With everything that’s been going on here, I haven’t had a lot of time to blog, and I still haven’t finished putting all the Chile photos together. But I have done two, so I thought I’d put them up now and do the other two next week.
I know these would be better if they had background music, but if I take time to figure that out it will be Christmas by the time I get the up. So, in silent movie mode, here they are — enjoy.
I’ve been busy working this week, tied to my desk as it were, finishing up client work before going on holiday to Chile on Monday. Today, Saturday, after working all morning I had lunch at home and then went out to enjoy the beautiful day.
I walked around the weekend craft fair, bought a little top for my holidays, and then went to my favourite neighbourhood cafe, La Biela for a cool drink. This young woman was standing just outside the area of the patio singing, and she was very good. She sang a nice mix of Latin music and standard songs everyone knows. I did a quick video of “Dream a Little Dream of Me” to share with you. Enjoy!
In the summary of the week’s posts I sent out yesterday, I mentioned I had gone to dance tango at a milonga but didn’t have any photos. That’s true, but here’s what happened after tango.
Lina invited Annie and me to have champagne and nibblies in her new apartment. She just received final approval of her residency application — hence the champagne. I had thought I would just head home after that, but no. Around 10 pm Annie said she wanted to go find somewhere to eat dinner, and we all ended up at one of Lina’s favourite restaurants in the ‘hood. It’s called Il Sorpasso, a great Italian place with a lovely hidden inner courtyard.
The food was great and we were just enjoying chatting, when suddenly we had entertainment! Some typical folkloric music started up, and a fellow launched into the chacarera. It’s usually danced in couples, and it was unusual to see someone dance it solo. I know the video is really too dark, but I decided to post it anyway just to give you an idea.
Yesterday afternoon I had lunch with Darren, a new friend from Toronto who was introduced to me by Lynne, a mutual friend. We were having such a good conversation we forgot to take a photograph — sorry, Lynne!
Then Venetia and Viviana invited me to join them at El Sanjuanino, one of our favourite little local spots for wine and empanadas. This time we had tamales instead — delicious little parcels of meat folded into corn meal and enhanced by the restaurant’s famous hot sauce.
I don’t know if you can see this, but the white jug on the table is in the shape of a penguin, so when we want red wine there (as, let’s face it, we always do) we order a pinguino!
So you might be thinking that I do nothing but eat and drink and carouse with my friends. Well, is that a problem?!
I will take photos of the New Year’s Eve celebrations and post them tomorrow.
This was my fourth Christmas in Buenos Aires, and I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it being in summer — oh don’t get me wrong, I like it but I’m still not used to it. My tango teacher worked in Japan for several years and he had the opposite feeling — he couldn’t get used to Christmas in winter! Anyway, Christmas is fun wherever you are, and this year was no exception.
The main celebration here is on Christmas Eve, as it is in many South American and European countries, while I’m used to celebrating Christmas Day in Canada and also in Scotland. This year I had the best of both worlds.
Venetia and I were invited to Cecilia’s for the family gathering. I had recently met a new friend, Lina, who didn’t have any plans. I had no hesitation in inviting her because Cecilia is famous for her hospitality, but it was even nicer when she invited Lina to stay overnight as well as Venetia and me. We arrived around 7 pm and were put to work making canapes, which we said we would do on condition we could drink wine while we worked!
The rest of the family arrived around 9 pm and we started eating half an hour or so later. It was all very informal, as it usually is — no ceremonial carrying in of turkey or anything like that. Oh, except for Venetia pouring whisky on the Christmas pudding and setting it alight, which was surprising to our hosts but we all enjoyed the delicious pudding. So all in all, we just simply ate, drank and chatted until midnight when we exchanged gifts in the usual chaos that involves.
Cecilia and I took the three dogs out for a walk around 2.30 am before going to bed, which was a lovely way to round out the day. Here are a couple of photos of the day. Below those is a video of the kind of thing that is typical on the train that takes me to Cecilia’s place. There are musicians of all kinds, carrying instruments and sometimes even sound systems! They are always much appreciated and everyone is very generous to them. Very Buenos Aires!
I took the selfie of the three of us, and the other photo and the video are courtesy of Venetia, our “official” photographer for all events! (Thanks Venetia.)
On Christmas Day all three of us came home on the train together, and then I had a lazy afternoon before getting ready to go to Venetia’s place for her traditional English Christmas pudding (again!) with ice cream and champagne — lots of champagne! We were a small but varied group of people and the conversation was fascinating. All in all I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Christmas. I hope you did too, wherever you are and whatever you did.
One of my online mentors, Marie Forleo, came up with an interesting framework for thinking about the past year and considering the next. I thought you might find it interesting and useful, so I made this little video to tell you about it. Enjoy.
On Sunday night, Venetia and I went once again to the Centro Cultural Kirchner (popularly known as the CCK) this time to see a concert by the Damian Boletin Quintet. We had no idea what to expect, but what we got was fabulous.
The program was an eclectic mix of non-traditional tango, modern jazz and material written by Damian himself that isn’t readily categorized. But it was one of the best I’ve seen there. I really can’t believe these excellent concerts are totally free.
Here are some photos and, if you are curious about the music, a short video shot by Venetia — who is thrilled with the quality produced by her new iPhone!
Some Israeli friends I met last year sent this video via Whatsapp, and I hope I can get it uploaded here — I can’t do it through YouTube as I usually do because of copyright.
The words and the sub-titles are in Spanish, but even if you don’t understand the language I think you’ll get the message. It’s wonderful! Felices Fiestas!
The week I left Toronto, I spoke at MoMonday for the last time. Michel gave me a big buildup as a MoMonday favourite and talked about how I had been involved from the beginning. It’s been a great ride, and I’ve always enjoyed it. Thanks Michel and Barbara!
Here’s the video — I hope you enjoy it.
Last night Venetia and I went to an event which we had misunderstood from the announcement. We thought it was a guided walk to see some of the flora and fauna of Argentina, but it turned out to be a lecture — all in rapid Spanish! We weren’t up for two hours of that, so we left. After a walk around the lovely Parque Lezama, we decided to look for a place to have something light to eat. It was a bit too early for typical Argentine dinner, so we thought some tapas and wine would be in order.
We walked up a lovely street called Caseros in the barrio of San Telmo, and discovered Napoles. We had both walked past the window before and were intrigued but never went in. Tonight we did, and what a discovery it was.
I made a quick video from some photos I took, but if I had photographed all the cool things it would be a feature length movie! It was a huge place, filled with an eclectic collection of artifacts — statues, busts, pictures, vintage clothing, full size cars and more!
We sat at a table near the front and enjoyed some provoleta (a typical Argentine dish made of grilled provolone with herbs and spices) and a glass of mellow Malbec, while glorying in the fantasy all around us!
Check it out.
Ricardo Hadis is one of the people I met socially last year in Buenos Aires, so when he came to Toronto on a business trip a few months ago, he invited me to spend a day with him. We had a great tour around the St. Lawrence Market area and then had lunch at the Distillery District and dinner in a great French restaurant — can’t remember the name.
When he celebrated his 75th birthday here in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, he invited me to his party. And what a party it was! It took place in a lovely Italian restaurant called Giuseppe, down by the river. The theme was heavily Italian influenced, but there was one fun Mexican song, and lots of Argentine ones which I didn’t know but clearly the locals did!
I forgot to take a a photo along the waterside outside, but you can kind of see it through the window behind the performers in the video. Note the birthday candle Argentina style! I hope you enjoy the video.
By the way, YouTube seems to have disabled the ability to stop related videos coming up at the end. If anyone knows how you can still do this, would you please let me know in the comments? Gracias.