flimsy threads of thought

I am missing emails from 28th Feb to 5th March. So if you emailed me at that time, i'm sorry i didn't get them so please forward them to me again or write me another one.

:)

Mongolia [5 - 9 Mar ] ... to be written

Great Wall [2nd March] - ... to be written

Tue 27th [Beijing, China] - Had a sleep after an exhauting day of getting to Beijing. Our mission today was to get our train tickets for Ulan-Bator, Mongolia. After a horrific experience on the bus to the hostel with our backpacks yesterday we opted for the taxi to the central train station. Now Beijing surprisingly only has about 13 million people and there was about 10 million at the station - EEK! It was a little intimidating trying to find the ticket office to get a trans-mongolian ticket in a place where you can't read and no one speaks english or is willing to even try to understand you. The conclusion we arrived at after attempting commucation with the chinese is that we need to speak mandarin in order for them to help or we walk into expensive hotels and speak to who ever is at reception that speaks english. We managed to find the Beijing International Hotel where there is a tourist office that sold us the tickets. The people behind the counter were incredibly un-helpful and will tell you contradictory things, so the only way is to pretend you are playing 20 questions to get a simple answer; such answers as - 'oh that train only leaves on wednesday'. Of course that's what they meant when they said 'no'.

To celebrate our success at acquiring the necessary tickets, we went to Starbucks! I know... It reminds me of Santiago. Their coffee is still crap. I wanted to order mine in spanish but decided i wanted the coffee instead.

Then we went to buy me a winter jacket at the Silk Road. As much as I am a consumer queen, I dislike having to bargain. I much prefer good service where a skilled shop assistant helps me to buy much more than i ever thought i needed, but I leave the shop happy and they are happy for relieving me of my money. But as we travel further north the need for a jacket is becoming more urgent. The Silk Road, to my surprise turned out to be a buildng full of rows of small stalls, not a road at all. I finally dove into a stall where I judged I could take on the 2 girls who look about 14 yrs old. Then I said the 2 words I had been preparing for - 'north face'. The girls began gushing and pulling out jackets. M&G watched on with great amusement on their faces as they understood what an ordeal this task would be. The girl showed me a jacket which i liked but wanted in black and smaller, instead of the tea-green colour that it was. She sent her 'sister' to find a black one in small. Meanwhile she refused to tell us the price. Instead lavished us with compliments. She said to G that he was very handsome and very lucky to have 2 wives and that he needed a jacket. M was very beutiful and also needed a jacket. Finally the black jacket arrived and it fit. So the game was on.

shop girl [SG]: for you i give special price. normally [indicating on calculator] 6500 [RMB]. but for you beautiful lady [indicating on calculator] 2800.
me: oh no. too much.
SG: ok. what price do you want?
me: [indicating on calculator] 200
SG: no no i can't [feining surprise and falling back onto pile of jackets] 2500
me: no no 200
SG: no no i can't. no profit for me. pelase you are killing me. 2200
me: no no that's too many zeros. look my husband cannot afford this.
[meanwhile M&G are grinning with enjoyment. I avoid their looks in case they make me crack-up]
SG: you are killing me. please. 2000
me: ok. 300 [relenting just slightly]
SG: no no best price.
me: 300. really!
...
...
[repeat until SG gets to 1200. SG also pours water on the jacket to prove that it is gore-tex]
...
...
me: [speaking quickly] look really. this is not real 'north face' and what am i going to do when the zips break and i'm stranded on a frozen lake in russia and my jacket can't zip up and what ever the toxic layer of the plastic you've coated this jacket with dissolves and water starts to seep through the fake gore-tex layer and i die.
SG: [looking confused by my monologue] beautiful lady, 700.
me: [taking jacket off and walking away] thank you, no.
SG: OK. money. 300.
me: [to M&G] can i borrow 200?

is this not a beautiful story? I was very surprised that I got away with this. I really didn't think i was going to get it for 300 RMB [~ AU$50]. I was just in a playful mood. I actually wanted to go to a proper shop and buy a $300 jacket. But now i have my fake north face with a fleece inner and a gore-tex shell. Hee hee. Let's see how long it will last.

After our successful shopping venture we caught the subway to Tian'amen square. There was a crowd of people watching the flag lowering ceremony. The square itself was closed off after that so we couldn't walk along it. What is the point of having the largest public square if the world if the public aren't allow on it. That's china.

We walked to the world famous duck restaurant located near the square. The restaurant is about 140 yrs old, 2 floors of tables and was full of people eating roast peking duck. We sat down and i suggested maybe ordering lemon chicken or sweet & sour pork. ha ha! No we had the duck. the menu had an extensive array of duck dishes, consisting of all parts of the duck. I ordered the expensive peking duck [not that i knew why it was more expensive that the cheaper duck, except that it came with 2 types of wrappers], steamed vegetable buns, marinated tofu & duck blood with beancurd soup. All very very dilectable.
A guy came out with a trolley with a 1.15kg duck and started to artfully carve it with a cleaver. M, the vegetarian reluctantly tried some but returned to her tofu. G & I gorged ourselves in crispy, fatty duck skin, wrapping them up with hoisin sauce and chopped scallions. Oh heaven. The duck meat was cooked to perfection. The fat was separate from the meat and the flavours were more subtle than the over spiced ducks you normally get in Sydney. We lost count of the number of wrappers but we finished it, well except for a couple of pieces of crispy skin. We left in a haze of duck, exhausted and tired.

To see some pictures that M&G have taken go to their blog:
http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-130708.html

I'll put some of mine up when i get more time.

