Friday July 5, 2013

Friday July 5, 2013  update #503

Bella was off early this morning to the Weaving Store to do her volunteer crochet and knitting projects.

I had a good sleep and woke up very refreshed this morning.   Today was going to be my day of rest.

After chores and lunch I took a short walk to recharge my cel phone and my transit card. 

On the way back I tried to locate Tom Thumb outside.  He was cheeping strongly but was certainly well hidden in a very bushy tree.  I tried the lens again on some hibiscus and like the results.

Once I got home I heard Tom cheeping very close so I figured he was going to make an appearance soon so I got set up and, hand-held on manual focus, I managed to get a pretty decent shot of the little guy.  That is the reason I got this new camera was to have the manual focus capability.  Coupled with this new lens I am now a very happy camper.

I went to work on more Pase Del Nino shots from last Christmas Eve.  I am about 1/3 the way through those and have a long way to go yet.   I had better get cracking on those.

My advertisements for selling the 75-300 lens should be published this afternoon so I hope that works for us.

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

Thursday July 4, 2013

Thursday July 4, 2013  update #502

For some reason I was awake and doing chores at 3am but I did get back to bed quickly and slept in for a bit.   Bella had a relaxing day at home today.

I have decided to sell my Canon 75-300mm lens since I do not need it.  I am so very happy with the range and clarity provided by the more expensive 15-85mm that I would hardly ever use this other lens.  With our money being frozen in the Coopera debacle we might need the extra cash at the moment.

I had emailed our friend Rommie who wanted to buy a few of our Eleggant Hooks by wholesale so she had responded that she would be at their new gallery this morning setting up.  I got dressed and headed down there.

On the way I stopped at the JG Gallery on Calle Larga to see if he had another of our “party people” to put on our living room wall.  I was in luck, he was not only open but he also had a figure of a musician that wasn’t a duplicate, and it was facing the right direction.  That was an easy sale for him, even though he wouldn’t bend on the price.

I had to phone Rommie when I got in the area since I did not have an exact address and found out two things, Rommie wasn’t there and it was a block east of where I thought.  However she said her partner Stuart would be there and he would handle the transaction.  I followed her directions and managed to walk my way right into the new gallery where I let her talk to Stuart as well.

The new gallery is called Pumamaqui and it is basically a new structure 1 block north of the Coffee Tree, then 1 block east, and it is a new brown building on the north side.  When Stuart finished with his TV guys we managed to complete the transaction and then he gave me a tour.

I didn’t realize that the gallery area was just inside the main doors, on either side so I had failed to take photos of them.  The galleries were empty, but imagine they will be filled up by tomorrow because he said the Friday Art Market will be held here tomorrow from 4-8pm.   The courtyard was magnificent with many plants and flowers to delight the senses.

They also have 4 very neat apartments for rent and I think they would be absolutely perfect for quiet single people.  There is a very large apartment at the back of the courtyard (my favourite), with two neat two-story loft bachelor apartments above.   There is another bachelor apartment on the west side near the one gallery.  All the apartments are bright and beautifully constructed with modern appliances and lighting.  My feeling is that these apartments will be reasonably quiet at night since they are off the main roads of downtown.   The address is 6-28 Honorato Vasquez.

Stuart White is probably one of the first Gringos to ever live in Cuenca since he has been here 30 years and he speaks excellent Spanish.   You can contact him on his cel at 093-927-2402 or email at pumamaqui.accommodations@gmail.com if you know anyone who may be interested in renting these awesome small apartments.   I did not enquire about his asking prices as they will vary depending on the term of a lease.

Stuart is also a photographer and is looking for some instruction with PhotoShop so I have offered to help him.  He could be a very valuable contact in this town.

Sad news that our friends’ anticipated purchase of their condo has fallen through at the last moment due to a prior title problem.  They are checking today to see if this is a permanent problem or if this is hopefully a temporary glitch.   We are keeping our fingers crossed.

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

Wednesday July 3, 2013

Wednesday July 3, 2013  update #501

Bella was off to the Chamber Of Commerce to sit in on a meeting to obtain citizenship in Ecuador.  We may as well find out what it takes because the next 18 months will probably fly by as quickly as the first 18 months.  

That meeting must have finished early because she then caught a bus to San Joaquin to try to get some answers about the Coopera situation.  Apparently our old Manager was bravely there trying to answer peoples’ questions.  It sounds like it will be well into August before we will be able to access our accounts. 

Then of course Bella had her Bridge Club.

In the meantime I headed out this afternoon after completing most of my chores.  One look at the sky convinced me to grab my backpack with my umbrella, etc.  My first stop was at Hearts Of Gold to drop off some knitted or crocheted scarves for kids to use during this cool season.

As I left there it started to rain and I got to the side of the stadium when the heavens opened and I feared my cheap little umbrella would fold under the pressure.  I ducked under a business canopy with many other folks and waited about 5 minutes until the rain slowed a bit then I continued on.

My destination was the Court House and I made it there before the 2:45 deadline for meeting with other expats and Ecuadorians to provide a show of solidarity with our lawyer Carlos.  Carlos had managed another hearing with the adolescent court to try a second time to get an injunction to halt the liquidation of our Coopera Credit Union.   Carlos and Ben were hoping for up to 350 persons and were very disappointed when only about 50 of us showed up.  In hindsight, we packed the small courtroom anyway and most of us were standing for the 1.5 hours of the legal arguments, all in Spanish of course.  I really thought our lawyer was doing a great presentation because the female judge was making copious handwritten notes.  One of the 3 government personnel on the other side each had their say and the one venomous-looking woman had the crowd hissing at her until the judge threatened to clear the courtroom.  They had rebuttals and when they were complete the judge spoke only a couple of sentences and Carlos stood up and turned to us saying “We lost.  She said No.”

