Saturday, April 06, 2013

Friday April 5, 2013


Friday April 5, 2013  update #413
I stayed in bed for 10 hours, not necessarily sleeping, but surely setting a modern-day record.
Bella was off early to do her Friday crochet/knitting charity work that she enjoys so much.  It is nice to see her happy with that as well as the huge improvement in the Wednesday and Sunday bridge group where they are really having a lot of fun.
I got busy with the usual chores and uploading more photos for sale before deciding to research the demise of Banco Territorial and how we might possibly get around to cashing our CD coming due in July.   I managed to find the website for their Banking watchdog and sent off a request for their advice, in English and in Spanish.  It was surprising to get a very quick response to contact a particular individual with email and phone number.  We naturally opted for email so we can use Google Translate to communicate in writing.   Our Spanish is not good enough to be able to understand any technical terms they may say.   Having a hard copy also makes it easier to confirm what was communicated.
A person has to be quite careful with literal translations, especially of names, for Banco Territorial becomes Land Bank, and the poor lady we have to contact, Carolina Pesantez, unfortunately becomes Heaviness Carolina.
I spent part of the afternoon getting into Chris Peterson’s book, Methuselah’s Secret, which is available on Amazon I believe.  I really like his writing style and it was easy to get right into the characters and the plot.  I am not a speed reader like Bella so it will take me a week or so to finish it but I am already looking forward to delving into his sequel, it is that good!
Tonight we met Mark and Karen, our second night at California Kitchen, so Bella could enjoy her favorite baby-back ribs.   I opted to also try the ribs and couldn’t finish them all.   Since we had ordered the full-meal-deal with salad and dessert I did my best to eat the apple cobbler and vanilla ice cream, but it was a struggle and made the rest of the evening very uncomfortable.    We were entertained by a pleasant Latino singer, I believe the name was Haden according to the CD that Karen bought, and he even played Guantanamera as I had requested.
We weren’t finished for the evening yet because we had a second appointment to meet Oswaldo and Caty at the Cuenca Symphony presentation in the Old Cathedral.   We arrived ½ hour early and the place was packed already.  Luckily Oswaldo and Caty had saved us the best seats in the house in the second row, since the first row was reserved for the dignitaries.  The amazing guest Director was William Vergara and the fabulous oboe soloist was Jorge Layana.  They did some classical greats such as Claire De Lune by DeBussy and Beethoven’s Fifth.   The acoustics in the old cathedral are magnificent and the music was heavenly.   It was standing room only and we had people sitting in the aisles.   My photos were all taken without a flash.
A young lady sitting in the aisle in front of me was obviously a budding musician as she hardly looked at the orchestra but was playing an imaginary instrument in her lap.   I took a long video catching both her and the orchestra.    I hope you enjoy it.
At the conclusion Oswaldo suggested that we go to Tutto Freddo’s for coffee and everyone said OK.  They all had huge ice creams or milkshakes while I opted only for water, I was still so bloated from supper.  We certainly had a lot of laughs, because everyone we mentioned was supposedly Oswaldo’s cousin…
Bella has it in her head that we must get to Guayaquil on Monday to cash the CD according to information on the Bank Superintendent’s website.  I am digging in my heels that I am not rushing there until I talk to Carolina Pesantez and get the proper procedures.    We both have many things on the go in the coming week so Thursday is probably the day that is best for both of us but we can’t afford to sit in Guayaquil for more than the one day, I have the Silent Auction on the weekend to keep on track.  Hopefully everything will work out.
I am working very late to get these ready for the Blog and some guy is firing off fireworks way up on the mountaintop at 12:45am!  My camera is close by so I hurriedly put it on manual, set the shutter speed at 5 seconds and brace myself against the window frame.  No time to fart around with a tripod and guess what???   I actually got one of the clearest pictures I took tonight!!   Enjoy.
That was today’s excitement.   Hugs to all.  Please see all new photos at http://souvenircuenca.blogspot.com/

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