Sun 25th [Xi'an, China] - After some problems caused by a cancelled flight we arrived at our hostel in Xi'an from Guilin via Kuming at 3am in the morning. We were having trouble contacting the hostel so when we arrived the only room left was a share dorm with 3 people already asleep. The next morning we woke at 8am to see if we could get on a tour of the terracotta warriors. We had only planned 1 day in Xi'an on the advice of friends who said there was nothing there to do but see the pottery.
Xi'an was the capital for many of the chinese dynasties and has a population of 38 million people [yep almost twice the number of ppl as oz, in a city the size of sydney]. But it's quite a nice city, laid out in a nice grid [i do like it neat], and still holds lots of old characteristics in the architecture, along side many modern buildings.
So back to the warriors - the tour only had 2 places left so we decided to go on our own. We managed to get there and share an english speaking guide with 2 other tourists that we were in the ticket queue with. The warriors were really amazing. You can't actually get too close to the statues in the pits. And there are parts of the pits that they are still excavating. But there is a museum with bronze pieces and 3 perfect specimens of terracotta warriors in glass cases on show. I can only imagine how fantastic they would have looked in their coloured glory 2200 years ago. We even got to see the farmer who discovered the tomb. Apparently he makes appearances on special holidays, especially at new year spring festival time. We got his autograph - cool!
Then we were coaxed into a touristy eatery outside and were charged tourist prices - this never gets old nor does it annoy me any less when it happens again and again.
Back in Xi'an we got on another bus to see the 'Large Goose Pagoda' but arrived just as the gates closed. We then found a fantastic street, whilst looking for our bus to get back. It had large red gates at each end and the street was lined with red lanterns and every building along it had red lanterns hanging from the rafters. There were street stalls selling foot and other nic-nacs. Xi'an is at the end of the silk road so there is quite a population of muslims in the area. Which means that the cuisine available is influenced by spices and flavours from islamic food. We had a fantastic bowl of noodles and this dish with fried tofu with this chilli sauce with cumin and something else. OH YUM! Then we found a cafe for me to have my first coffee all week. The very camp guy who made my coffee helped us to catch a bus back into main city.
Xi'an at night is a spectacle of light pollution. Everything seemed to have fairy lights on it. Whole sky scrapers are outlined with lights, one looked like it had been etcher-sketched into the night sky. We went into the muslim quarter and has more food. There were lots of BBQ ont he street ourside little eateries. Oh the lamb! i was in charge of ordering and with some brilliiant pointing I managed to get us some lamb on sticks and accidentally got a small fish covered in some sort of spices that had been grilled over the charcoal fire. It was a great accident because that fish was FANTASTIC! I also tasted a couple of sweet things from street stalls too.
Next morning, we rushed to the city wall to cycle on it. Again not my idea but for some reason i agreed. I think the caffeine deprivation is making me easy-going. Surprisingly there weren't a million people on the city wall at 9am in the morning. We hired our bikes and off we went on top of the 14m long city wall which was the perimeter of the old city but now is surrounded on both sides by a high density of buildings. So I was back on a narrow hard seat, clanking along on another dodgy bicycle, emmensely inferior to my pink bike, looking at the array of roof tops and the rest of the city covered with pollution and cloud and haze and i thought ... this is quite pleasant. If only i were a princess and this was my wall that i could ride on in the mornings to inspect my land. OOh how cool would it be to have a moat! That's it I want a moat! G interuppted my dreams by saying that with the water restrictions in sydney i would never have a moat. How sad.

We all wished we had more time in this marvellous city but we had to lug our heavy backpacks and go to the airport to fly to Beijing. Definite city i would re-visit. So much food left un-tasted.

When i was a little girl i had a pink bike with a white basket. I loved my bike but i never rode it anywhere because i didn't actually like riding bit. So i may have ridden my beautiful bicycle, maybe less than a handful of times. Now to the present.

Wed 21st [Yangshuo, China]- M & G along with another canadian named Sterling rented some bikes for 10RMB for a day. Not my idea. We were advised to test ride them first and so we did. Hmmm...brakes don't seem to be such a priority with bicycles here. Well they made me ride through traffic and then up an incline [slight as it may have been, it still caused me grief], then another 10km out of town. The scenery was stunning but the riding bicycles along a busy highway was a bit of a distraction.

Then they made me climb a mountain - ouch! It was very over-cast so the photos came out crap. But it was still beautiful. We reached the end of the trail up Moon Hill and yet again there was a million chinese people smoking at the tiny summit look-out. The ladies hauling eskies of cold drinks showed us another path to go further up. So we marched up the slippery path to the top. There we stopped for a rest. A chinese man with an SLR attached to a huge tripod arrived shorty after us and started talking on his mobile. Oh the Serenity.

Back down, we stopped off at a road side eatery and had a bowl of yummy noodles. Then off to see 'The Water Cave'. A dodgy little van came and picked us up. M thought we may have been kidnapped by some chinese mafia as the 3 others in the car looked dodgy. But then we picked up a family with 2 little girls. M was relieved as she didn't think they would kill the little girls. After been taken down a very bumpy road we arrived at a little building ont he edge of an orange farm. Very scenic once again but again rubbish everywhere. We then got in a row boat with the family. 20m away was the mouth to the cave. the opening was just over 1m high. We had to duck our heads as the guide pushed the boat along with a long stick. Once in we got off the boat and started walking. This was a phenomenomly large cave. The ceilings were about 40m or more high in some parts. Stunning!! One of the attractions is the mud bath inside the cave. So hey! when in rome, as they say. We had brought our swimmers for this. ooohh it was goopy and lumpy and COLD [16 degrees]. We even went on the slide. I did contemplate that the slide was probably some thousand year old stalacmite formation - oh dear! Well where else can you get your butt grazed on ancient sedimentary formations lubricated with mud? China! Where else will your guide show you stunning stalactites that resemble elephants and dragons, whist smoking in the enclosed space? China! Where else will you find mandarin peels and little lolly wrappers along the path of an awesome cave? China! WOW!
The hostel we were staying in also included all of our meals, if we happend to be there at the meal times. Their family style dinners were great and usually served around 6pm. It was 5:30 by the time they dropped us back where we left our bikes. We were starving! We rode the 10km back into town in 20mins. Whilst speeding along, the thought of how I would explain running into a water buffalo to my travel insurance [which by the way i bought online at the airport after checking-in] came into my mind a few times. G passed me yelling encouragingly 'fried food linny, think of the fried food!' Alas, we made it to dinner and it was worth it!
Oh my arse!
Two days later, they decided mountain bikes! EEK! This was a very uncomfortable 5 hours riding through busy highways, cobble stone lanes and muddy tracks through rice paddies. All again very scenic and would have been a lovely experience if not for the choice of self-propelled transport. Why oh why?
Oh my arse! So the punishment that M & G have had to endure for the past 5 days has been me graoning this phrase every time I go to sit down. They were bruised too. Oh our arses!

