in the air today so it might be a bit chilly for that. We’ll see.

Anyway, that’s it from me for this week. Hopefully as the painting is finished I will get back to posting more.

 

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Lovely New Place to Eat

Last night a small group of four of us went to a beautiful little restaurant called Roux. It’s very expensive, but worth every peso!

They gave us one of only two tables downstairs in the wine cellar, which was very cozy. The service was great and the food marvelous.

This particular small group is exploring some of the more “fine dining” venues in the city, and this was our first outing — we all voted it a success!

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Painting in a New Medium

I decided to try painting in gouache, which I’ve never done before. I watched a lot of videos on YouTube (where everything looks so easy!) and finally today I had a bash at it myself. What you see here is my very first gouache painting!

My friend Cecilia had posted a photo she took from her cousin’s back garden looking out at the mountains in Cordoba, so I chose that as my first inspiration.

In case you don’t know what gouache is, it’s a water based paint with an opaque finish—unlike water colour, which is translucent. It’s a different process and I liked it because it forced me to paint in a looser, more fluid style than my ink and water colour sketches. It takes a bit of getting used to, but I think I’ll do more and see if I can get good at it.

 

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Just Walking in the Rain!

I woke up to heavy rain this morning, but the thunder that passed over in the night had stopped. So I decided to do my usual walk and stop for breakfast at Cafe Bogotá.

When I was in Scotland just before I moved here, I happened to find a great little lightweight raincoat with a hood, and it has come in very handy here, so I zipped myself into that, stepped into my yellow wellies and set off.

I call them wellies, but they are really just rubber ankle boots. I had forgotten that the less-than-perfect drainage here in the city makes for large, quite deep puddles at the corners of some of the streets. Oh well.

Even I’m not daft enough to sit outside the cafe in the rain, so I moved indoors this morning. Here’s a photo of what it looked like. When I arrived it was still quite dark, and the rain on the streets and people with umbrellas reminded me of those paintings of Paris in the rain!