Wednesday June 26, 2013

Wednesday June 26, 2013  update #494

I woke up before 5am and was wide awake so I just got up and did my chores.  Last night I tried to find the photos of my niece’s wedding in May and keep shaking my head because I have misplaced them somewhere, probably still on the computer in Okotoks.  I have checked and rechecked my laptop and my external hard drive countless times, always hoping they will mysteriously reappear, but no such luck.   Then tonight I got an email from my niece with some of the wedding photographer’s offerings and some of them are really priceless mementos.

I petered out again around 9am and crashed until around noon.  It was just a spectacular day so I had intentions of walking to downtown to meet the crew for supper.  I need to get into a regimen of exercise and

With the new furniture configuration in the living room we had decided that we needed to extend our partying family on the wall with 2 more figures.  Bella had found one more musician so I went to work on installing the needed wall anchor and, while I was at it, I also installed the anchor for the next figure we need to add.  When they are all mounted it should look pretty funky.

But then I received an email requesting that I check out some furniture for sale on GringoTree before I went for supper and I was given a location that was not shown on any maps, not even on Google.  The location was near an intersection way to the east, at the end of the #3 line, so I headed out, hoping I would be able to track it down.

Cuenca is famous for its lack of signage and house numbers.  From the directions it sounded like this street was only a block or so from the intersection given but that certainly wasn’t the case.  After asking several people I found the street 3 blocks south, 3 blocks east, and another 2 blocks south, and another block east.  Then there were house numbers and I was not given any phone numbers.  I wandered about and asked everyone in sight without any luck.  After finally enlisting the help of some neighbourhood children, they finally divulged that there was an English-speaking gentleman in this one particular house, so I rang.   First time lucky, it did indeed turn out to be my quarry, Les, aka Ron.  He is trying to sell a houseful of furniture at pretty high prices and really had some quality stuff, but he is going to have a lot of fun unless he is more reasonable.  Firstly, anyone brave enough to find his place had better have a fat wallet and a lot of patience, because he doesn’t want to part with any of his stuff until it is all sold and he is then ready to leave…  Our friends were interested in the dishwasher, and loveseat, ottoman and oversized chair that were listed.  My duty was to photograph them and test them for comfort.   I got shown everything he had for sale and I lusted for the king-size bed and a tall dresser but that is a pipedream for us.   No need and no money….

I then made it back downtown and crossed to the south side of the river to have burgers at the Chill Grill.  I showed our friends the photos and let them form their own negative opinion without any input from me.  The furniture is just too busy and all wrong for their décor.

In keeping with my new diet I did not finish my burger…   I am so proud of myself.

We were supposed to have received the judge’s response today to our petition for an injunction to stop the liquidation of the Coopera Credit Union.  It was promised in 24 hours but this is Ecuador, where manana means whenever… 

That was the day's excitement,   Cheers, Al   Please see all new photos at http://souvenircuenca.blogspot.com/