Month: March 2015

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Back to the Beginning

I was running low on coffee, so I emailed Dale yesterday to see if she wanted to meet up today. As it turned out, she had a late morning meeting in Centro, so she suggested I give her my coffee order, she’d pick it up, and then we could meet in front of Waldo’s around 11:30. That worked!

I left early since I wanted to go to the bank and also stop in at the dress shop and have the straps adjusted on my new dress. Feeling lazy, I took 21 de marzo from Emilio Barragán to avoid the giant Leandro Valle hill. The ATM for the Santander bank is on 21 de marzo anyway, one block past the cathedral.

After my withdrawal, I walked the few blocks to get some nieve de garrafa. For the first time, they had lemon. I haven’t had lemon since I got to Mexico! It was so good, like frozen lemonade, and a perfect compliment to the sweet prune and mandarin scoops as well as being very refreshing.

Since there was a cruise ship in port, Maz was thrumming with people, but it wasn’t overwhelming the way it would have been when I first got here. I know my way around now, so I can easily avoid crowds and most of the places I shop and eat at aren’t places the casual visitors would frequent.

Refreshed by my sorbet, I hit the dress shop, which was empty. The seamstress said she had been expecting me. The straps on the dresses are stretchy, so everyone who buys them gets at least one adjustment done. I had brought another dress to change into while she fixed this one, but she preferred to do the sewing by hand with me in the dress to make sure she got the straps perfect. The adjustment was, of course, free and she said I could come back in five years with the dress and she’d still repair it at no cost.

Then, I hit a few produce vendors and bought two kinds of mangos, to do a taste comparison. And then, it was time to meet Dale. She had only one thing on her mind, a cold beer, so I suggested we go to Olas Altas and have one last beer by the water.

You see, Dale’s meeting was with some RVers who are headed east on Tuesday towards Texas and Dale is going to tag along. She’s leaving. It’s official. I am so sad. I hope that she makes good on her promise to come visit me this summer!

By the time we got to Olas Altas, it was only 11:45. I used to order beer in Scotland from 11:00 a.m. onward, but people were still eating breakfast here and it felt way too strange to order beer! So I suggested we double back and get some pastries at Panamá for later.

When we returned to the restaurant, it was noon. We ordered beer and after perusing the menu for a few minutes Dale confessed that all she really wanted was nachos to share and that we could have chorizo on them, too. That was fine and like the last time we ordered the chorizo nachos, they came with a side of chips and salsa. So two beers, ‘lunch’ and a generous tip came to total of 150 pesos!

A well balanced Mexican diet. Hey, pico de gallo more than counts as vegetables. :)

A well balanced Mexican diet. Hey, pico de gallo more than counts as vegetables. 🙂

We both marveled at how far we’d come since our first forays into Maz. We both know our way around now, have favourite haunts, and are much, much browner than when we arrived. We both know that we are forever changed by this experience, but we have yet to understand how exactly that will translate into our lives back home.

After we rolled out of the restaurant, I insisted that we both had room for a tiny scoop of gelato since Dale had never been to the little gelataria off of Machado.  She agreed and off we went. The place was packed with cruise ship tourists. One of the servers was doing a good job with her English, but the line was moving slowly. I may have done a little translating to get some people out of there more quickly…

My favourite flavour there is Ferrero, as in Ferrero Rocher, the little wafer balls filled with Nutella. I knew that Dale likes Nutella, so I told her that I was going to order and that it was on me! I got us each a scoop in a cup. She loved it, thanked me a couple of times for pushing her to go, and agreed that there was indeed just enough place left after lunch for such a yummy and tiny treat. 🙂

She needed to get home to her dogs, so we headed back to the Mercado, where she would catch the bus. I continued on to Ley to get a few things that were on sale, including some sliced ham I discovered at Soriana that is quite good compared to the brand I find at the City Deli.

Now, I need to get to work! I thought I’d get the whole day off, but my client apparently lost leave of her math skills and sent me a huge job that I am going to scramble to do well if I don’t at least start it today. I didn’t want to refuse since I’m taking a few days off soon to go to Durango.

At least, I’ve got tons of coffee to get me through the next few days! 🙂

Turkish proverb: Black like night, strong like sin, sweet like love, hot like inferno. Used by Rico to describe their coffee!

