Events

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Movie — Darkest Hour

I went to the movies again with Venetia and Raul yesterday, and saw “Darkest Hour”. This movie focuses on the beginning of Churchill’s time as Prime Minister during the war years, including his struggles to have his plans and ideas accepted by the Opposition. It take a close-up, intimate look at his arguments with Chamberlain and Halifax over their desire for peace negotiations with Hitler, and ends with the heroic evacuation of Dunkirk.

My definition of good acting is when you don’t actually see the actor, just the character. By that measure, Gary Oldman does a masterful job, as I truly never noticed him — I only saw Churchill. It was a gripping movie, and I must admit it stirred my British blood quite a bit! I hope Oldman wins the Oscar for Best Actor, as it would be well deserved.

Kristin Scott Thomas also turned in a low-key but effective performance as Churchill’s wife, Clementine, and Ben Mendelsohn’s King George was convincing and empathetic. The movie should also win an award for make-up, based on Oldman’s physical transformation alone.

Highly recommended.

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Family Asado — and Andrea Bocelli!

Last Saturday Cecilia held an “asado” or barbecue at her house. She invited some of her family, as well as Venetia, Raul and me.

As you’ll see, I tried to switch to the wide view of the video – only to learn that you can’t switch horses midstream. I’ll gt the hang of this yet.

As an aside, for a month during the summer, there are outdoor concerts in the plaza beside Teatro Colon. They are not live concerts but broadcast from famous opera houses and concert venues around the world, and they are free. There’s nothing quite like sitting under the stars on a warm summer night watching these concerts.

Someone mentioned that the show of the evening was Andrea Bocelli in concert from Central Park. As one, we decided we should go, and before we knew it, Adriana, Raul, Venetia and I had all piiled into Cecilia’s car and headed down to Plaza Vaticano. The last clip of the video is from there.

I hope you enjoy the video.

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Eternal Bulgaria

Huh? Bulgaria? I know, not my usual subject matter. But a few days ago I received information about an event called Bulgaria Eterna that was taking place last night in San Telmo. So I went along with my trusty friends Cecilia, Raul and Venetia.

We listened to the usual speechifying by the Ambassador and various others, and then we had wine and nibblies as we all mingled. Not hugely entertaining, but I did find the information about Bulgaria interesting, mainly because I didn’t know anything about that part of the world. There were various posters and information pieces around the walls and I read most of them. The travel posters showed that Bulgaria is certainly beautiful, but what interested me were the people I read about.

Did you know, for example, that the person credited with inventing the computer was Bulgarian? Me neither. John Atanasov was born in the USA of Bulgarian parents.

Did you know that yogurt originated in Bulgaria? Me neither. Dr. Staman Grigorov isolated the bacteria that causes fermentation in yogurt. The strain is called lacto bacillus bulgaricus, in honour of his homeland.

See, the reason this interests me so much is that Bulgaria is a country that’s not all that well known in the rest of the world, apart from adventure travelers maybe. And the three countries I claim as my own — Scotland, Canada and Argentina — also fall into that category. Scots have invented many things we all know today, including penicillin, the telephone (yes, Alexander Graham Bell was a Scot who emigrated to Canada — like me!), the steam engine and so many others I can’t remember. (Just Google “invented in Scotland” and you’ll be amazed.) But how many people know that? Not a lot.

In terms of universal acknowledgement, Canada suffers from its proximity to its huge neighbour to the south. I’m constantly amazed at how little people know about us. Just this week, a taxi driver asked me if Canada was a state of the US. He wasn’t being rude; he just didn’t know. Interestingly, everybody here seems to know we have an “English part” and a “French part”.

And then there’s Argentina. This wonderful country that captured my heart takes up a huge chunk of South America. It is physically beautiful, its people are lovely and I can’t say enough about the tango. Yet all most people know about it they learned from Andrew Lloyd Webber! Or they think it’s still like fifty years ago during the “Dirty War”. It’s not.

So I was interested to learn just a little about Bulgaria.  By the way, its capital, Sophia, will be the European City of Culture in 2019.

I also learned about Vasil Levski, probably Bulgaria’s greatest hero — at least that’s what people told us last night. I love the words this poster says about him:

TODAY

We do not remember your death

We show our devotion

As long as Bulgaria exists

You will live eternally!  1837-00

Look at the dates — they don’t remember his death! Is that not beautiful?

Here are a few photos of the exhibits, as well as one of us, of course!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bulgaria. Hmmm. Who knew?

