Light!

It is all about the Light .. or the lighting .
When we saw this apartment for the first time, there was nothing on any of the windows, light poured into the rooms, the ceilings are so high, it seemed so vast and open.
I immediately fell in love with the place.

Those light-filled  rooms with high ceilings held very old pipes and wires and a decrepit bathroom and a crumbling do-it-yourself kitchen on top of an ancient kitchen .. but the charm was there, the light was there.

We had seen a few apartments and many had low ceilings and regular sized windows and no open views and I had to stop myself from clutching my husband , gasping "Let's get out of here, quick !!" .  I do admit that one warren of small, dark rooms had me walking out and waiting in the hall. Who knew I was so neurotic??

Then we walked in the door of this apartment. Love at first sight for me..

So we bought it .. another adventure, another story,  another time.

The fun part about buying a new home, is furnishing and decorating it.
At least that is the fun part for me, there may be a difference of opinion from my husband.

So the search began , we went looking for Lights.
The style of the apartment being French, I was determined to fill the rooms with chandeliers and replicate those wonderful apartments I have seen in Paris. ( they do call Buenos Aires the Paris of South America )...

Our days were full of wandering Antique shops in San Telmo. Returning home dazed and confused and starting to see one chandelier pretty much looked like all the others.
Then we went to antique shops in the more expensive parts of town where the Wonderful Things are sold .. of course, right away, we found just what we loved.
Then we asked the price.
I got a photo of it instead, and we continued our search.

We found a light that we really liked, but we needed two. The store owner made some calls, sent us an email and told us she had two and it would be too many pesos.
We continued the search ..

We went to the Flea Market.. now that is fun.
One day, we found a light, but we needed two. The man referred us to another shop, they did not have it. So we wandered aimlessly, when there in the gloom and dust of another shop, was what looked like the twin of the light we wanted.
The price was right, we grabbed it.
We got the other one and the living room was taken care of ... now only 6 more lights to find ..


We did it, we found them all, at various antique shops and the flea market and if we ever move from here, I am taking most of them with me.
Yep, I am in love with my lights.
I lie in bed and admire the chandelier, although the drawback is that one must climb a very high ladder to clean all those little pieces of glass, I do it and I love my chandelier.
I would take the light that comes into the rooms with me too, if I could.

But in the meantime, it is time to grab the Pup and go out into the light and soak a little warmth from the sun that is getting a little less strong, a little cooler breeze is blowing, there is a hint of fall in the air.

Soon we will be cozy inside , with the  winter sunshine lighting the rooms, until the early evening comes and the lights go on.

The People Here

I know I sound like someone who just arrived and I am eternally gushing about how much I love this and how great that is, but the one thing that really stands out in this place is the People.

All of them... even when it is not all about me, how nice they are to me, how they smile at me, how helpful they are with my stumbling Spanish... I watch the way they are with each other and they always touch my heart with their ready laughter, the passion with which they speak and deal with things and the way they are with children.

When we first arrived, I noticed right away how people seemed to have Manners.. remember manners? when men let women go through the door first and people looked out for each other, someone would pick up something you dropped and give it back to you with a smile.

Even the young'uns, the young teens who generally are still wild animals waiting to be domesticated, will be respectful of adults and especially of the elderly.
I saw a kid, shirt tail hanging out of his school uniform, friends all standing around laughing and talking, stop ... walk over to an elderly lady, take her arm and walk across a busy street ..  She kissed his cheek, he smiled at her then ran back to being a rowdy teen with his pals. It was all I could do not to grab him and hug him and tell him to tell his mama how proud she must  be !

Some visitors comment on how people stare .. I noticed it when I arrived but it did not bother me, I have been stared at before .. my husband used to tell me, they are just looking at you because you are so beautiful. ( and anyone wonders how we have remained married so long?) and here, you know that the ladies will be checking out your shoes and just seeing how you are dressed, what women are wearing in other towns, in other countries.. comparing and just being feminine.

