Work

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Sunday Afternoon in Mazatlán

I went from having a reasonable queue of work from Client A this weekend and into the new week to having an “OMG, must type and not stop till I’m done, holy cow!” type of queue when my, “Definitely not going to have anything for you this weekend,” Client B pulled his, “Can you do about 50 billion hours of work for me by (impossible deadline),” stunt. Since I’m taking next weekend off, I agreed to take the assignment, but negotiated a more manageable deadline.

Everything was going well until this morning when I realised that there was a major issue with the second part of a project due for Client A that meant I could not proceed at all with it. Because it’s ultimately a government contract, there could be no answers till tomorrow, a business day. So that meant that I’d be scrambling tomorrow to do that project and should therefore start Client B’s project so that I wouldn’t be scrambling with it on Tuesday.

By noon, I had already done three hours of work finishing the first part of Client A’s project that I could finish and I’d done nearly three hours of work for Client B, enough to determine that this was a very rare easy file from him that I could easily complete between Tuesday and Wednesday morning.

Dale and I had made plans to meet downtown for one last beer today at 2:00, so I found myself going from, “Need to make this super quick!” to “Hey, don’t have to go back to work after!” Woohoo!

I left a little earlier than I needed to so I could run two errands before meeting Dale. I got to the panga and had only a 100 to pay for my 8-peso fare. Contessa had offered to loan me a 20, but I figured the panaga folks would have change or, worst case, I could run into the City Deli for a water. I asked the lady at the panga booth if she had change for a 100 and she said yes, but only because I asked her so nicely in her language and then winked at me as she pulled open a drawer with heaps of change in it. Hee!

The first errand in town was picking up some avocados and red onions. Avocados were easy, but I had to go to about six merchants before I found non-rotten red onions!

Then, I needed a jewelery repair shop because the chain on my pendant broke a couple of days ago. For some reason, I actually noticed and remembered that there was a jewelery repair kiosk on the exterior perimeter of the Mercado. I walked around until I found him on the side across from Waldo’s, towards Leandro Valle.

The man greeted me in perfect English, so I didn’t bother to look for the correct Spanish words. I pulled out the pendant, spread it out, pointed out where a link had broken, and asked if he could fix it. He confirmed that it was silver, then said, and I quote, “Absolutely! Take five minutes! 40 pesos!”

It indeed toook about five minutes and he showed me the link, explaining the discolouration was because of the welding process and that the colour would even out over time, none of which was an issue.

He dug and dug for 10 pesos in change from my 50-peso note and I told him to not worry about the change. I was so grateful that the repair had been done so quickly and well, knowing that I would have had no idea where to have a repair like this done back home and that it would have cost me a fortune. He was so grateful for an extra what amounts to 80 cents for me that I think both our days were made.

I then went across the street and Dale arrived a couple of minutes later. We headed down to Olas Altas as I unloaded about my work day.

I hadn’t planned to have lunch because I thought Dale was having a dinner out with friends this evening, but I wound up only having more than some crackers, cheese, and fruit at 11:00. So when Dale said she was hungry and was only doing drinks with her friends later, I suggested we go to the Copa de leche restaurant for a proper meal.

There, I ordered the enchiladas mole like last time and Dale shocked me by ordering the beef tacos. Beers were two for one and so we had two each. The food was just as good as last time (although I didn’t have any sesame seeds this time and had to ask for extra tortillas for the sauce). Dale loved the mole sauce and one of her tacos, loaded with extra grilled onions, materialized on my plate…

We drank our first beers really fast and so hit the pair of them hit us pretty hard. Dale was in hysterics watching me try to figure out the tab, something I usually do effortlessly for us. We were stuffed with good food and just about rolled out of there. We were rather giggly walking back to the Mercado. 🙂

There, we stopped in at Panamá’s so I could get some sandwiches for tonight and a croissant for the morning. Dale didn’t have any change, so I made her pick out something for her breakfast as my treat. The cashier had no trouble understanding me when I said that I wanted two bags, but the fact that I wanted two sandwiches and a pastry in one bag and one pastry in the other made her scratch her head a little.

Then, Dale went, “Oh!” which told me she had almost forgotten something. As it turns out, she had gone to the fabric store before meeting me looking for Velcro. It had taken 10 minutes to get the clerks to even pay attention to her and then saying Velcro and pantomiming got her nothing but disdain from the young girl at the notions counter.