 

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Went Out Last Night with My Two Moviegoing Friends

Venetia, Raul and I went last night to see the new Woody Allen movie, Wonder Wheel. It was at Cine Lorca, one of the many movie and live theatres on Avenida Corrientes. I love the street, as it has a great vibe.

It’s kind of an interesting experience to watch a movie in English with Spanish sub-titles — it’s usually the other way around.

I quite enjoyed the movie, but I didn’t love it. Visually, it was wonderful. Set in the 1950s on Coney Island, the background of the amusement park on the beach seemed to me to be an authentic representation of time and place. Although the movie had Woody Allen written all over it, there were also lots of places where Tenessee Williams peeked through, particularly a scene near the end that strongly evoked A Streetcar Named Desire.

The acting, I thought, was a mixed bag. Jim Belushi and Kate Winslet turned in credible performances, but I couldn’t make up my mind about Justin Timberlake. Was he playing a guy who was not very bright, or was it bad acting? I don’t know.

It did occur to me several times throughout the movie — and Venetia and Raul both agreed — that they sometimes looked as if they were acting on a stage instead of in a movie. That may have been intentional on Woody Allen’s part, as he does tend to have these quirky ideas.

I’m used to Woody Allen’s comedies, which I usually like, but this was dark and very different.

Worth the night out — but I enjoyed the wine and cheese with my friends after the movie better!

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A Travel Blogger’s Take on My Book

If you read a travel book review from someone called Travelling Book Junkie, you’re likely to read it, right? That’s what I thought, so I asked Tamason Gamble, the owner of the site and said book junkie, if she’d like to read Rare Steak, Red Wine, Hot Tango! She did, and I’m delighted to say she loved it.

“Would I recommend this book?  If you are even vaguely interested in Argentina pick a copy up.  It is a quick read at just 116 pages but it will give you a sense of the country.  It provides you with an insight into what it is like to have both a short holiday and a longer trip to this wonderful part of the world.” — Travelling Book Junkie

Check out what she had to say about my book on her blog here: http://bit.ly/2DhIDHv  This is not a quick one-paragraph review, but a well thought out description of a book she has obviously read carefully. I’m honoured that she did.

While you’re there, have a look round the rest of the site, which has lots of travel stories from Tam and her husband Paul, as well as great photos — oh yes, and reviews of other books!

Tam is yet another of my readers who says she had never thought of coming to Argentina until she read my book — a message I’m seriously trying to get across to the Argentine tourist people!

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Two Different Art Experiences

I went to two quite different art exhibits this past week.

On Wednesday I went with five friends to MALBA, the Museum of Latin American Art, which had a special exhibit of Mexican artists. I was primarily interested in Diego Rivera, whose work I first saw and loved at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. However, there were many beautiful pieces there, as well as a few that required a strong stomach! There were two of my favourites, but I unfortunately forgot to note the artists’ names.

The first one is an abstract study of people in a cafe, and I liked it because it seemed happy! The lady in the satin dress was on a wall opposite the door and was very striking as you walked in. It’s a pity my iPhone refused to take photos without flash, as it kind of washed out the beautiful bronz colour of her dress.

 

 

 

 

Today my friend Hemilce called and asked if I’d like to go to the Museum of Fine Art to see an exhibit of the Spanish artist Joan Miró, and that was completely different from the MALBA experience. The two on the left ar typical of the artist’s strong use of colour and abstract subject matter.

The third (sorry it’s a bit dark) was a room off the main gallery where children were playing games associated with the exhibit and contributing their own efforts. I love this kind of thing, which helps kids appreciate culture while they’re young.

The entrance to the exhibit was this blue corridor — I thought it was kind of fun.

This beautiful lady was my favourite of everything I saw today, even though she isn’t part of the exhibit we went to see. She is called Bianca and is by the 19th century French sculptor Gustavo Frederic Michel. Isn’t she lovely? Most sculptured heads look blind to me, with their blank eyes. This one was different. The eyeballs were carved in such a way that she actually looks as if she is looking at something.

I don’t do a lot of galleries as a rule, so it was fun to do two such different ones in such a short time.

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Bienvenido 2018!

I’ve now brought in my second New Year under the fireworks in the Puerto Madero barrio of Buenos Aires. It’s one of the best places to see them, and it seems more and more people are discovering you can do that without spending a fortune on the expensive waterfront restaurants. In fact, because their music is playing loudly all evening, outside revellers can take advantage of it to dance along the edge of the water and across the bridge! If we need to go to the washroom, we just nip into the Hilton. My friend Lola calls this being “gypsies in the palace” — I like it!