Gareth said I had to title my next entry this. We stayed at a hotel near Icheon airport with a couple of M+G's friends, who were also flying out on sunday. We had the family room, a double bed and a single. They've dubbed me their dependant now. Hmmm... i don't know how I feel about that. So the machine comment was because I snored really loudly the whole night. Apparently i was amazing - Mel though i was cute and sounded like a cat purring, but poor gareth wasn't impressed. I think he likened me to some sort of noisy machine. Blair would be impressed.

So we flew into Guilin late in the afternoon. Again I was woken up to eat bad airplane food. What is it? The scene below of Guilin as we were flying in was like a classic chinese scroll painting with the limestone mountains jutting out of the landscape. OOhh i'm in my motherland now. I finally felt like I'd started my trip now. oooh so exciting.

We managed to get to our hostel in Guilin, checked-in and went out for a walk towards the lake. It's the lunar festival with chinese new year, so there are lots of people in town. Firecrackers kept going off everywhere.

So Guilin is dotted with huge limestone mountain sized boulders, and besides from these it's flat. There is a river that runs through Guilin and a few lakes. The largest lake has 2 pagodas in the center. One lit in gold, the other in silver. We took quite a few photos of these. Then we started to get cold and hungry so we embarked on a mission to find a place to eat. That was actually harder than we thought. We found McDonald's, KFC, pizza hut...yay for westernization. Finally we found a restaurant and decided to risk it. Oh let me digress for a sec - [SMOKING! - 1 billion people smoking! well it feels like it. I hate smokers in restaurants. I think sydney has spoilt me...] So we asked in our best hand-wavey-broken-english and got moved to another table. We ordered 3 yummy-licious dishes and stuffed our faces.

Today was sightseeing in Guilin. I'm knackered! We went and saw the Elephant Hill, walked around it and climbed it, along with the million other families on their lunar festival outings. Afterwards we went in search for a famous Guilin dish called 'beer fish'. We found a street with little restaurants, all with rows of plastic tubs outside. The small tubs were each full of fish. I guess that would be lunch. Beer fish was OK. I wasn't captivated by it. I think I prefered the fried noodles.

Then we went in search to hire bicycles. This task became too impossible so we caught a bus back to the hostel with the plan to get someone who spoke chinese to organise a taxi to take us around. However whilst on the bus we discovered the bus went to one of the places we wanted to see so we stayed on the bus. We went to another rock thingy. It also had many steps to climb, a cave and a pagoda. We climbed the steps to the top with all the smoking chinese [you think they'd be slower] and took photos of the view at the top. The view is truly amazing, even on such an overcast day. It's amazing because the geological features are incredible, and a massive contrast to the dirty high density high-rises. [ photos to come ]. Yes it does bother my highly sensitive sense of aesthetics!

Now I'm sitting in the lobby of our hostel. It is furnished with all Ikea stuff - of course I would notice! There are people having conversations in chinese and a table of americans. They are playing Norah Jones, but unfortunately I think it's just a single and it's on continuous loop....

Tomorrow we take our heavy backpacks and get on a narrow motor boat down the river to Yangshou.

Dear faithful readers,
so so sorry for my slackness in not updating this blog. There has been many complaints. But alas, i was at home in sydney enjoying the summer as much as i could before embarking into the coldness that winter's end in siberia can only offer.

Advice for travellers flying to Sth Korea. You must have a flight leaving Sth Korea or they will not issue you a boarding pass at sydney airport. I had to promise that I would be leaving Korea within a week and that my friends had my tickets to china. Anyway I must have an honest or at least a clueless face because I'm in Korea.


Me & Mel with a guard at Namdaemum Gate. Probably the coolest thing I've seen on a round about.

Now Seoul - I have spent 2 days in there. Not much to say as I only saw a little, but it's a city like other cities. Not dirty, busy, full of colourful signs, which I can't read. But the real reason I came to Korea was to visit my friends Mel & Gareth who have been teaching english in the English Village. I was intrigued by the idea of the place.



The 'Hollywood' style sign that can be clearly seen over the nearby border from North Korea. They must love it!

So we arrived from Seoul after a 1 1/2h train journey then taxi ride to the English Village. Some important person of this province fell in love with Oxford[England] and decided to recreate it in Sth Korea and turn it into a theme park- HAHAHAHAHA - yeah i can't stop. At the entrance is a replica stone henge then you walk through the castle gates - hahahahaha - no wait - really! I had to stop and laugh. I said to Mel, ' I feel like I'm in Shrek n my way to see Lord Farquad'. Mel replies, 'Oh so you're like Princess Fiona'. To which I replied, ' No. More like Donkey!'. Then I laughed some more. So there are buildings that are meant to look like 'Oxford-ish' style buildings where the staff live. There is music piped through speakeers in the streets. One day it was Broadway melodies.

Koreans send their kids here for week long programs where the kids have classes, all in english to encourage them to speak and hopefully become more confident. There are teachers from all over the english speaking world as well as korean teachers who are fluent in english. There are also entertainers who do performances for the kids as well. So it's quite an eclectic community here.

Last night many of them went out to 'Dweji Galbi' - korean BBQ - as a farewell clebration. Food was great! The pork on BBQ is what I've had before but there were much more interesting side dishes. Mmmmm, spicy soup, different salads, pickled dikon...and more. YUM!


I foresee more of these silly pictures in the next 5 weeks.

I have also been eating street food - !aghast! really did you think i wouldn't? I've been taking photos of almost everything I eat. Just in case I have to show my pathologist.

Anyhoo, enough for now. We're off to a hotel near the airport tonight then off to Guilin, China tomorrow.

All of Monday was spent getting from pasadena to chicago. Why are children allowed on planes? Why hasn't anyone invented headphones that will stop the high frequency pitch of whiny children and worst, the impatient parent who makes the whole situation worst. Alas, I am being too harsh.

