You know those times when things turn out very differently from expected, but maybe even better? Well Friday was one of those times.

Cecilia had invited Venetia, Vivian and me to go to San Isidro, a town a few miles past where she lives, to see a concert. It was a charity event put on by the College of Notaries, and she told us it was to be a flamenco show. Well, when we arrived early to get our tickets, we discovered it wasn’t flamenco, but zarzuela. I think she just registered that it was a Spanish show and assumed flamenco.  Zarzuela is a kind of Spanish operetta type of music — no dancing! But we were there anyway, so what the heck.

We were early though, and decided to use the time to go and have a glass of wine before the show. San Isidro is not Buenos Aires, and finding a place open was challenging. We asked a flower seller, who told us there was a wine bar “just down the road”. After we walked several blocks, we found the place. It was called “Best Wines”, but it turned out it wasn’t a regular wine bar where you could just go in and drink wine. It was more of a wine tasting place, and a bit of an Alladin’s cave if you like either wine or whisky.

But…

The guy told us we couldn’t stay because they were closing in half an hour! There were two customers at the back, happily quaffing away, but he said they had been there for a while and he couldn’t serve anyone else. Well, Cecilia went into her Argentine feminine wiles routine, telling him we were going to show and would have to leave in half an hour anyway. The two men who were drinking at the back were also egging him on to let us in. Long story short, we were finally welcomed in, offered a choice of lovely wines and he gave us some nice cheese and ham to go with it at no extra charge. How nice was that. We had a lot of fun there — if he hadn’t been closing we might have been tempted to stay there instead of going back to the non-flamenco show!

As it happened, the show was fun too. Although it did have a kind of church basement feel to it, the two singers were professionals who had sung at the wonderful Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires and they were wonderful. Interestingly, even though they spoke and sang in Spanish, it was very obvious that this was not South American music, but Spanish through and through. You’ll see what I mean when you watch the video. I hope you enjoy it.