Impatiently Waiting

The US welcomes you back with open  slightly judgemental arms ..

My favorite quote of the day , no ... of the month !
We are waiting for our buyer to show up.
The realtor emails me and says, Today at 3, I come with a buyer. If Only !!
They come, they look, they smile and chatter away with the realtor, discussing this and that then they leave.
Never to be heard from again.

We have sold 2 homes before this .. they sold fast and easily.
Of course, the President of the US didn't decide to change the laws and rules and way of doing things forever, just to suit his/her mood .. or the mood of her friends who are Presidents of other countries.

So we sit and we wait.
The mover sits and waits.
The House in the Country in the US,  with a fireplace and lots of property, that I have not seen yet, sits and waits.

I shop, I go to the doctors and have various things cut off of me, stitches put in , stitches taken out, new things for doctors to look at.
There is Shopping to do .. I am sick of winter clothes.
I bought a pair of beige ballet flats. If we move back to the US in the next couple of months, those shoes will have to wait another year before they see Summer or get to be worn.
What a depressing thought !

I wanted to have some kind of summer back in the US.
But now it looks like we will just have    2 winters in a row... and that is if we are lucky !

Be prepared for lots of whining.
It is the price you have to pay.....

We had big storms last night.
The sort that come with thunder so loud, the television could not be heard.
The sort that the lightening lights up the rooms.
The sort that goes on and on and someone falls asleep counting the seconds between lighting and thunder to see just how close it really was.
I was again happy that we have no car, there was a hail storm in the night also.
Lots of new dimples in some cars today.

We took a walk and I took photos
What I would like to be doing is shopping and going out to dinner ... in a warm New York.

I was never famous for being patient.
Just to show you that it was not altogether a wasted day ...
We walked here ....

And I briefly contemplated the possibilities of Me wearing This...

Let's hope someone comes to buy this week... or you might have to live through more whining ..

She whines...

It's too hot , she whines, over and over as they walk ( she trudges) up the hill
( slight incline), to the top where trees shade the grass and a nice breeze blows.
You can see pretty far from there. . down the slope, past the huge avenue, across more parks , more avenues, trees, sky and beyond, the river and Uruguay.

All around are beautiful buildings, built at least 100 years ago, grande edificios with large rooms, ball rooms perhaps, salons and floor to ceiling French doors leading to terraces with large topiary lined up along the way ..

Oh , to be in Paris, she whines, same architecture, same beauty , cooler temperatures.

I didn't mean that, really, I just like to whine when it is too hot to be outdoors and too boring being indoors.

It will all be better tonight, Summer nights in Buenos Aires are the best.
Everyone is out, sitting in cafes, walking, sitting in parks, children are out with parents, and enjoying the fresh air without that South American sun beating down .
And no one whines.

Hace Calor !

It is hot.
The sun is beating down from a typical, ridiculously blue Argentine sky with not one little wisp of a cloud to give a person on the ground a touch of shade.
There is hardly any traffic either .. they are not dummies here, they know what to do when it is Summer and a Heat Wave is over the City.
They Get Outta Town !

And if they are not out of town, they are in their pools or like myself,
hiding in a darkened room with the air conditioning on.
Thank you God for air-conditioning.
I know everyone doesn't have it and quite a few people live without it but I am not one of them.
I am a wimp. I freely admit it. I don't even go to Wimps Anonymous, I am Out with my Wimpiness.

If it were cold, I would be bundled up and striding through the streets, boots on, gloves and scarf ( that my sweet husband bought me in Montreal and it keeps me soooo warm) and you always know that if it gets too cold, you can pop into any cafe and fill up on hot coffee or tea and warmed manzana tart or medialunas .. ahhhh...
I do look forward to Winter.
They do Winter very nicely in Buenos Aires.
But for now, they are doing some brutal hot Summer.
So .... if anyone needs me, you know where to find me .. here, in my room, with the air-conditioning on High.

Another #^@&ing Beautiful Day

What a day ! Not a cloud in sight.
Dry, comfortable to walk for miles and forget that you are dehydrated and might collapse any minute if you don't stop for a drink or better yet, ice cream !

It was a bit too hot for the majority of the people in town, well, if you don't count tourists who are suitably dressed with hats and walking shoes and backpacks and maps and cameras and make me want to sit down and rest just looking at them !

We walk in the shade.
We manage to stay cool-ish and not burned to a crisp .. well... mostly.
I have one too many freckles from the past few days and my hair is turning a very scary white.
Even my eyebrows are bleaching out .. too bad the freckles don't bleach out .
I will look like whats-his-name .. Edgar Winter .. remember him ?

I took my camera and we wandered around a neighbourhood that is interesting, a long walk but full of things we want to go back and see more of .. not to mention a street of mostly Antique shops and Curio shops and Art Galleries.
The Sofitel Hotel and some nice cafes are there too.

Yesterdays protestors left some notes for some people .. this one was on a nice old building that had just finished painting and cleaning their entire facade this past year ..

