Merry Christmas folks. I should have written a blog before this but have been a tad busy.
Anyway, this is a short blog wishing everyone all the best for the holidays from Rosalie and me.
We went out to the other compound for an appy dinner on Christmas Eve. There were eight of us initially but Art and Linda showed up later, so the ten of us had a great visit.
Us partying last night
Rosalie and I got home about 10:30 which is way past the bedtime of old folk but seeing we’re not that old yet we stayed up another half an hour and listened to the Mexicans celebrating with lots of music and fireworks.
At six this morning I was up and sat on the roof listening to the ongoing celebrations; the Mexicans go all night. It was fun as they like to use a microphone and sing along. By this time though they had been drinking all night and the singing was hilarious. More entertainment.
This evening we go down to the compound again with all our friends for turkey dinner.
Rosalie and I bought a chiminea as it’s starting to get cooler in the mornings and evenings. We enjoyed the last one we had so much we had to get another one. They only cost 650 pesos ($50.66CDN) They are made of un-fired clay so are somewhat delicate: once in place, it’s best not to move them. We showed ours to Jim and Ylda and they got one too. Tomorrow Jim and I go on a quest for firewood.
On the way to the airport to pick up Bill and Connie, the car started to play up. It sounded as though it was miss-firing on one cylinder. The problem was intermittent so we managed to get them home okay.
After arriving home the engine light came on so the next day, off we went to get some repairs.
We ended up in the same place where we got our muffler fixed. The guy didn’t speak English but there was a couple from Alaska and she spoke fluent Spanish so she explained our problem.
The young mechanic told us to pull the car in and then used a laptop computer to check the error codes. He lifted the hood of the car and pulled one plug. After fiddling about he indicated that he needed to go for a road test. So we sat and waited…and waited. He was gone a long time.
Rosalie and I amused ourselves with pure speculation.
“Perhaps he’s gone to find a garage that can fix it.”
“No! he’s picking up the wife and kids.”
“I think he’s running a taxi service.”
“Perhaps he doesn’t even work here and our car’s been stolen.”
We seem to find many ways to amuse ourselves, Rosalie and I. We find the funny side of most things.
A little later we saw him across the highway dropping off another guy, (??) who came over to the garage, picked up a motorbike and took off. And still, we waited!
He finally showed up and after a phone conversation with a lady who spoke English, he said he had possibly fixed the problem but wanted us to drive around a lot and see if the engine light came on again to bring it back. He didn’t want payment and trusted us to come back the next day to pay him.
After driving to Barra and back twice the car seemed fine so today we went back and paid the guy.
Our second trip to Barra was amazing. Watch for the blog.
I was feeling like a snack the other evening at about 9 o’clock so I asked Rosalie what she had on hand. After the usual offering of muffins, popcorn and other assorted crap, she hit the holy grail.
Who else would make their husband a boiled sausage and a chunk of cheese for a snack at 9 p.m.? I am so blessed.
You may think I’m weird (true) and something of a peasant (also true) but it was delicious.
I’m a bit picky when it comes to food according to Rosalie. She’s starting to realize after all these years that I grew up in a different culture. In England almost every meal involved French fries fried in lard. In fact, everything was fried in lard. And of course, the main takeout was fish and chips. But now apparently it’s Indian food.
Since coming to Canada I sure miss English potatoes. The fries were better and the small new potatoes were delicious. Down here in Mexico, the spuds are similar to the English ones and I love them.
I have a very tender mouth and can’t tolerate spicy food even though I like it. Also, when I get a hot drink I have to let it cool a lot, unlike Rosalie who can drink coffee right out of the machine. I tried smoking cigars once but found that they burned my mouth so I quit that quickly. I did smoke for a while but that didn’t seem to affect me.
What food do I like? Anything from the Ocean except octopus or oysters. I eat a lot of Shrimp while here as well as fish. The fish in the restaurants is a bit hit-and-miss. Either it’s perfect or too dry. They love to put way too much salt or garlic on sometimes and that kills the flavour. I still like anything fried in lard, Although, at my age, I have to watch my cholesterol levels. People cringe whenever I mention that but “studies show” some lard is good for you. like anything else moderation is the key.
I once ordered garlic fish on the beach here for lunch and it was horrible. dried up and crunchy I did it a second time and vowed not to do it again. There is a difference between filet of fish with garlic and garlic fish, and I made that mistake.
On our way to Manzanillo a few years back we stopped at a restaurant on the beach for lunch. I once again mistakenly ordered ‘huachinango’ garlic fish. When I saw what I had ordered I was cursing myself and apologized to Rosalie. When we tasted it though it was delicious. Now, whenever we go to Manzanillo we stop at the same restaurant for garlic fish. Who’d a knew?
We found out that ‘huachinango’ is red snapper. We buy our fresh fish from one of the local ‘Pescaderías’ ( fish shops.) Rosalie couldn’t get our usual ‘sarangola’ so she got red snapper instead. It was so good that it’s now our go-to fish.
We also noted that when we first came here eighteen years ago the jumbo Shrimp was 220 pesos a kilo and it’s the same price today about $17 CDN.