Now the men, well, they are like the men all over the world, they look , they admire but they are gentlemen about it. They might catch your eye, they might look away, they most likely will smile and just keep on walking.

I lived in New York City. I all too clearly remember walking past a construction project and dealing with the sounds coming from those men .. I was known to take the long way around to avoid walking past that sort of gauntlet of rudeness.
Here, they might stare, they might admire, they might have lustful thoughts, but you don't hear about them.

Because we walk our dog each day on the same streets and walk the same blocks, most people know us. We are just part of the place for them.
Now when the garbage men come along to pick up the garbage, they might wave when they catch my eye, but no yelling, no remarks, just a person acknowledging another person.

I could sit and People watch here all day long.
I get all warm and fuzzy over the young women with the babies.
I think that in a few years, if I age as gracefully and as well as some of the matrons in this town, I will be lucky.
I love watching elderly women with their friends.
They might look old to us but these women are really a bunch of 18 year old girls in old woman costumes, laughing, gossiping , trading stories and probably checking out the old guys walking by.

At the Milongas where they go each night or each weekend, you will see elderly people sitting around tables, laughing, talking and dancing Tango until the sun comes up. I would be asleep under the table, they are ready to go have breakfast somewhere with their friends!

I think we moved to the right place if I want to be somewhere that old people are still valued and who can still have interesting lives.

Because, you know, I have a feeling that sooner or later, I am going to be an Old Person.

Thinking......

My birthday is coming  .  

Pretty soon I will be a grown up and will be able to drink and wear make-up, but in the meantime, I have been pretending to be grown-up and doing these things anyway.

As well as trying to guess   what I am getting for my birthday, where we will go for dinner and should I make a really big deal out of it since it is still a novelty to be in Buenos Aires. 

Or should I grow up already and stop this birthday fuss every year?

I would think about it some more, but  thinking is tiresome and there are some who believe it is not that good for your health.

In the meantime, where to go for dinner and to celebrate? 

What kind of food do I want ?

What sort of atmosphere?

Somewhere lively and noisy and cheerful ? or quiet and elegant with perfectly prepared and served dishes that are almost too pretty to eat. 

Somewhere we have been before or try a new place? 

This gets difficult because there is an extra level of disappointment when you try a new place for a celebratory dinner and the restaurant does not meet expectations, it dampens the birthday party , so to speak. 

So I am thinking, somewhere we already know and like.. 

The list would include Indian food, Mexican , Italian .... French ? maybe, there is a place that is super romantic and French, but maybe that is too serious... it is My Birthday!! let's get happy and silly ! 

I believe  a Mexican Restaurant on Puerto Madero, with a view of downtown Buenos Aires might  be a good spot for celebrating.. 

You know the Mexican food will not taste like any that I have had before, but their margaritas are lethal and we will have lots of laughs. 

And if one is not Thinking, one should be Laughing. 

Noise.....

Noise.
It surrounds me. Right now , there is the muffled sound of traffic, somewhere in the distance is a dog barking, a horn honks, someone in the building is having some work done, it is quiet now but eventually a quiet, rhythmic tapping will be heard.
At night, the doves will settle in for the night on the window sill, cooing softly.
If I go into the kitchen, there is the sound of the birds, sometimes I hear a child playing and sometimes I hear music from other apartment buildings ( if my windows are open)... and on weekends, the lovely sound of the church bells of Our Lady of Pilar.
That sound reminds me that I am far from "home" , in my new home.

When we walk down to the Park.. there are the chattering parrots, dogs barking, people talking and laughing ... all muffled by the sounds of traffic and happily, not very loud... just background noise. On weekends, the bands that set up in the parks to vie for time to be heard..

Yesterday the new sound was firecrackers and marchers, complaining about something, putting on their little demonstration. The police came along, the marchers left, quickly.
Order was restored , the noise returned to normal.

