Sunday July 7, 2013

Sunday July 7, 2013  update #505

I wasn’t very energetic today as I struggle with sleep again.    I guess I get enough sleep per day but for now it is broken up in two or three segments.

Bella was off to Bridge Club today and was pleased to have 7 players, which bodes well if some of the regulars had also shown up.   She puts a lot of work into this so I hope it eventually becomes successful.

It was a good thing she reminded me to meet her afterwards for supper at Karen and Mark’s apartment because I probably would have forgotten in my sleepy state.

I took the #50 to downtown and got off to see almost deserted streets and most shops closed.  As this is the cooler season here apparently many of the locals head to lower elevations like the Yunguilla Valley to have warmer weekends.  I walked the rest of the way and was crossing a road and nearly got hit by a car that I never expected to veer in my direction.  Signal lights use is very uncommon here.

I arrived a few minutes early, just following Karen who had left the Bridge Club early.   I parked myself on their terrace with my camera to try to capture the hummingbirds they have coming to their feeder.  I had barely sat down when Bella also showed up early.   I managed to get several shots but wasn’t very hopeful of the outcome as most seemed more like silhouettes even as I tried to compensate with manual focus, etc.

We were joined by Nancy and Marv and Karen served us some delicious Moroccan dishes we had never heard of, and with ingredients we had probably never tried before.   Anyway, it was a culinary delight.

We got home quite late and I did not even bother with the photos but just crashed.   The photos and Blog could wait until tomorrow.

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

Saturday July 7, 2012

Saturday July 7/12 update

Disappointment as another possible night photography tour participant has dropped out so we are down to 7 at the moment.  I will try to drum up a couple more today at these functions we are attending as I really don’t want to have to post on GringoTree again.  

Bella had some folks in for English lessons today and I had a few visits from Tom Thumb.

I left home about 3pm to get to the papeleria near the San Francisco Market to pick up a name & address stamp I had ordered.  The stamp was there as promised but I noted they had misspelled our name as Bonrassa.  I checked the order form and it was definitely their error so I have to return on Monday.

I then proceeded to the main cathedral with prepared receipts in anticipation of meeting several photographers to collect their payments for the night tour.  3 of them showed up, and the one couple was from Edmonton!

Bella met me at 4:15 to go to Charles & Rommie’s apartment close to the cathedral to wish them luck on their departure from Ecuador.  Their 6 month visa is expiring and they must leave.   Charles is an abstract painter and Rommie is into weaving and tie-dying, etc.  They are headed for a month in Italy then back to Australia to liquidate their belongings before returning to Cuenca.  There were many familiar faces there and a few were having fun with the funky hat that Rommie had designed.

Then we were off to have some delicious southern fried chicken at Joe’s Secret Garden.  On the way we saw this family washing clothes in the river in 2 adjacent spots.   We were wondering if they did this commercially or not.  We met with Chris and Bettye, Tom and Sharon, Cindy and Brad and stuffed our faces with chicken and mashed potatoes followed by an apple-peach cobbler.  They were having trouble frying the chicken quickly because they had extra large pieces this time so that delayed the supper a lot.

I collected from two more photo tour participants while there and also took more table group photos to add to the memory stick of the great photos I took on Wednesday so Joseph can post them on his Facebook site.  Bella will deliver the stick tomorrow when she returns to play bridge.

Upon departure we went to Brad & Cindy’s apartment just up the street.  They have a very nice place with a great view, guarded by a timid Papillon pup called Jedi.   Brad also decided to join our photography tour on July 16 so we signed him up.  Now there are only 2 spots open.

Next we went to the next street to see Chris and Bettye’s new place.  They have finally moved in and got some furniture to fill this monstrous apartment.  It has 3 enormous bedrooms, 3 full baths, 2 half-baths, a dishwasher, gorgeous kitchen, and 2 social areas.  Their washer and dryer have all the bells and whistles and do everything except answer the door.  It is nice to see them settling in now that Bettye is feeling so much better.

Our taxi driver on the way home played coy and didn’t let on that he spoke English until we were ½ way home, then he spoke very good English, claiming to have learned it all here.

Enjoy the pics.    That was today’s excitement.    Hugs to all.

Charles' art room

Some of the well-wishers, Charles is 2nd from the right

Charles wearing Rommie's hat

Rommie & Charles

View from Charles' art room of Immaculate Conception

Table at Joe's Secret Garden

Garth & Orilla at Joe's

Our table at Joe's

More patrons at Joe's

Rick trying out Rommie's funky hat too

Washing in the river

Washing in the river 2