After being driven everywhere, fed and pampered, I arrived at Christopher's place, after having to fend for myself and catch a shuttle on my own from the airport. he handed me the spare keys and a map of Chicago. He was going to work everyday. Tuesday I had scheduled in 'Stress'. I have decided that the median point between over-scheduling and no plans is to have one thing 'scheduled' for each day. That way I have a focus and a mission everyday which will occupy me. This is what I have learnt from not having an occupation the past months. So it was tuesday. The great thing is that I haven't been stressed the other days because I knew it was scheduled for Tuesday and there was no point anticipating that moment. The stress - well I had to sort out my flight and putting a huge dent in my credit card always stresses me out. I went into University of Chicago with C, much to his dismay as he doesn't appreciate any type of distraction at work. He had no choice. I needed a phone and internet access. All sorted.

Wednesday I had a huge itinerary, although the only thing 'scheduled' was the 3pm architecture tour of works by Tiffany [he was the son of the man who founded the Tiffany jewelry company and is famous for his art-glass - eg. Tiffany lamps]. The itinerary was abandoned very early on. I went to book the tour and got stuck in the shop - oooh exciting design stuff [big smile]. The problem I have however is that everything I look at now has an imaginary sign above it with the words 'WEIGHT!' - grrrr - and i walk away. After managing to purchase a few 'light' things, I went across the road to the Art Institute of Chicago. I got stuck in there until I realised I was going to be late for my 3pm tour. The art institute is Fantastic! it is comparable to the Met in NY but maybe a little bit smaller. Anyhow I didn't manage to get through it all.

So in 1871 there was a huge fire in Chicago which burnt down most of downtown Chicago. At the same time the Otis lifts had become renowned for it's safety and usability and there you have the birth of huge skyscrapers in Chicago. I was thrilled to discover all the art nouveau features and designs. They are just beautiful. The Tiffany company was commissioned to do domes, ceilings, mosaic murals, floorings and decorative features. Oh! stunning craftsmanship, beautiful textures and colours - gush gush gush!

Today I went to the Smart museum which is on campus at U Chicago and visited the Robie House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright [ a very famous 20th century american architect ]. I didn't think much of it from the outside, which enticed me to find out what the fuss was all about it. It's good to be proved wrong some times. The interior was really interesting and I loved all the art glass he had designed for the house. It is currently under restoration.

today the weather changed - it went from mild to freaking COLD! we went out for dinner and there was crystallised rain, sleet they call it, attacking me from all sides. We saw the bus a way away and it looked like it was stalled by traffic. We opted to run for it instead of waiting to freeze at the bus stop - yes me run - i was really COLD. Inhaling cold air and sleet prickling my cheeks is not ideal. As we got closer the bus turned and disappeared. We kept walking and reached closer to the traffic jam. Then there was a shot! We paused but then kept walking. A policeman told us to turn around and go back. Hmmm... I guess we'll see it in the tribune tomorrow.

here are some pics of the Cloud Gate sculpture by Anish Kapoor.

Here are some pictures taken with Hercule.




1st one - a plant not surprising.


Katalin & Jon busy in the kitchen preparing to feed me. It was like that the whole time. I was utterly spoilt.


Katalin & Jon in the gardens at the fabulous Getty museum.



Santa Monica - it is California after all. I couldn't go without seeing the beach.


Look Keithy - another blurry photo :)



That's the Hollywood sign on the top right. I had to clamber on a dodgy gravely slope for this shot.

Definite highlights were the Getty museum and enjoying the company of K&J who looked after me very well. One night they took me to a vegan Ethiopian restaurant. The first thing that came into my mind was the line from When Harry Met Sally by Billy Crystal - 'I thought they didn't have food in Ethiopia?'

I left on the Monday after the Thanksgiving Holidays - note to self - never fly around thanksgiving. LAX was a zoo. And of course the security was at it's extreme. So there were guards everywhere checking everything. And they all had blue plastic gloves on so that they wouldn't be contaminated after touching everyone's stuff. I was of course annoyed by the crowds and having to go through the rigmarole of taking my shoes off and having everything checked. But as I stood impatiently in a queue I noticed the blue gloves and thought to myself - Two by two, hands of blue. I had to look away to hide my smile.

California is a strange mish-mash of cultures. They have announcements in spanish, which totally confuses me because I don't know whether I'm back in Chile or not. A woman sitting opposite me at the gate lounge was speaking on the phone. She, like many I have overheard, use a lot of hyperboles in her speech, example being the overuse of 'thank you SO much'. So a disapproving, reproachful rant began in my head - if your speech is already at such an extreme level of politeness, what do you say when you really want to thank someone? rant rant rant. Then I was buying something and the shop assistant says 'Thank you so VERY much'. I was stunned! I have no imagination obviously, to think that there was nothing past thank you so much - bad me!

They are a strange and amazing race, these americans.

You know, for someone who doesn't have a job I think I've successfully managed to keep myself just as or even more busy as usual...need a holiday - maybe outer Mongolia ...

Tuesday, lovely Judy gave me her ticket for Shakira as sadly she could could not go. It was lots of fun. Shakira was spectacular on stage!! Oh what a memorable last night in my beloved Santiago before leaving for North America.

Wednesday, I went to our 11 o'clock coffee and said goodbye to all my newly made friends and went home to pack. It was a scorcher and I had to pack coats and jumpers for the northern winter - oh i don't like the cold! I already miss my La Cordillera de Los Andes :(

Arrived in LAX 7am local time. Feeling a little tired and disoriented. Honestly I think the flight attendants would have to deal with less disgruntled passengers if they didn't insisted on waking them up for meals!

People speak funny here and there are palm trees. It's much harder to ignore people when you can understand what they're saying.

Waiting at Katalin & Jon's place was my new baby, Hercule :) He's black and he comes with a 18-55mm and he's gorgeous. Oh happiness! I'm up to chapter 2 of the instruction manual.

You will need:

1 tart shell [short crust pastry]
315ml double cream
2 tbsp sugar
pinch of salt
115g butter
500g chocolate
100ml milk
chocolate flakes for decorating

I seem to have a habit of making inappropriate desserts. For one the pavlova for the melbourne cup party was not well thought out at all since carrying the bloody thing is a pain. And also a chocolate tart with chocolate shavings carried inside a glass cake dome is also a bad idea, especially for BBQs on ranches. Well they all enjoyed it anyways.

Now what have i been doing - not fulfilling my blog responsibilities. That's mainly due to the fact that i've spent a lot of time online shopping for a portable storage device. More on that later.

