Month: January 2022

It was time to pick up my glasses. I was a little apprehensive as this is Mexico after all. Over the last week, we have seen a lot of reviews about this optician and they were almost all positive. I needn’t have worried because when I picked them up they were great. I chose not to get any kind of coating as they throw off the natural colour of things and I didn’t like that. now I can stop bumping into stuff.

While having drinks with Brent and Hauna, they asked us how we met and we started to tell them the story. It then occurred to me that some of the events were so entertaining that they might make a good blog.

I started to write and it was all coming back to me after almost twenty-seven. and a half years. Rosalie and I had a great time reminiscing. It started as one blog but I soon realized that to tell it right I had to break it down into three separate blogs. So far it looks okay, unfortunately, I can’t find the photos online to go along with them. I have them on an external hard drive in Canada but that doesn’t help me here so I will have to wait until we get back to do the posts.

Rosalie got her usual beauty treatments today while I get a much-enjoyed couple of hours to myself. Unfortunately, she sent me a selfie while in the process; you can see my reaction! I almost wish I hadn’t got my new glasses. Luckily we’re going to the beach after for a margarita so I may have to have two just to help me get over it.

A few of the restaurants here are starting to add 15-20% tips to their bills which we believe is illegal in Mexico. This is ticking a lot of people off. Sometimes they don’t notice the add-on and pay anyway, paying a tip on top of a tip. We caught it once so won’t go back to that particular restaurant. Now we scrutinize every bill.

I’m finding it hard to find things to write about lately. I’m sure everyone is tired of me keep saying “We went to the beach today” especially if you live up North right now with all the cold weather and snow. I think I may have to start making things up; over and above my usual exaggerations that is. That’s why I am so happy to change things up and write about our wedding.

I’ll keep trying, something will turn up.

As we are moving next season, we had to get up the courage to tell Raquel. She took it fine and understood that it is very wet out here. We talked to Blanca who will be our landlady next year and got everything sorted out for storing our stuff. If the people in there now move out before we leave we can move our stuff right in. If not, we leave it with Blanca and move it when we get back next season. I’ve been doing a mental inventory, boy, we have accumulated a lot of stuff over the last few years.

My glasses have a coating on them which is very scratched and I was having trouble seeing out of them. There is an optician near Papa Gallo’s (convenient) so I popped in for advice. He said I need new glasses so I ordered some. I had my prescription so that made it easy. I went to reach for my glasses as we left and he said, “No! I keep these for now.” My new ones will be ready on the 28th so I can amuse Rosalie by bumping into things in the meantime. Fortunately, I don’t need them for driving. The total cost will be $2,500 pesos or about $152 CND. Not bad!

I thought for a while that I would never come back here as I couldn’t find my tetra packs of wine anywhere. We found a few but we usually buy a case of twelve to last us a few days. We eventually found a location with the help of a long-time resident and friend of ours. Phew, just in time, Rosalie was starting to have hallucinations, she thought I was a scorpion and kept trying to hit me with her shoe.

Talking of my lovely wife. She booked our return flights home today. The flight leaves from PV so we’ll spend the night there and perhaps revisit the Malecón. Our flight arrives in Vancouver on 13th April but we’ll have to stay in a hotel overnight and then fly Harbour Air on the 14th. That’s a lot off our minds. The whole process of booking stressed Rosalie out a bit though.

It’s amazing how you can create something from nothing. We usually watch Netflix, but this evening for some reason Rosalie wanted music. With Amazon music turned on, a fabulous evening followed listening to old rock music. We usually listen for an hour and then watch a movie. Today though it was such a great time we played music right through until bedtime. A few glasses of wine were involved for a truly magical evening. Something from nothing, I love it. With the volume up it even managed to drive out all the Mexican music playing around and about.

It looks as though the Vid is starting to make inroads here. We’re hearing of more and more people coming into contact with it. Some people thought they had the Vid but tested negative. This proves that there are other illnesses other than Covid. The good news for us is that as we have had it we may not have to get a PCR test prior to leaving here, Just proof of a positive test. This will save us about $300 CDN.

Remember when we were asking if anyone knew of someone who had Covid? Now we’re asking if you know of anyone who hasn’t had it.

For the good news, there are several things. First, it looks as though they are finally doing something about the river running down our road. Raquel arranged for a load of gravel to be delivered and dumped outside our place to clean up some of the mess. I cancelled our Amazon order for a rowboat. I don’t think Rosalie knows how to row anyway.

The next day the municipality started to clean up our road and the machine operator asked if we wanted the gravel levelled out. We called Omar as it was his project. He said “Si” as he would have had to get help from his buddies to move it with shovels and wheelbarrows. He did do a bit of digging so earned himself a cerveza.

The other bit of news is that we are moving next season. Besides the water on the roads, Rosalie feels a little trapped as she likes to walk into town for supplies or just shopping, and she can’t do that here as we are too far out on a dusty road with no shade. Also, the place isn’t the same since the storm devastated everything.

Our new location is in West Melaque near to Jim and Ylda as well as Art and Linda and Art Sr. It’s in the flood zone but we took that into consideration and know that we can cope with it. The owners clean up before we get here anyway. Jim and Ylda were flooded last year and it was cleaned up so well that we could see no difference. Our stuff can be stored up high and they are allowing us to store our car in their carport which is about 1.5 metres above the road level. If they can’t fit it in then there are lots of car storage locations available.