Turkish proverb: Black like night, strong like sin, sweet like love, hot like inferno. Used by Rico to describe their coffee!

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Lunch at the Water’s Edge

Dale emailed me late this morning wondering if I had time to meet her at the Mercado for lunch and shopping. I decided that I had room in the schedule and agreed!

We met in front of Waldo’s. It’s a convenient place to wait because there is a little nook by the stairs that doesn’t see much traffic. She arrived a couple of minutes after me wondering if I wanted to grab lunch first.

Contessa had told me about a lunch special at the Water’s Edge restaurant near Plazuela Machado so I suggested we go there and see if the menu was available on Sundays. Dale was game and we wound and wended our way there. I really am getting very comfortable navigating some parts of Maz!

Thankfully, the restaurant was open. They do the special Tuesdays to Sundays (closed Mondays). You get a choice of several different meals with bread and beer, pop, or limonda for 100 pesos, or you can pay an extra 20 pesos to get wine or sangria. The restaurant is owned by Canadians and the menu is not at all Mexican.

Water's Edge restaurant

Water’s Edge restaurant

The courtyard was bright and cheery.

The courtyard was bright and cheery.

I liked the wire artwork on the walls.

I liked the wire artwork on the walls.

Since it was overcast, we ate out in the open.

Since it was overcast, we ate out in the open.

Every option looked good, but I zeroed in on the Asian salad with Napa cabbage, grilled chicken, fried wontons, mango, and a sesame-ginger dressing simply because this was the choice with the most flavours I haven’t eaten since I arrived in Mexico. The salad wound up being a healthier and lighter version of the Applebee’s Asian chicken salad and really, really tasty!

Yummy salad.

Yummy salad.

An absolutely unnecessary plate of bread.

An absolutely unnecessary plate of bread.

Dale, who was still vegetarian when I met her, is really expanding her horizons and surprised me by ordering the seared tuna sandwich on ciabbata, with a garlicky mayonnaise, something a bit spicy, and avocado, with a salad on the side instead of soup. She was a little daunted when she saw what the tuna looked like (I’d warned her; cooked on the outside, just about raw in the middle), but she bravely dug in and was immediately very clear in her opinion, “Oh, YUM!” She had me try a bite and it was indeed very good, a little smoky and spicy.

The meal came with okay bread, good butter, and our beers (choice of Corona (yuck) or Pacifico), all for 120 pesos each with the tip. Thanks for the recommendation, Contessa!

We then went to the Mercado. Last time I was there and bought my blouse, I stopped in at the little boutique I like and met a Gringa who told me that the best deal in the shop is some dresses with smocked bodices that are made on site. They are cut to the customer’s preferred length and the cut material is used to make straps. She said, “I always get two or three, so I get them for 330 pesos each.”

Ever since I first laid eyes on Leslie Mann’s smocked bodice dress in Knocked Up, I have wanted one.

dress

I have been dreaming of this dress for EIGHT YEARS.

Now that I have a body shape to wear a dress like that and a source for one, I had to explore this option further! So Dale’s and my first stop at the Mercado was the dress shop!

I went through all the smocked dresses and gasped when I found one in not only the weight of fabric but also colour that I wanted. The clerk greeted me warmly and told me I could have the dress for 300 pesos!!! SOLD. The seamstress put the dress against me and I told her I wanted it a little shorter than the dress I was wearing, with one-inch straps. I was asked to pay and come back in about 30 minutes.

Dale and I wandered around, picking up what we needed. While I know that Dale genuinely wants my company, she definitely relies on me for translation and monetary help when she’s shopping in situations like these where the total price isn’t rung up on a screen that she can watch and she has to ask for things and give quantities. I got a nice red pepper for my pasta dinner tonight and found some gorgeous avocados for a couple of breakfasts.

When we got back to the dress shop, the seamstress was finishing up. I examined the stitching, gave my approval, and the dress was bagged up for me.

Dream dress AT LAST!!!

Dream dress AT LAST!!!

The seamstress didn’t seem super busy, so next time I go to the Mercado I will bring a pattern I found for the style of headscarf I prefer and see if she would be willing to make me some if I provide the fabric. Fabric is super cheap in Mexico, so I’m hoping I could get a half dozen or so new scarves. Anyway, I’ll see what she says.