So she had me go in and I pulled up a picture of Velcro on my phone. The girl haughtily said that they had some in black and white. I checked with Dale and then asked for white. Then, Dale put her fingers apart to show how much she wanted. The gal shook her head and showed us the metre stick. It a minute of her just shaking her head before I exasperatedly told her that I might not speak Spanish well, but I understand it and what was the problem? Dale needed to buy a whole metre. Geeze, Louise! That wasn’t so hard, was it?!

But it wasn’t over. The gal cut the amount and then handed Dale a ticket, telling me that we had to go to the till and then come back to pick up. We got to the till and Dale handed over a 50. The cashier would not take it and kept saying, “No, no. Five. Five.” I finally clued in and said that neither one of us had change. Okay, fine, Dale gets her 45 pesos in change. She had balked at buying a whole metre but I had told her it would be cheap and I was right!

It still wasn’t over. We went back to the notions counter and the girl looked at us like we were nuts and pointed vaguely in the direction of the till. I have to say that she clearly told me, “Regresa aquí” (come back here), so nothing was lost in translation!

We went back there to the till and I looked around until I saw a sign that, while I couldn’t translate perfectly, suspected meant merchandise pickup, which is exactly what it was.

Whew! This was my second unpleasant encounter with a merchant in nearly five months here. I usually think I’m doing well if I only have a couple a week back home!

And then, it was time to go since Dale had to get back to not just the Golden Zone, but really far up there, past where she lives even, to meet friends. She thanked me several times for being her buddy this winter and I said the same to her. It would have taken so much longer to figure out this place without her.

She pulls out first thing Tuesday and if the fates allow, she’ll pull into Haven sometime this summer. We both refused to say goodbye, just, “See you later!”

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A Routine I Could Get Used To

Yesterday, I received a large project due late Monday. I divided it into chunks that would allow for days of reasonable length, time to see Dale one last time if she was free, and, of course, riding on Mondays.

I’ve been going to bed really early, catching up on a few weeks of short nights, and was up at 5:00 this morning and at work by 6:00. I pretty much powered through my day, with short, but regular breaks, including catching the 6:30 tortilla delivery!

By 3:00 I had not only completed the work I wanted to do today, but also made inroads on tomorrow’s. My back was sore and I decided it was time to quit since there was absolutely no reason to kill myself over this job. Time for a walk!

Rather than head for the beach, I took off for Goat Island for a change of scenery. On the way there, I passed the new mini supermarket and saw that they had a sandwich board outside advertising frozen treats. I decided to pop in to see if they by any chance had any chocolate ice cream. The offerings were slim, but they had a chocolate ice cream drumstick that fit my craving perfectly. At 21 pesos it was cheap enough for me not to balk, but expensive enough for me to not make a habit of it!

My knee being very sore, I decided not to climb Goat Island today. Instead, I circled back to the main road in the opposite direction of the mountain, following the coast line, where I discovered a cove with a lovely beach in front of the Pizza Benji restaurant. I watched a father and daughter build an impressive sand castle for a few minutes.

When I got in, I spent some time reading, made dinner, and crashed with a movie. It’s now 8:30 and definitely bedtime, I’m almost embarrassed to admit. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep up that work pace tomorrow and finish early again.

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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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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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Monday Ride

Mondays are usually my quiet day, so I was happy when riding day changed to it. However, I am having an INSANE Monday! I’m working on a standby project for which I need to be chained to my desk in order to start files immediately when I receive them in order to send them back as fast as humanly possible.

Thankfully, a time zone difference meant that the riding block could still be accommodated, so I got some much needed social time and exercising.

At one point, Janet commented that my English was a bit strained and that I was searching for words. I’ve been doing a lot of transcripts lately from non-English speakers and was working with Hebrew this morning, so I’m finding English to be rather muddled today! My Spanish was in fine form, though, and I chatted at length with our guide about my work and home back in Canada. The informal language lessons are a real bonus!

Unfortunately, the ride wasn’t so great. I rode Diamante again and he was just not there today. He would occasionally stumble, try to trip the other horses, buck, and just stop randomly. I cantered a few times, but he wasn’t in the mood and the rides were not smooth to the point where I was worried about falling off. I requested a different horse for next week and will get one.

It was still a pleasant couple of hours, though! The beach was gorgeous and we did a brief spell through a coconut grove. What a life!