… and who’s feet should be in them but JennG!

Our friend JennG gave another great show at the Cafe Biblioteca, just a ten minute walk from me. This time she was focusing on soul jazz from the 50s and 60s. She also brought in two guest artists, our friends Joanna Maddox and Cliff Williamson. What a wealth of talent we have in our group of friends!

Here’s a brief sampling.

My friend Steve is going to Scotland on Thursday, and a friend of his over there asked him to bring her a pair of tango shoes. He had no idea where to start, so he enlisted my help. This morning I took him to my favourite tango shoe shop, Comme Il Faut, one of the best ones in Buenos Aires. I love their shoes, but what make going there fun is the shopping experience itself, and today was even more fun than usual.

When you enter the showroom, you are invited to have a seat and tell them your shoe size, the height of heel you want and any specific requirements. Jean’s shoe size is the same as mine (even though I prefer them with 9 cm heels and she wanted them 7.5 cm!) so I could try them on for her — trying and buying gorgeous tango shoes with someone else’s money, how much fun is that?

From the selection of boxes around us, we picked out a couple of pairs, and I suggested sending Jean a photo to see if she liked them. That started a chat, and then Steve decided to just do a video call with her. That’s when the fun began! She started asking me questions and I gave her information, but one of the two assistants started telling us what to tell her. It turns out that Jean speaks Spanish, so we handed the phone over to the assistant. They then laid out a whole row of shoes and used the phone to show Jean and describe each pair! I modeled the pair she liked best and she ended up taking them. Photos and video below.

I don’t think this would have happened anywhere else but in Buenos Aires!

By now you are probably saying, “I wonder if Helen bought shoes for herself” — you know me so well! Actually I didn’t, but the only reason I was safe is that I bought a new pair a couple of weeks ago! Here they are in all their blingy glory!

There’s just nothing like a new pair of tango shoes! Enjoy yours, Jean!

Something lovely happened to me this morning on my way back from the cafe. There’s a fairly visible police presence in this barrio, and the officers are very friendly.

This morning, on my way home, I was stopped by two female officers, who said they had seen me drawing mandalas at the cafe, and wondered if I sold my work. I first explained that I rarely draw mandalas, but showed them my little sketchbook so they could properly see what I do. They said they would love to buy one—only one for both. I said I never sell my work but often give it away, and let them choose the one they wanted. I pulled it out of the book and signed it for them, and they were delighted.

It was a lovely way to start my day, and we all went off smiling!

Tonight Lina, Venetia and I went out to dinner, and we fancied a bit of a change from our usual haunts. We decided on a bit of Spanish cuisine and ended up at La Gran Taberna.

Lina had lamb, Venetia had mussels and I had what was described as a “mini-bife” — I wouldn’t like to see their idea of a full sized one. I’ll be having the other half for dinner tomorrow!

As you can see from the photos, the place had a definite Spanish look to it, right up to the hams hanging from the ceiling! Apparently they’re not busy on Sunday nights, so we had the place almost to ourselves. I think we’ll go back.

It was kind of hard to decide what to do after the dragon because it was such a complicated, high level project, but I finally settled on this one.

I found a painting online and this time I didn’t copy it, but used it as inspiration. Here is the original painting, and my first line drawing for mine.

I think this will be the next step I’ll take now on my Fileteado journey, using paintings by expert fileteadores as inspiration, but not copying them.

It’s taken a while, but I brought it home today after my teacher varnished it for me. It’s so shiny that I couldn’t quite get rid of the reflection in the background for the photograph, but I’m pleased with it nonetheless. Let me know what you think.

Sueño Porteño, our regular Wednesday night milonga, had its New Year milonga this week, for which most of the ladies wear white per tradition.

Here I am enjoying a tango with one of my favourite partners, the handsome Martin!

I’ve done a little bit of sketching and drawing over the past few days, so I thought I’d share these with you.

By the way, I finished the dragon on Friday (finally!) I left it with the teacher so that he can varnish it, so I’ll post it next week when I get it home.

Just as we have done for the past six or seven years, we brought in the New Year with our picnic in Puerto Madero. Other than the core group of Cecilia, Venetia and me, the faces change a bit each year, but it’s always a small group of close friends, which is what makes it special. That and the fireworks of course! Here’s what this year looked like, courtesy of Venetia’s video and photo—gracias Venetia!

Thank you for reading my blog. I wish everyone a very Happy New Year and all the best for a great 2023.

I’ve now been living in Argentina full time for four years, and for the Canadian winter months for three years before that, so I’ve seen quite a number of Christmases. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to Christmas being in summer—but I’m not complaining, I love it!

Usually I go to Cecilia’s family dinner on Christmas Eve, called Noche Buena, but this year was a bit different. We were invited to spend a few days visiting Cecilia’s daughter Macarena in Chivilcoy, a small city a couple of hours drive from Buenos Aires. We arrived on Friday and stayed till Monday.

We had hardly got out of the car before Cecilia and I had changed into swimsuits and jumped into the pool! We spent quite a bit of time there and enjoyed every minute.

As we celebrate Noche Buena here, Christmas Day is pretty quiet, so Cecilia and I went to lunch at a beautiful hotel just a few minutes away from Makka’s house and had a lovely relaxing meal.

As I’ve told many people already, we were five people and seven dogs! That’s because Makka’s dog, Naru, had four puppies six weeks ago. They have homes waiting for them, but they have to stay with their mother for another week before they can go, which was great because I got the chance to see and cuddle them! She hasn’t named them, leaving that to their new owners, but they do answer to their numbers!

Here are a few Christmas memories.