So looking at my diary, last week: swimming, shopping for fabrics in downtown poor areas, having lunch in downtown rich area and feeling nauseous about the contrast, helping out at a charity money raising event for the american association, buying a pretty red ring, spanish lessons, bartering my tech services for a fabulously kitsch retro mixer/blender/juicer set [ Oster Kitchen Center - i love you paula], doing the layout for the american association's newsletter [ahem - in word of all things:}], visiting a hogar [orphanage/home for young children from difficult situations], which reminds me i must get that motherly-instinct shot, the poor child would have been more comfortable in the arms of a cactus, and is it true that 6mth old babies can't say bougainvillea?, Gabriel is slightly under-developed, it was all the drinking he did as a foetus-don't ask- i'll cry, thursday is a blur, absolutely brilliant dinner party at my place - considering I spent the afternoon sleeping through Star Trek-Generations instead of working on the menu, but lovely people that ate my food made is lots of fun, saw 'The Departed' - yeah for a piece of awesome cinema - loved it, haven't been this excited about violence since kill bill, picnic with astrologer related folks was really nice, Art show at the Ritz was a fizzle, they had a parade of painted hippos and I wanted one of them but the paintings were disappointing considering they were meant to be from the best chilean artists - hmmm...teenage angsty works at the art express is better than this, and they had a jazz singer and we were shushed by a disgruntled chilean, not good, and today i went to a pewter factory and saw a new part of lovely santiago that i hadn't seen before.

Apologies for the punctuation, i had a coffee from my new coffee machine [again - i love you paula and i will see you in brasil]. Now I can't sleep. And i have a million things in my head, need to pack, flying out on wednesday, need to change a flight tomorrow, why does it have to be cold in chicago- don't people realise i don't like the cold. How many Agatha's to pack? Oh my hydrangeas!

WARNING:: DON'T SEND ANYTHING FOR CHRISTMAS!!!! the post here is very unreliable. We will be back in January!

Happy birthday nett-nett!!

Fri: had a lunch date out at La Dahesa [almost suburbia]. Then spanish lesson - I think I should make it a rule to always have a coffee before class. I really can't see any improvements in my spanish. I think I might need to sacrifice some socialising time to do some study. hmmm...

When I got back in the afternoon there was lovely BIG parcel waiting for me with the concierge (yes I'm living in a surreal bubble). It was a birthday present from Bawwy & Hewen :) 5 packets of tim-tams, a cook book, some packets of asian flavoured sauce thingys, 2 tubes of vegemite for their little boy and a lovely deep pink make-up case from LoriDaveGyan. OOh i'm so loved!

Last night I was Judy's date to dinner at 'Happenings', a renowned argentinian restaurant in Santiago. I wasn't really in the mood to go out but I'd heard so much about how great this place was, I couldn't resist the chance. It was dinner with 10 other aussies, Judy was the only odd one out being Canadian. As her date she allowed me to order for her. I'm going to make a great boyfriend one of these days. This is what we had:

Entree:
- Grilled cheese [I'm not a big cheese person so I can't remember what it was called but it was very tasty]
- Chorizo
- Empanada carne

Main:
- Ojo de Lomo [steak]
- Ensalada completo

Dessert:
- Chocolate molten cake with pistachio sauce
- cafe cortado

Ok, now the entree was good, my beef wasn't pretty good - just as good as what I had in Buenos Aires the other week BUT the ultimate, most delectable, sublime substance that has ever passed these lips was the dessert. Ok, this opinion may have been somewhat affected by the already delicious precious courses, and the very drinkable chilean wine; but I have witnesses who will agree that this dessert was nothing less than orgasmic. The outer cake had just the right amount of moistness, not too dry but still cakey, and the warm molten middle was perfectly rich, and the accompanying pistachio sauce could have been slightly creamier and pistachio-y and less toxic green but OH! This was a moment where everyone else on the table would have said 'I'll have what she's having' - that is if they were not too busy talking loudly and become ever more inebriated.

Of course after the meal I was quite ready to stroll home with a rather large contented smile on my face. Alas, damn aussies and their ability to sustain their alcohol [ I am definitely not match-fit to play with this group ]. We retired to a nearby apartment of one of our group to take pleasure in the keg of Crystal beer [ which is almost the nastiest beer you can get here ]. I can say I was an embarrassment to my nationality. I left quite sober. Walked my date to the end of her street, caught a cab and fell into bed.

Yesterday i was sick. I think it was a combination of a busy tuesday and a very hot wednesday. So today I took it easy. B left for the mountain this morning and I skipped swimming and my meeting at the American Association. I had a lovely nap in the middle of the day. Because I was feeling so sick I stayed up all night playing spider solitaire. Christopher nagged me via skype to drink more water and I got a lovely surprise email from an old friend and had a nice chat to him on yahoo.

OOh so today I got 2 parcels in the post. One was the bolts for my dining table - finally! and the other was a birthday pressie :))))))))))
There was impatient tearing of wrapping paper. Thank you Limpy & Louisa - love you love you love you love you. oh i love the present too. It's a cooking dvd of the 'cook & the chef'. I bounced around the kitchen with joy.

Tonight was the Garden Party at the British Ambassador's residence. I had to go have a sticky beak at the gardens. Arrr, it's OK, needs a lot more work in the beds. But the garden as a space is gorgeous. The weather was perfect for a garden party. AND no mosquitoes or bugs. I decided to walk, and then remembered that it's always twice as far when you walk in heels. I think I've used more make-up in the last 2 months than i have in the last 2 years with all these shindigs. Food was nice, wine was better. I'm all darling darling kiss kiss at the moment.

Ever since I found out that Madame President lives a couple of blocks from me, I feel much safer walking around later. It explains all the police and security ppl hanging around on the corners. Apparently the dude, Pinochet use to live around here as well. He made it so that they couldn't built any high rises around that area. Which is great because some of the houses are beautiful and the streets are leafy. So I have coffee on the street that the president lives in - apparently. I haven't run into her at the empanada stand yet.