If I need a break from the sounds that now and then get to be Too Much, then we just crank up the  CD player  and I will obsessively listen to the soundtrack from Amelie, from Talk to Her (Almodovar) or one of our favorite classical CD's .. maybe Vivaldi or Bach .. loudly. 

The neighbors must shake their heads and mutter, those noisy Americana's..
But then I like to think that the lady next door who is housebound, might tap her foot now and then and nod her head and have nice memories brought to her by the sound of a familiar melody.

Home is where ......

One would think that I might have had enough with the packing and the moving and the saying goodbyes. 
But I think what has happened is, that our first moves were baby steps, moving from the US to Argentina was a big step .. beeeg step .. and now that we have taken such a big step, after 3 years here, I am getting the itch to take another step.

I have plenty of places in mind, but France and England always pop up first in the mental game of Where Do We Want To Go Next ...

If England were to give me problems with my sweet Pup coming along, then France it is ... although we do like the idea of Barcelona ( at least we will sort of speak the Language) or Italy ... Florence still has a great appeal to us both . My husband gets all happy every time he sees a Vespa here, I know he sees himself, zooming along some via in Italy, scarf flying in the wind, fancy Italian sunglasses on... Me ? I will be sitting at a cafe with Pup, after a successful afternoon of shopping for a perfect Italian leather handbag and will get home in my little sports car, top down for Pup. I don't like riding on the back of a scooter .. even if it does go fast.

There would be no doubt as to how much we would like the food and the wine , enjoy the shopping and spending our days exploring the countryside and little towns.

But Paris ? If I won the Lottery, we would already be there.

I see Pup and I wandering the shops on the Left Bank, my favorite street of shoe stores, picking up pastries and cheeses for an afternoon snack. Walking past the Eiffel Tower after dinner.

We did this (sans Pup) on our last trip to Paris, I use that memory as the script for the Real Thing. 

But do memories ever really turn out as well in Real Life?

I will have to learn French, more than just Menu and Tourist French. Will I speak it with a Spanish accent now ? Will I end up being totally unintelligible to everyone but Pup?

But then there is England. 

My great -grandmother was from England. I have that vaguest of connections. 

Other than that my husband and I have been there so many times and we love it there so much, we love the people, the countryside and going to the theatre and listening to an orchestra playing wonderful music in a great old cathedral. We heard Vivaldi at St Martins in the Fields one year, I will never forget the beauty of it.

I would live outside of the city if I had to .. I can see myself, in my Wellingtons, stomping around in the mud , Pup alongside me, visiting the local Pub in the afternoon with my husband. 

I can play darts ! My husband is a fabulous dart player, we will be welcomed with open arms .

But then, how easy will it be to get Pup into England? Will we be able to afford something other than one room in Brixton ? I have to do more thinking on this ..

One of the Blogs that I really enjoy is called saffron & Blueberry. This lady takes some of the most fabulous photographs. It is all her fault that I am again, considering living in England.

I have been in England in summer, spring and fall... I never saw it with snow. This is a good enough reason for me to go back.

If you could do what I seem to be making a habit of doing, where would you go and why? 

Can you really imagine being able to live there, this dream place that you have visited or not ? 

I never really imagined living in South America. I rarely thought of visiting South America. 

We came here to visit at the end of October and 7 months later we moved here. 

We are still coming to grips with what we did. Pup is still waiting for the car to arrive so we can go for a ride and he can stick his head out the window. An occasional taxi driver is fine with that, so at least Pup is able to enjoy that, but he still doesn't understand why we sit in the back seat with him.

Today we will take Pup to the Groomer and have a nice "conversation" with Hugo. Then we will pick up dry cleaning, go to the market and come home. 

Home ... a lovely word. But what is Home ? Where your Things are, where your Loved Ones are, where your Heart is ? As long as you have those, Home is anywhere you want it to be .....