How do two people live with each other and are in each other’s company nearly 24 hours a day?
Rosalie and I seem to manage really well. I mostly just say okay to whatever she wants and all is well. But wait a minute, she says that’s not true so I guess I’ll have to find another reason. (See that? I went along again.) Mostly, it’s because we get along 99% of the time. For the other 1%, I just apologize and we carry on.
The remarkable thing to me is that after nearly thirty years together, we still talk a lot and laugh all the time. We seem to find the fun side of most situations and I think that helps. We are so opposites in many ways. It must be true that opposites attract.
Going to the beach is great too, not just for the margaritas, although they do tend to loosen Rosalie’s tongue. We mostly leave our devices at home and rely on conversation. We have solved a lot of our Spanish language problems there. If something can’t be figured out we ask a waiter as they are always willing to help.
At home, we have a routine. Up in the morning, me about 6 am Rosalie a little after. It’s still dark so I go up and put the light on. We take our tea to the roof and while I check the news Rosalie likes to get on to Facebook. Once I have read the drivel on the news I also look for laughs online. We share giggles and so our day of laughter starts.
At about 9:30 it starts to get hot upstairs so we go down to the patio and Rosalie uses her 3D pen while I tinker with the 3D printer. We make a second pot of tea or coffee and hope that we have nothing serious pending that day. If we do we both groan and hope it’s for the afternoon. That way we can make yet another excuse to go to the beach afterwards.
After lunch at home but sometimes out, we wander uptown (in the car) to do a little shopping or get money from the bank.
Back at home, we go to the roof again as soon as the sun is off it, at about 5:30 – 6 o’clock. when it gets darker we decide whether to watch TV or not, lately mostly not. Sometimes the tequila comes out which produces more laughter. At about 10:30 we head to bed. The rest of the night is none of your business.
The only real break we get from each other is about once a month when Rosalie gets her nails done for a couple of hours. I usually drop her off and scoot back to the casa to spend my two hours in isolation. I don’t do anything different, I just do it alone. The funny thing is I’m always looking forward to picking her up again. Perhaps it’s because we usually go to the beach again or ‘Restaurante Rita’ on the lagoon.
Me, when I pick up Rosalie from the esthetician
Even when I take the car to the garage for repairs, Rosalie wants to come along and she sits with me patiently until the repairs are done. On the other hand, I won’t sit for two hours while she gets her nails done.
I think mostly while this works is not just the love affair but the friendship and respect for each other’s needs. I’m not good at expressing these things but whatever it is it works and we know it will keep on working.
Things are a little less lonely here now. A lot more of our friends have shown up so we’re getting to socialise a little more.
The weather has finally started to cool down a bit. It’s been brutal for the last two months, even Rosalie was getting a bit owly and I had to take her to the beach most days for a margarita. It wasn’t the temperature so much as the humidity, even the Mexicans were complaining.
There was a tragedy at the beach the other day. A shark killed a young 25-year-old Mexican woman. There is a bouncy castle with slides floating in the shallow water and one of the theories we heard was that the little fishes go under it for shade followed by the bigger ones followed by the shark. Who knows though? We heard four or five different versions, even one that it was a crocodile. We got our info from the Mexican restaurant waiter that we were at so we tend to believe that one. It was definitely a shark!
The waiter said that that was the first shark he’d heard of in thirty-eight years. Friends of Jim and Ylda who are Mexican heard fifty years ago. Either way, it was a tragedy. I guess we can add this one to the global warming phenomena, but who knows?
The plants that we put in last year are doing well. we even have a lime on one of them. If I remember correctly it was a lime tree so that would make sense. Duh!
Back in 2017 Rosalie and I were barred from a beach restaurant because we refused to pay for a table on the beach. No other restaurants made that charge and we did buy drinks.
A few days ago we decided to take a chance and try it again. The nasty old lady who threw us out was probably dead by now anyway. If she wasn’t I was prepared to run for it. She wasn’t there, it was great and we made friends with yet another mesero.
Rosalie getting robbed by yet another beach bandit. When I showed the little monster this picture I got the most beautiful gap-toothed grin.
The main street in Melaque is a mess from the new drainage pipe install. I now understand the expression “You can’t get there from here.” crossing the road was almost impossible. Walking up one side you get to the end and can’t cross there. So, back to the beach end and finally crossed there. Unfortunately after going to the bank, we were so stressed it was necessary to go to the beach for a margarita to calm us down.
We hadn’t been to Manzanillo this year so decided to go for a few things. After stopping in La Comer and Home Depot we were out $400 Cdn. But worse was to come, or so I thought.
On the way home the car seemed to be over-revving and I was worried. Eventually, I realized that it was the muffler making all the noise. Back in Melaque, I took it to our regular guy who couldn’t do it for a few days so we found a ‘mofle’ repair place. I had visions of a new very expensive muffler but should have known better. The guy looked under the car and waved us in over his pit. He grabbed his welding gear and fifteen minutes later we were out of there. The cost? 250 pesos about $20. We love Mexico!