Yesterday was a busy day, a very busy day. Woke up at 8. Opened the present B had got for me - 2000 piece jigsaw puzzle in the triangular prism boxes - i like those. He had already given me a surprise on sunday with the webcam and a video chat to all my family in sydney. That was really good. But i'm still not convinced about using the webcam. That night I was having a video chat with Red and from the reflection in my glasses he worked out that I was playing spider solitaire and got cranky at me and kept telling me to move the 9 of spades. Really, do i need to subject people to my comfortware? And today I had a nice surprise video chat with nett-nett so maybe there is hope for this webcam thingy.
Oh I digress...so after opening my fantastic present, we went to the supermarket to buy everything I had forgotten to buy the day before. In Santiago there is one rule that all expats know - if you find it buy it. I know this but I am yet to put it into practice. The supermarkets here are huge but not comprehensive. So after momentarily loosing B for 20mins in the store, we stopped for a much needed cortado [coffee] inside the supermarket. I was on a tight timeline that day as I had lots to do, including a pavlova. Luckily I accidentally found some ready made meringue so it made it all much easier. But working out which was whipping cream was a little harder, but i managed to fluke it and chose the right bag of cream.

Back home at 11, called Tam [who I went to aqua aerobics with - yes marg & han - laugh - i did and almost drowned but that's another story] to find out the address of the Aus Ambassador's [AA] residence. Made the pavlova, got dolled up, left the house at 12:30 for the melbourne cup party at the AA's house. Got in a taxi holding a large plate with an upturned pot. The taxi driver gave us a funny look - really I don't think the steel pot actually went with my pink wedges, hmmm... does that mean i need a pink pot?

The AA's house was literally just down the road. Beautiful home and the gardens were gorgeous, especially with the roses in bloom. I was very impressed that it wasn't at all ostentatious. I didn't get a chance to meet the man himself, i saw him, he's quite young. His gorgeous wife, we met in the kitchen. There was a good turn out of people and some I had already met, mostly women. Everyone brought food and drink so there was plenty to eat and drink. We watched the race, there were the sweeps, my horse didn't win and then prizes for hats. It was a beautiful day and we ate outside.

Got home about 3pm and started cooking the sweets. People started to arrive at 7:30pm. 16 guests for dinner. Pisco sours and red wines were drank, see menu below. Happy Birthday sang in 3 languages. My wonderful spanish teacher who is Italian sang it in Italian, as well as spanish & english. Watched the sunset over my mountains. The apartment was thoroughly warmed. I got to trot around like a foal in the stilettos I bought in BA last week. Everyone was relaxed and mingling well. The birthday princesa had a brilliant time. Photos coming soon. After everyone left the birthday princesa did the dishes and went to bed utterly exhausted. Next time I am definitely borrowing someone's nana [maid] for the night.

Menu
Entree
Focaccia
Hommus + pita [thanks Judy]

Main
BBQ green curry chicken [B was in charge of the midget BBQ I bought - it's tiny]
Roast vegetables
Coconut Rice
Quiche [ thanks Cheryl]

Dessert
Strawberry custard tart [last week I bought a box !!(44 x 28 x 5cm)!! of strawberries from a fantastic market :)]
White chocolate cheesecake [I am yet to meet someone who doesn't like this]
Choc brownies [ thanks Kathy ]

Wed: The fashion show was fabulous [i mean fabulous]. Now how did I not know about this? This is the best way to shop. I know they use to this in the olden days and now it seems to be an exclusive luxury of the rich & famous but WOW shopping in 3D. I thoroughly enjoyed it. We were at a pretty good table next to the runway. There was tea, little rolls, biscuits and a nice chocolate dessert served with the show. There were some awful pieces of design but as always I enjoyed criticising too. Really when I become ruler of the world I will make a rule that no person may design/make clothes without an engineering degree. YES why is it that they can build bridges but I can't find pants to fit!

Thurs: Packed and flew to Buenos Aires. We were booked into the Sheraton at San Martin and on arrival were told that we had been upgraded to the Park Tower Sheraton ...oooh. The rooms were large, plush and the bathroom had one of those big shower heads that makes you feel like you're standing in the rain. Oh to be in a country that is not in drought. We dined at a lovely restaurant near the river. The service was impeccable. Now I can solemnly agree that argentinian men are far more beautiful than any other type I have encountered in my travels. And yes I mean beautiful, I am not just being flippant with my adjectives, and of course I am generalising some what. They almost made me want to wear my glasses. Alas, I really should investigate this laser eye surgery thing. So my lomo was a tad over done and a little over seasoned but the sweetbread was quite nice and the bacon, roast vegs and my fried potatoes were all good. The Argentinian are known for their fantastic asados [BBQ] and Malbec wines. I found someone who could rival my passion for sweets and we shared the medley of 6 desserts in one. ahhh.... Here is a pic of my first meal in BA.



Fri: The breakfast at the Park Tower was AWESOME [again I don't use this adjective often and never lightly]. I'm not usually partial to smoked salmon. Love the fish and love it raw or fried BUT the smoked salmon they was the best I have ever tasted. See it shows you should always try things, even if you know you don't usually like it, just in case. So I had some capers and chutney and oh some caviar. I didn't even make it to the pastry table. The food was elegant and sublime. The coffee was really good too. The orange juice was fresh and pulpy - which is impossible to find in Santiago, what they call juice is really cordial. The rest of the day was spent shopping. Very unsuccessful for me, I think I was too content from my breakfast, life had nothing else to offer that day.

I also went into one of the jewelery stores in the hotel while waiting for the other girls to check their emails. It's called H.Stern and they make lots of really nice, pricey items. As always I have no qualms about walking into such places and testing the patience of the sales assistants. Who knows one day when i'm ruler of the universe I may buy something from them. How else will you know what you want if you don't know what's there. Anyway the woman was very impressed with my spanish, HAH! She was very nice and explained to me all about the 'incan rose'. It is a pink coloured opaque stone unique to Argentina. The gem quality stones are closer to coral than pink and are very unusual. But the common incan rose which you can find at any street corner is baby pink and has white marbling through it, nice but of course after seeing gem quality stones, everything else looked like granite.

We went to a nearby restaurant and again my lomo was more than medium rare and tonight's malbec wasn't as good as last night's either.

Sat: Again a marvelous breakfast! We caught a bus to Recoleta. The area is famous for the cemetery [hence the name] where Evita is buried. But this was not a trip for touring, anyway I went last time I was in BA so been there done that.