Tomorrow, I think a nice museum or Cultural Center with air-conditioning is a good idea.

*Regarding the title .. if you  saw the film, White Mischief, you might remember Sarah Miles and what she said in the morning... getting out of bed, opening the shutters and looking out at the day ..

Friday .. Then and Now

Fridays used to be such a longed for day ,a looked forward to day , going out with friends that night, maybe going away for the weekend, sleeping late, staying up late, relaxing and doing what we feel like.

In the Summer we would aim at Friday as the day that we would pile everything into the car and drive to the beach, where we would wear summer clothes, go barefoot and eat fresh fruit and fish and get sunburned and come home Monday night brown, relaxed and hating to go back to the Real World.

In Winter it meant maybe a drive Upstate, apple picking, pumpkin "picking, antiquing or just lolling in a four poster bed in an old Inn and driving around and admiring homes and wishing we could live in the "country".

Now we live in Buenos Aires.

There is no more Monday back to Work. No more driving anywhere unless we get the Taxi driver to do it for us and the only apple picking we do is at the Disco supermercado.

Summer is here, I miss the idea of a beach, even though I never lay in the sun anymore. Yes, those years of tans caught up with me.

So it is Friday, the main streets leading out of town are full of cars already, early in the day. Horns are honking , tempers flaring.

We flag down a taxi in front of our home and say Palermo Soho por favor and off we go !

We just wanted a change of scenery. It is always green on the streets of Palermo, welcome shade in the summer. Makes it more comfortable when you want to dawdle in front of the windows, that have so many interesting and sometimes just funny things in them.

This shop sells Everything your dog needs to be the Best Dressed Pup in BA. I didn't go inside but something told me that there would be nothing in Pup's size, but it was a laugh just looking at the window.
This is more the sort of thing Pup would appreciate if I brought it home. I might have to go back and pick up a Pup Stocking Stuffer here.

There are a few streets in Palermo that are mews. They call them Pasajes and I love them. Some are cobblestone, small private houses, with gardens and terraces on the roof, I sometimes consider living that way, but then we love our neighborhood and say no, we will stay here.





There are a lot of Artistic types living in Palermo. And some like using a large "canvas" wherever they can find it.


It was a nice day. We came home, grabbed Pup and took him to the parks, where our walk led us to the restaurant that serves a decent Bloody Mary. Then we ambled on home.. where we will stay in and relax until dark, when Ice Cream may tempt us to come out .
Have a good weekend !

A Vision Of Things To Come

Pup knew better than to even try ....

It is the day after Thanksgiving for those of us who come from or are in the United States.

It is Friday, and here in Buenos Aires, it is summer and it is the day that .... people head out of town if possible, making lots of traffic with lots of honking.
Of course, what fun is sitting in traffic if you can't honk mindlessly for hours?

Except some of us just want to get to the mall, in the taxi, with the least amount of walking in the heat, so they get to sit and listen to the honking up close and personal ... like we are in the Front Row Center at the Concert ... Surround Sound honking .

The mall is over air-conditioned in some spots and not air-conditioned in others.

Causing one person to decide that there was nothing that she needed to wear that was THAT important and we can Find It in Another Store so they left.

Arriving home to an overjoyed Pup, who for some reason, after all these years, still seems to think We are Never Coming Back, when we leave without him.

So taking Happy Pup to the park , in the heat, was next.

The birds were hot. They were !! They pecked and squabbled with little energy and mostly just waddled around in the shade. One didn't have the energy to even fly away when Pup walked over, it just sidled away, Pup could have cared less, he was headed for the bench where we would sit and hope for a breeze.

The bench sitting didn't last long, everyone voted to head back home to the air conditioning.

This is a Vision Of Things To Come. Summer in BA.

I have no earthly idea what we are doing this weekend.

I might melt into a puddle somewhere and confound scientists everywhere or we might find something fun and not too hot to do.

To Be Continued ...

Tired Pup

Summer in Buenos Aires

This is our 3rd Summer in Buenos Aires. Each one has been totally different. I am not loving this one as much as those in the past, but I have hope next year will be quite different.. perhaps cooler and drier. That would be nice.

Our first Summer here, there was a drought. A drought can be terrible, lakes dry up, crops die, but there are no mosquitoes. We had fires out in the countryside which meant there was a "smoke condition" in the city. We were trying to get our Visa work done, sitting in the US Embassy with the rooms full of smoke, eyes watering, riding in the taxi through a town that seemed fogged in, but it was smoke. I have never seen anything like it.

Hopefully, we won't again.

Last summer was just great, never too hot and not too wet then it was over.

This summer has lasted about 4 years now and I think it will never be over. It started out very hot and has not really cooled off much. And we had a lot of rain, so the mosquitoes are very happy.

Pup and I prefer to sit here in this room, looking out the french doors at the people and imagining how nice it will be when it is autumn and the air is cool and crisp and you can smell the wood burning ovens .. ahhh ... fall.

I am ready for it.