I really needed to get back to work, so that was it for me. Dale and I made tentative plans to meet later this week because I need coffee. I’ll either go to her and try out a restaurant in the Golden Zone that was recommended to me, or I’ll trust her with my coffee order and she’ll meet me in Centro.

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Wrapping My Brain Around the Time Change

Get this, the clocks moved ahead in Canada and the US this morning, but they don’t move ahead in Mexico until April 5th, if the internet is to be believed. But I can’t ignore the time change since I have clients in time zones that are being affected by the clocks changing. Thank goodness for technology so I don’t really have to track this myself!

First of all my computer, iPad, and iPhone all adjust the time automatically, so I never have to worry about knowing what the time is where I am… unless I am in Arizona and connected to a Utah cell tower.

Next, I use a nifty app called LoversClock that lets me have clocks for multiple time zones in my menu bar. It also adjusts the times accordingly. So when I got on the computer this morning, I could see that I am now essentially in the PST time zone and three hours behind EST.

clocks

So this little cosmic upset means I lost an hour to do a job for an EST-zone client that’s due on Tuesday, my deadline moving from 9PM to 8PM. I’ve also lost my advantage with the PST client. He tends to hit me late in the day and I do his work first thing in the morning since I have an extra hour. Now, his 8AM deadline is also my 8AM.

I won’t both advising my clients of this change. They really don’t think about the fact that I’m in another time zone and schedule me as per their time zone and it’s wholly my responsibility to do the conversion and get things in on time. I find that this just makes it easier for everybody.

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Airport Run

This afternoon, I went to pick up the a friend of L&N’s who was flying in from Winnipeg via Calgary. I left around 1:45 and by the time I backed out of the yard (first time doing it that way) and made it to The Road, it was 1:55, with one hour before the flight’s arrival.

The first 6KM of The Road were bad. Tons of big potholes. Then, there was a 1KM stretch of nicely graded gravel, then several kilometres of PAVEMENT. That short bit really showed me how life on Isla would change if road access to it was easier. After that, it was nice graded road all the way to pavement. I did The Road in a record 27 minutes!

I parked at the airport at 2:36, with 20 minutes till the arrival time. Rather than get a coffee, I decided to try the frozen yoghurt as I had come in rather overheated. It was ridiculously expensive at 65 pesos, but very yummy with lots of fresh fruit.

The plane was on a time, but for some reason everyone I pick up at the airport is the last to deplane! So I had a good 40 minutes to wait standing at the gate. The next time I pick up someone at the airport, I will tell them that I’ll be on the benches in front of Señor Frog reading on my iPad. Anyway, I caught up on all the Facebook gossip on my phone and had a very nice chat with some ladies who are here for a few weeks and were waiting for their daughters and grandchildren.

Once L&N’s friend arrived and we got the truck loaded, it was about 4:05. We made it to L&N’s at just about 4:30, so I obviously drove faster than on the way in since there is a long stretch on pavement between the airport and The Road. It helped that I knew where all the worst potholes were!

At the hotel, a boy offered to carry the very heavy bags up the 50 billion flights to the top of the building, which earned him a tip that he was quite grateful for. I accepted a beer, then left to let them all catch up.

Doing the airport pick up run really eats into the day, but it’s so nice to be able to drive! I hadn’t started Moya since the end of December and she started right up today! I’ll be doing the reverse run on the 21st, with the plan being to drop their friend off and continue on to Durango. We’ll see if I can pull that off! 🙂

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Shrimp Shortage

Contessa and I went to Miguel’s for dinner tonight. I ordered first, a shrimp burrito and a chorreada. Then, Contessa ordered two shrimp burritos. We were informed that they only had enough shrimp left for two burritos, not three! WHAT?! The guy who brings shrimp has apparently not been answering his phone.

Since the only meat Contessa eats is fish and seafood, I obviously let her have her two burritos and I ordered two chorreadas instead. Dang those are tasty! For some reason, I thought they were made with pork, but no. They’re made with beef and I’m pretty sure she said sheep, too! It just goes to show that with enough seasoning, anything can be tasty. 🙂 I like them dripping with their very thin guacamole. They have cheese, too, and come on thick corn tortillas.

Contessa brought most of a bottle of wine for us to share and we gabbed for ages. It was nice to have a girls night out while her husband is out of town.

Two shrimp and cheese burritos=70 pesos. Two chorreadas=50 pesos. I don’t think I’ll bother cooking at all next year. 😀