It’s a one-bedroom house with a large front yard and lots of trees. There is an accessible roof and they say they will build a palapa if we’re staying for six months each year. I hope they do, but this is Mexico after all so we’re not holding our breaths. Anyway, Rosalie can easily walk into town from there so she’s happy.

We’re starting to have problems with transferring money from Canada to here so had to write a cheque today. It was pretty expensive but we had to have the cash right away to pay the deposit on the new place so had to suck it up. It will be sorted out later.

Our Covid quarantine finished a couple of weeks ago. So it’s been a while without socializing with anyone. We’ve been going out for lunches and dinners and of course to Papá Gallo’s for drinks. But all by ourselves. It seems as though, like we did last year, people are keeping their heads down and not taking any chances.

Then suddenly we got a whole slew of invitations. (Well two anyway.) Jim and Ylda asked us over for meatballs and spaghetti. How could we refuse? We had a really nice evening with them. Also caught up a bit with Art, Art Sr. and Linda whom we haven’t seen for a while.

Bill and Connie came back to town a few days ago and we’re going out for Chinese with them later. We haven’t seen them for a couple of seasons and look forward to hooking up with them again.

It’s been crazy on the beach over the holiday season. I know it’s their country but I have never seen so many Mexicans in one place all at once. Even the restaurants were often crowded with them whereas last year at this time we were practically alone. Even Raquel mentioned it.

It’s been chilly in the mornings.

We were sitting here listening to what we think was someone playing Mexican Karaoke. It wasn’t bad but had been going on for hours and we were getting a little tired of it. Rosalie wanted to go and punch someone out, but I managed to hold her back and force a glass of wine down her throat ’til she calmed down a notch.

Papá Gallo’s was carnage the other day . First, Gustavo had ripped a nail almost right off his thumb. I offered to complete the job but he declined, much to my relief.

Not to be out done, Alex showed us photos of his young daughter who, while sweeping the floor, somehow fell and and cut both her knee and chin.

After my last post about our various languages, I thought this little item might be interesting, and to some a little confusing.

This is quite a boring blog but not much has been going on down here lately. That may be a good thing, I don’t know.

But wait! I’ve been hearing beeping noises outside all morning so I snuck a look and was shocked to find someone fixing the roads and filling in some of the holes around the village. They had a large grader and the beeping was from it backing up. We’re quite excited as it’s becoming quite a challenge to find a way in and out of here.

I was lamenting the fact that one of our great English words has, because of the internet, slid into Americanism. The word route has always been pronounced “root” there should be no other way. I’m surprised they didn’t drop the ‘u’ and slide us still further into anarchy. As for dropping the U in Colour, well for goodness sakes what’s with that. Thru, what the heck is thru? It’s through everyone knows that.

Then one day I was humming a little tune to myself. I would have sung out loud but the complaints last time were crazy. I suddenly realized that the song was incorrect American language. The little ditty was “Route 66” and in the song, it’s pronounced “Root 66.” I started to get excited realizing that if I could find more words like this I could turn the whole American crazy-assed way of saying and spelling stuff, upside down.

When I first came to Canada in 1969 I had to learn a new language. Not so much a language but a lot of new words. Later as my kids got a bit older one of them was tasked at school with writing as many English words together with their Canadian equivalent. There were literally hundreds. Although many American and Canadian words are similar they are not always the same. And don’t get me started on adding French into the mix.

I was at GM in Buffalo NY talking to the project manager there who happened to be a woman. We wanted security on a cabinet and she told me we could put a ‘lauke’ on it???? I turned to my buddy, a Canadian who looked as baffled as I did. We finally figured out that she meant a lock.

It’s not just the Americas though, it’s as bad in England. You can’t go from one town to the next without Google Translate. You can ask for a dinner roll in one town, a bun in another, a cob in yet another etc, etc.

I once called Tyneside in Northern England regarding my British pension. I had a clear phone line but didn’t understand the operator at all. The Northern England accents are very hard to understand for a Southerner like me but I should have got it. I stalled and finally, my brain clicked in and I could communicate once again. This happened twice. Also, If you ever go to the East End of London, Take an interpreter.

One of my favourite (note the U) things is listening to both Canadians and Americans try to pronounce some of the old English names. Of course, the favourite is Worcestershire. Try Wooster-sheer. See easy! Another one of my favourites is Loughborough (Lufboro) I had trouble with that one when I first came across it. I think that somewhere along the line someone sold England a whole bunch of surplus letters and we’ve been trying to use them up ever since. Probably William the Conqueror, that bast..d.

Once in a while, I come up with an expression that I haven’t used since I left England 52 years ago. I also sometimes have to stop and think about which word I have to use Canadian or English. It’s funny how our brains work. (Rosalie said especially mine.)

I use a lot of English slang words around Rosalie and she tends to use them on other people. I suggested that she shouldn’t do this as one of us needs to be understood.

I tell people now that I speak several languages, English, Canadian, some Spanish and a smattering of American. But I still don’t get why they don’t understand me. And then there’s our good friend Peter Who’s Australian, a whole other language.

After looking and listening I’ve failed to find any more words that Americans pronounce properly, so if you have any ideas send me an email. Anyway, ruuuf what’s a ruuuf? I think it may be that thing on a house to keep the rain out, but I’m not sure,