This was all very disappointing.  Of course we all feel it is all political payback and the outcome was never in doubt.

I took the bus to Monay Mall and ran into Garth and Orilla who had just managed to withdraw all their money from Coopera.  They reported that the Coopera branches already have new signs of the other Credit unions that are now administering the liquidation withdrawals.

We are in awe that such events could happen with such rapidity, and with absolutely no process of law.  Right now we are very disappointed in our adopted country.

Bella arrived later at Monay as well and we had a treat supper at KFC.  I guess on Wednesdays they have some music and dance “participaction” kind of event in the food area and it was quite loud.   Watching the kids have fun though was a treat.   I only took a couple of photos of that today so I will just post them here.

That was the day's excitement,   Cheers, Al   

Tuesday July 2, 2013

Tuesday July 2, 2013  update #500

Bella was off to the Book Exchange and to attend to more banking issues this morning.

I slept in today, finally getting rolling around 10:30 and just finished my chores and uploading in time to leave.

We had a Hearts Of Gold meeting today, chaired by Sheryle, and it was good to be back with that kind-hearted group of people.  Sheryle is especially good at leading meetings because she is unafraid, has refreshing candor, and gets to the point quickly.

We got news that another hearing by a different judge on the Coopera matter is going to happen tomorrow.  The leaders want us to disseminate this information to as many expats as we can because they would like to get about 350 people there in support.   Since Bella will be having Bridge Club, I am elected to go sit in on this.

I did not even take my camera out of its bad today.   The day started off relatively dull and cloudy and it never did pique my interest to record anything.

That was the day's excitement,   Cheers, Al   

Monday July 1, 2013

Monday July 1, 2013  update #499

Happy Canada Day everyone.

Bella came home in the early morning from the bridge tournament sans trophy so she was disappointed.  We had a few moments to discuss our current money predicament and a few minor issues before I needed to crash.

Yet I was awake at 5am and got up at 7am because things needed doing.   We are having a July Special on our Eleggant Hooks to give free shipping, so I needed to update the website and also PayPal.

Then I uploaded some photos for sale and decided my inventory for uploading is starting to get low so I spent many hours beginning to go through my photos from this year.  I got pretty bleary-eyed by the time I hit late January so I just stopped there.

It was a gorgeous morning when I got up then clouded over heavily so I just kept working on the photos, then it cleared up really nicely for a great afternoon, but by then it was too late to get all gussied up to be presentable outside these four walls.

I still have a lot of photos from the Pase Del Nino from Christmas to process too.  I have to find a balance somewhere so I can get myself outside each day too.

Tomorrow we should have 2 different appointments, one for Coopera (we have received conflicting dates) and one for Hearts Of Gold.

Looking forward to shepherd’s pie for supper….  Sorry, no photos today.

That was the day's excitement,   Cheers, Al   

Sunday June 30, 2013

Sunday June 30, 2013  update #498

Another good sleep last night, and again didn’t want to get up but knew I have to regulate myself to get off my butt and lose some weight.  As always the chores come first, and someday I may change that because it tends to make me lazier, the longer I wait to go out, and I know that.  It is just that the early morning are generally foggy, cloudy and cooler so I will wait until closer to noon, after I have had my cabbage lunch to go out.

I decided today to give my new 75-300mm lens a workout and see if it is as bad a lens as a friend has claimed.  I put on the polarizing filter and took one shot of the sky from my window before heading out.

My intention was to ride up to Turi, take some shots of the city from above, then walk back down.  As I was waiting for the bus I realized there was a Deportiva Cuenca futbol match today at 2pm so the run up Solano would no doubt be interrupted and cause me grief.   What to do???

I looked south and decided to walk up the Autopista to try to get some shots.   I didn’t go very far when I realized that there were roads up the hill further south so I made a climb up there and found whole subdivisions up there that I never knew existed.  I thought there were only a few scattered acreages but they had streets, schools, the works.

I was amazed that I didn’t like the 75-300mm lens right away because it couldn’t actually back off far enough to get a complete shot.  This thing wanted to zoom in much farther than I recollected my old 70-210mm doing.  I didn’t take many shots as a result but did manage to get a TAME flight coming in for a landing.

I switched back to the 15-85mm and fell in love with it all over again.  It has a much more useable range and you could tell the shots are crisper too.

Rain clouds snuck up behind me so I had to pull out the rain hood for my camera back before using my broken umbrella.  I waited for a few minutes, hoping for a bigger jet to pass by , but the rain didn’t seem to want to quit so I started down again, crossed the Autopista and came out above the Monay Police station and Coopera.

Since I was in this area I figured I might as well stop in at my favourite video store, pick out 4 more movies for $5 and wait out the rain.

It always makes me smile to watch the fellow actually copy the movies in front of you, then copy the movie jacket and put it all together.   This fellow knows I buy a lot there so he also knows I need confirmation the movies are definitely in English, and I need a hard DVD jacket for them.  Very few people get this treatment, but then I always buy in bulk and come by fairly often.  He also provides quality copies, not crap videoed on an iPhone in a theater.

My strategy to outwait the rain did not work, in fact it just got worse just to spite me so I got a little wet under my tiny broken umbrella for the rest of the trek home.

I have downloaded the photos and can definitely confirm that this 75-300 lens is a huge disappointment.  The quality of the shots is way below even that of my old kit lens so I doubt I will be keeping it.  There is just no crispness to the shots at all and way too much graininess.

The Boys are a welcome distraction after my extended absence and I am sure they are missing Bella who should be home late tonight with the winner’s trophy from the bridge tournament, we hope.

Oh, it is still raining…

That was the day's excitement,   Cheers, Al  

Please see all new photos at http://souvenircuenca.blogspot.com/