I did shoot some video, for for some reason I couldn’t get any to load up to YouTube so that I could put them here. I did get one up on FaceBook though, and you can see it here.

Like everyone else, I’ve been pondering what kind of year 2017 was for me. Although of course there have been a few downs, there have been many more ups and on balance, for me at least, it was a pretty good year.

Over the past few years I’ve definitely been on board with the idea of spending my money on experiences rather than “stuff”. In fact, I’ve been actively reducing the amount of stuff in my life and that’s an eye opening experience in itself. It occurred to me that I live in Argentina for almost half the year in a tiny furnished apartment with no surplus stuff, so why on earth do I need bulging cupboards full of stuff at home in Toronto? The answer is that I don’t, and I’ll be actively working on that when I get back there in early May.

I began and ended 2017 in Argentina, and I hope to do the same in 2018, although I also plan a little bit more travel this year. That’s a much more fulfilling way to spend my money. Do you agree?

I’m having a bit of a lazy day today, and then I’m going to a friend’s house for even more champagne. And then tomorrow it will be back to normal. Although I do love Christmas and New Year, I’m always secretly relieved to get back to the work and leisure activities of my normal life.

I hope you are enjoying sharing my Argentine life through this blog and the occasional FaceBook post. Thanks for all your likes, shares, comments and emails. I’ll be back with more normal posts this week.

Happy New Year, Feliz Año Nuevo, y un 2018 prospero y feliz!

Helen

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Nochebuena

In Argentina, the celebration is more Christmas Eve than Christmas Day. It’s called Nochebuena, or literally the good night, and it’s a time for family and friends.

So of course I spent it with Cecilia and her family, who have become my Argentine family. This year my friend Venetia joined us — a former chef, so a good person to have around the kitchen! We had a delicious dinner featuring a huge, delicious roast ham, lots of salads and a lovely traditional plate whose name I can’t remember but it was basically beef with a creamy tuna sauce. Apparently Nochebuena dinner wouldn’t be complete without it.

I’m rubbish at cooking most things but I do quite well with dessert, so I went old school and made a trifle — generously dowsed with rum!

I wish I could remember to take photos of the food at these events, but I never do, so you’ll just have to imagine it.

It’s a beautiful day and I have a few hours before getting ready for the next event, so I think I’ll go out for a walk and maybe even get a sketch done.

Hope you’re having a great Christmas wherever you and and whatever you’re doing.

Feliz Navidad from beautiful Buenos Aires!

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Twas the Day before Christmas Eve…

… and we had a thunderstorm last night that broke the humidity and brought the temperature down to 23. Yesterday was unbearably hot, so this feels pretty good right now.

Down here we celebrate Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day, and I’ll be going to Cecilia’s place for a family dinner. I’m not much of a cook, but I actually do rather well with desserts, so I planned to make one to take. Only thing is, I have a gas stove here and, being used to electricity, I’m a bit afraid of the oven! I’ve mastered the stovetop, but the oven…not so much. So I have to make something that doesn’t need baking and I’ve decided on a traditional English trifle. Going out soon to get the fresh fruit and berries for it and then I’m pretty much ready for Christmas, so I can relax the rest of the day.

Happy Christmas everyone!

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I’m here – I’m really here!

And it feels as if I’ve never been away!

I arrived early yesterday morning. My friend Cecilia (who features in many of the ‘aventuras’ in my book) picked me up and took me to her house, where I had a few hours sleep and a welcome shower — it’s a long trip from Toronto.

 

By 3 pm we

“Yuletide carols being sung by a choir”

Always seems funny to see Santa in the summer weather!

were at the annual Christmas garden party at the British Embassy. It’s not actually as posh as it sounds — more of a glorified artesan fair really. But I met several of my friends there and it was lovely to be greeted so warmly.

I thought I would have an early night, but no. Cecilia informed me we had been invited to the birthday party of one of her friends, so off we went there at 10.30 pm. All Argentines, all Spanish speaking. I don’t know if my Spanish is better or worse, but it’s certainly faster!

So two parties in one day. I wonder if that’s a sign of things to come. I certainly hope so!

I’m at Cecilia’s house until Thursday, when we go off to Salta for another adventure, so I’ll post again then — unless there’s something fun in the meantime, which has been known to happen.

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