There is a building full of interesting shops for homewares and art & designs. On Saturdays there is a huge handicraft market. We had the most wonderful time there. It's probably the best market I've been to. I found the markets in Bolivia/Peru which we called handicraft hells had a very limited range of designs and interesting items. But this one was full of artisans who used leather, glass & silver in lots of different and interesting ways. And things were very affordable. I wished I had bought more. Maybe next time.

That night we had an early dinner. The main reason for this trip was that 3 of the ladies were running in the Buenos Aires marathon. So out of the 8 of us there were 5 americans, 2 aussies & a canadian. We went to a pasta restaurant so they could carbo load. Only 2 of us managed to clear our plates of pasta, but neither of us were running the next day, yes one of them was me. OOh the flan I had for dessert was very nice and so was the malbec I had with dinner.

Sun: Woke up early to cheer the runners on as they past our hotel at 7:50am. It was raining lightly. Then we went and breakfasted [still YUM], checked out and went across to the other side of San Martin to see the runners as they made their way back around. Billie ran along with Tracy when she past, Judy ran along side Kathy as she past and Loretta ran along side Jackie; only for a little bit. I don't run unless i'm being chased by a wild bore [ i mean ppl who talk to me about religion, politics and philosophy - but i reckon i would run away from pigs with tusks too]. But I appreciated every thing they were going through and admire them for being able to run 42km. We caught a taxi and cheered them on closer to the finish line. There were lots of ppl in the marathon. Then we went and had Macdonald's and shopped more before our flight. So an Argentinian Big Mac isn't that different to any other big mac that i've had before. But they have a premium burger which looks like it actually has meat in it.




All in all it was a wonderful trip. I bought a wheely suitcase which I can take on as carry on luggage, a leather coat which will keep me warm too when I go to the US next month. Also, I got a very nice bag made from the skin of a capybura (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), the largest living rodent, a semi-aquatic herbivorous creatures that look like large guinea pigs. I saw them in the wild in Bolivia in the amazon. They're quite cute. Oh I can hear people reading this and going 'Ohhhhh!!!' - well ...

I was on a different flight on the way back becuase i booked late. I forgot to ask for an aisle seat so I got stuck in the middle seat, between 2 perfumed men - ick. But it was a flight going to the US so they had Video on Demand but i only got to watch 1/2 my movie because the flight was too short.

Then when i arrived back I got confused as to which queue I had to get into at immigration. I'm Chilena now. Of course it was the longest queue. I should have played the stupid gringa card but I had to wait 1/2 hr for the other girls on the next flight anyway so i listened to music player and waited patiently. Of course when the girls arrived, they were asking me why i didn't just go in the diplomatic queue - well!! i forgot didn't I! It was actually a relief to come home to the chilean spanish - as hard as it may to believe. I guess one gets acustomed to familiar things very quickly. It's nice to be home again.

So what's the news with everyone. I demand emails!

The container arrived at 10am. There were 5 guys in yellow jump suits and 2 guys with suits & briefcases. One was the translator and the other was the manager dude. Our 3 seater didn't fit in the elevator so they had to carry it up the stair well - all the way to the 7th floor. Everything arrived in one piece after their cruise through the pacific. Glass from a frame got smashed, a few scratches on the coffee tables and the screws for the dining table were missing.

I'm sure you'll all be relieved to know that the Gamecube/PS2 work fine - that was the first thing B tested, then he organised the CDs & DVDs. The first thing I did was enjoy lying flat on my couch - oh my 3-seater :)

The next day I went on one of the day trips organised by my ladies groups. It was a shopping expedition to a place out of Santaigo where they sell wickerware. It was a lovely day. I was excited that I had different clothes to wear. But the prospects of putting something else into the bomb wreck that was my apartment was unbearable and I came home empty handed, execpt for a nut and washer I had to go buy at the hardware store in order to put the desk which i'm currently sitting at, together.

Here are some pics:


Here's me on my couch surround by stuff.


This was taken last week (15th Oct) after the rain. See someone sprinkled icing sugar on my mountains.


Taken same time looking further south.


This was taken on hte weekend (22nd Oct) - almost no snow left.

Now i'm off to my wednesday 11 o'clock coffee. Tonight I'm going to a fashion show, this should be interesting. And tomorrow i'm flying to Buenos Aires to look for a blue-eyed argentine.

Last week was very uneventful, hence the quiet blog. Well lets see it rained for whole day and a half. I went out and got splashed by a bus on the way to coffee and got splashed by a truck on the way home. Not terribly pleasant. Then the next morning the sky was gloriously clear and Santiago was clean and beautiful for a little while. The light was stunning. I don't know why I didn't take a picture. Another gorgeous thing was that my mountains looked like they'd been dusted with icing sugar, overnight. But it's been cloudy/overcast since, so no nice vistas.

Then there was an earthquake the other day, it was a 6.2 but I didn't feel it. I was having my post lunch nap. I thought I had a bit of indigestion because I'd eaten so much - indigestion/earthquake - who knows. The nap was nice. Then there was another quake the other night. We were watching TV and the seat started to move - I thought it was blair moving his leg but no it was a quakey.

So besides that nothing to report. Going out to coffees and lunches and spanish lessons about 2/3 arvos a week, lots of napping, elevensies [:)], TV, eating...baths [ because they take more time than showers] ... yeah that's pretty much it. You know Hugh Grant's character in About a Boy, well yes I have time units now and my cerebro is overworked trying to think of ways to fill them. AND no this is not an invitation to do crappy jobs for you Barry!

There was daylight savings over the weekend, which was a rude shock since I had made sort of indefinite brunch plans with someone, only to find out i had missed it due to knowing the wrong time.

Today I went to a coffee thing and there was a lady [ there are only ever ladies ] who had just got back from OZ. She had made a very cute goodies bag with a tim tam, fantales, minties and malteasers. She had one each for the two other aussies there. I sat very saintly and smiled and looked happy for them, like the losers that get nominations but not the oscar. Oh herbie girls you would have been proud of my composure. But of the words 'I just love tim tams' did escape my mouth. She turned and ask 'Are you from Australia?'. To which I replied 'Yes, Sydney' [still smiling]. 'Well' she says 'I have an extra. Here you can have it.' Then there was no longer any composure, just a grin from ear to ear. I've had a fantale and probably need dental work now but ahhhh.... I have also sourced some vegimite for B. ICK!

