Patti reported she had her morning coffee on her little balcony, and decided she loved Buenos Aires! I can relate to that — it doesn’t take long to fall in love with this city.

We spent some time at the local feria (craft fair) and then had champagne at La Biela, which was fun for Patti because she had heard so much about it. We were joined by Venetia and Lina, two of my best friends here. Venetia took this shot of Patti and me.

After hanging out at my place for a while, Venetia and I took Patti to El Sanjuanino, another favourite haunt, for some of the best empanadas in the city. It was a fun day, but I think Patti was glad to get home and she will have another good night’s sleep tonight!

Before Patti came I put in requests for some favourite food items from Canada that I can’t get here, and here’s a shot of the stash — thanks Patti!

Yesterday my friend Patti arrived from Toronto for a three-week holiday, and I’m so happy to see her here!

Her flight was a little late, but I met her at the airport and came back with her to her rented apartment, which is about a ten-minute walk from me and very nice. She was a bit tired after being “on the road” for 24 hours, so we just went to a place around the corner for dinner – Patti had her first Argentine steak, which made her happy!

I wanted to take a photo for this post, but after her long trip she felt she’d be better staying off camera for a bit! But I’m sure she’ll appear in many photos, as all my girlfriends are anxious to meet her and share our favourite places with her.

Bienvenidos, Patti!

Yesterday was my birthday. No, I’m not going to say which one. People always tell you it’s just a number, but in my case it’s getting to be a big number!

Anyway, I went out to dinner with seven of my girlfriends. We went to La Gran Carniceria del Plata, which used to be called La Gran Parilla del Plata and was one of our favourite steakhouses to go for celebrations. When it closed during the pandemia we were afraid it wouldn’t open again, but fortunately it has. It is under new ownership, but the new people decided to keep it as close to the way it was as possible while still updating it. They also use the same meat suppliers, which was a great idea.

When the chicas sang Happy Birthday, everybody in the restaurant joined in!

Here are a few photos of the group, as well as me opening my lovely gifts.

The organizer of this milonga, Julia, takes photos of people dancing or sitting at the side, and I don’t know how she manages to take such unflattering photos. This one is not as bad as many! This is Martin, a regular partner and great dancer.

I danced my little buns off last night and then walked to our usual place for dinner — and today my legs are complaining. But it was worth every minute!

I wanted to make sure I posted something today, or people would be thinking I’m sick again! I’m not, and in fact I’m feeling just about back to my normal self.

Today I went out to lunch with a few friends to a restaurant called Caseros. It was a lovely fall day, and we enjoyed eating outside in the sun — although you can see from our clothes that it is starting to get a little cooler.

My friend Patti is coming down from Canada next week for a vacation, and I look forward to including her in several of these fun events with the chicas — I’m sure she’ll even show up right here in the blog!

Some time ago I posted a photo of a small exercise from my class in Fileteado Porteño, and I finally have second and third ones to post.

The first is similar to the first flower one, but with a second blossom added, and finished with a traditional border. The bird was started at class a few weeks ago, but interrupted by my being sick.

Flowers and birds are typical components of this art form. It’s very complex and detailed, not only the shapes but the essential shading that gives it the three dimensional look, but I do enjoy the process.

Here are photos of both of them. Next week I’m starting on another traditional element, the acanthus leaf. Stay tuned.

You may remember that several weeks ago (maybe a few months!) I talked about this new art form I had fallen in love with, called Neurographic Art. It was invented just in 2014 by a Russian psychologist as a form of art therapy, but since then it has become hugely popular simply as a way of creating art.

I had a few of my friends over to my place for a “neurographic night” when we all created our own unique art pieces, and that was a lot of fun. (We’re having another one next month when my friend Patti will be visiting from Canada!)

So since I was so into this, I decided to write about it! Hopefully capitalizing on the craze for adult colouring books, I made a book called “Neurograhic Art Therapy” under the pen name of Kate Green. I created it in three sections so that people can simply colour the fully formed neurographic pages, complete a partly done neurographic, or — with step-by-step instructions from me — create their own neurographic image from start to finish.

So if you are into colouring books, or if you know someone who is, I would be so grateful if you would check out the book on Amazon. Click on the image for the Amazon.ca link, or search the book on any other Amazon platform around the world.

And if you enjoy the book, stay tuned because I have planned a series of three books of variations on the theme.

Last night was the monthly BAIN wine and tapas night, this time at Gillian’s cool apartment in San Telmo. I think we were 18 in all, which was just right for the space.

As always, Venetia did a great job of recording the event in photos. Unfortunately that meant there were no photos of her! I must try to remember to do that next time. There was also just one of our hostess, Gillian, but as she was just about to take a bite of food, it didn’t show her at her best, so we agreed I would leave it out of the collection!

I’m happy to be back in the swing of things!

Last night I had dinner with my friend Sally. She lives right in the heart of Buenos Aires, near the Congreso building and square, and there are lots of interesting restaurants in her hood. (On the way through the square, we came across a little outdoor milonga, with people dancing in puffy jackets on a cold evening!) Before the pandemia, we had planned to try a place called La Gran Taberna, and last night we finally made it.

What a delightful place! It’s what we call here a “barrio restaurant”, with typical Argentine food, a nice buzz of noise and friendly waiters. It’s been there since 1976, so you know they are doing something right.

Sally had a typical Argentina dish called a milanesa, which is breaded meat (in this case chicken), and I opted for a pepper steak. Even though it was called a “mini”, there was enough to bring half of it home. I’m about to slice it up and eat it with a baked potato for lunch!

I’m pretty sure I’ll be back at La Gran Taberna again soon.

When I haven’t been consistently posting in this blog, I’m often surprised to find how long it has been since my last postl That’s definitely the case now – the last time I posted was about dancing at the milonga without masks, and that was on March 24.

Anyway, the reason I’ve been missing is that I have been sick. At first I thought I had Covid, but a couple of home tests proved that not to be the case. I then decided I had flu, and just took to my bed. By the end of five days of that, with absolutely no improvement, my body told me it was time for action. I was so weak I had trouble standing up.

My two friends Gillian and Venetia took me to Emergency, where I was admitted with pneumonia. Yes, my old nemesis! I don’t know why I didn’t recognize it given this is not my first time. Anyway, I won’t bore you with the details, but they kept me in for five days—they don’t send you home here until you are ready, and in my case the pneumonia had cleared up.

I’ve been home for a couple of weeks now, and I can safely say I’m back to normal. The worst thing about this thing is usually the weakness, and that took several days to get better. But now I don’t have to walk slowly any more, and I can walk reasonable distances with no problem.

And what about tango? Well I’ve been missing it for a month now, and being very disciplined about not rushing back, but I do plan to go to the milonga on Monday night with my friend Lina and our teacher Ale. Can’t wait!