Rosalie wanted to have someone over for dinner so we invited Glenn and Cheryl who are in Melaque for the first time; and Mike and Faye whom we’ve known a few years here.
We had a great evening. Rosalie as always did a nice meal. We ended up playing the same dice game that we had learned in PV from Giselle and Gordon.
The following day Rosalie wanted to have more people over as she still had fresh ingredients left from the previous night’s dinner.
We invited our neighbours Gerry and Elaine and Elaine’s brother Hugh and his partner Lori. Again we had a great meal. After dinner Rosalie and I wanted to play dice again but no one else did. Instead, Lori had brought along her guitar and started to entertain us. She was very good and we are trying to encourage her to try open mike.
I have been trying to relearn the guitar for a few years but got discouraged so, I haven’t played for a while. Watching how Laurie played though gave me a lot of encouragement. She played the basic cords, nothing fancy, no twiddly bits, just good rhythm guitar. I realised that I had been trying way too hard. So, when I get back to Canada I’ll bring out the guitar and try again.
Both parties were a great success. we ran out of Tequila but other than that we had a great time. So goes life in Melaque. I love to watch my Hockey games while down here but have missed the last three because of ‘social engagements’. Life’s tough!
Because we enjoyed riding the rented bikes so much we decided to try to buy a couple of used ones. There are a number of bike repair places but the prices seemed a bit high. As we were sitting on the beach having a few beers when we decided to buy a couple of new ones. We had seen some earlier and the prices were only a little more than the used ones.
When we go to the store, we did a bit of hemming and hawing and finaly selected a couple. “Okay,” says I “now we can dicker,” Buying two new bikes should get us a nice discount. However, the shop owner didn’t think so and only offered us $100 pesos ($6.50) off of the price. We wanted the bikes so bit the bullet.
The bikes are more practical than fun. We like to walk uptown, but often have to carry groceries back, so both bikes have carriers front and back. I wanted a mountain bike but Rosalie wouldn’t let me have one.
We thought we would be running up a bill with accessories. Locks were needed so we bought a couple. These are heavy duty cable locks that sell for $20 -$30 in Canada but we got them for 75 pesos (about $5).
The bikes had to be assembled so we had to pick them up the next morning after 10 am. We got to the store at 10:30 but it was still closed. As we were about to walk away the shutters went up and we got our bikes.
As soon as we started up the road Rosalie stopped. She tried to start again but said that the pedals wouldn’t turn. I checked and found that it was in the wrong gear. Boy, she has a lot to learn yet.
That afternoon I noticed Rosalie’s tire was flat so I borrowed a pump and re-inflated it but it soon went down again. Meanwhile, my right brake lever snapped. Back to the store, They were busy so we had to come back in an hour.
To kill time we went to the bank and then ordered our two cases of beer for delivery. Still having time to kill we wandered down to the beach for a beer. Having ordered we drank and listened to the waves crashing on the shore.
Once back at back at the store, we found that everything had been fixed. We had ordered two kickstands, these had been installed for a cost of 110 pesos (about $8).