Also I got a sim card for my mobile from someone who no longer needed it. I need to put some money on it though but my spanish isn't good enough to recharge by phone. I've had complaints already from my newly formed friends that I am never home to answer the phone. I feel like my old self with my phone, how could I ever think that I could be happy without it. Now I just have to remember where I packed my blue tooth key so I can put new numbers in it...

After coffee today, Jennifer corrupted me and dragged me [ you know how much i hate going to the movies] so yes dragged, kicking and screaming to the cinemas. We saw Miami Vice and conversed on the concept of compelling male protagonists and agreed that Colin Farrell had a very pleasant on screen disposition. ;)

Our container may be delivered tomorrow, fingers crossed. yeah to the end of camping in the city! I'm going to need to get my scoliosis reconfigured after spending 6 weeks sleeping on the not-bean-bag.

hola mis amigos,
so i'm back online. I've had a week of no internet and can you believe it, i survived! I'm a new woman! No mobile, no internet, just me and my darling d-box. I've had quite a nice week home alone while blair's had his first turno up on the mountain. let see...

Mon: Fridge arrived! Blair got a refund and went and bought [ what he thought was the same fridge but actually a smaller version ] from another store. Hey it fits! Had a magical time on the phone trying to order home delivery sushi, not with the order but with the name of my street. I need to learn not to enunciate or something. Anyway my large order of sushi goodness eventually made it to me and i feasted.

Tue: Went into town to some art galleries - modern art crap - it's the same everywhere. Actually i quite liked the etchings. Found a tiny chinese grocery shop and bought up big so i'm almost completely stocked up in my cupboard. Went to the big supermarket and bought up big there too to stock up my fridge. Oh the most fab thing i bought - 2kg box of strawberries. In the illustrious words of A. Powers; 'Yeah, baby!' Can you OD on strawberries...hmmm...

Wed: Met some aussies today in a walking group. Apparently there are quite a few aussies around. They apparently meet for coffee once a month. Must remember to go in Nov.

Thurs: Made a new friend today, Jen. I don't think i've met a Jennifer i didn't like. She's american, married to a chilean and speaks fluent spanish as well as fluent chilean. She's trying to teach me bits and pieces of chilean. I keep trying to explain that i'm like Dolores in Being John Malkovitch - everyone else has a speech impediment and that's why i can't understand them. That night I went to a party at a restaurant held to promote their new bar. Free booze and feed. Free cocktails and the food was lush. I had a great time. Met some really nice people but I don't think i'd be able to recognise them in the harsh light of day. Anyway they were nice enough to escort me home. I was fine.

Fri: Woke up feeling a little groggy. I had to meet Jen at 9:30. I had to change the plans as I was not going to go anywhere without the assistance of caffeine first. On thursday I had been invited to go to a charity ball which was on that night and I was going to find out about the details at the quilting group. So I managed to drag poor jen [a non-quilter] off to wilds of suburbia, of course once i downed my cortado and my medialuna. We were getting severely over charged by the taxi driver so we decided to get off. We asked for directions and it was quite a nice walk. I found 2 little rose nurseries so i was very happy. They don't seem to be very methodically about labelling their plants.... ** just chatting with mel & gareth in korea on skype - they're doing well for those who know them **
Now where was I?..ummmm .. yes ball gown. So for some reason i didn't pack a ball gown into one of the 2 suitcases I brought with me. Formal - now if that isn't an F-word ...formal - clean jeans? Well i managed to tart myself up sufficiently for the do. Luckily I'd packed a black cue dress with me. I even got the iron out!!! Well the event was quite big with lots of dressed up people who were probably very important. Did I mention I was a little hung over. Anyway I didn't get into the mingling much. The grog wasn't good enough. They didn't start serving the food until 10:30 and the food was OK, nothing to comment on. We left at midnight. The charity seems like a good charity so I think i'd rather give them a week of my time rather than have to go to these swanky do's.

Sat/Sun: Nice and quite.

Mon: Columbus holiday. Kirsten & Nick invited me for a hike with them and their 2 kids today. We drove out about 20 mins from where we live and started walking. Gorgeous scenery. It was a lovely spring day, not too hot but clear skies with a nice cool breeze. The walking wasn't too hard but my boots are in the container so i was breaking in my new converse. I went to buy a comfortable pair of shoes [ why are runners so ugly??? ] anyway i couldn't bring myself to buy ugly shoes so i came out with a super cute pair of 2 toned canvas converse. I know, it's so juvenile but they're red - now you understand? So gymboots aren't the best things to hike in, especially dry gravely tracks. I managed though. It was a superb day out. I can't wait to see more. However the weird thing about the landscape is seeing cacti and pine trees growing close to each other on grassy slopes. And then beyond there are snow covered peaks. Gorgeous, amazing, brilliant.

So for all my botanizing mates, there we are walking along and we see a splendid specimen of a cherry/plum blossom in full bloom and what is the first thing that comes into my head!!!... WEED! I am ruined and it's your fault!

So the moral of this tale is that when next packing to move to another country into your 2 suitcases, remember to pack your ball gown and your hiking boots.

Friday: Red arrived. I managed to pick him up at the airport using only public transport - first time as well. I love the metro here. So I wasn't sure how long it would take to get there and i made it 10 minutes before his flight landed. I was a bit peckish, actually i had a craving for a frambuesa [raspberry] magnum [FM] so i went on the search for it. Unfortunately in a country full of ice-cream nuts there was no FM to be found so i settled for donuts. I bought 2 just in case Chrissy might be peckish too, but he took too long to get out of customs so i ate his. Anyway I couldn't decide whether the blueberry or the lemon one was his. Oh BTW i don't usually like donuts or ice-creams. He gave me a great bear hug and almost crushed my sternum with the buckle on his bag. He got some sexy laptop bag whose buckle is an airplane seatbelt buckle - yes nice but not when it's getting imprinted in your chest.

Dinner- I took him to that new zealand restaurant for the tuna. We started our aperitifs while blair waited to see if the fridge might get delivered. He joined us for dinner later. Not much to say about the meal, all i remember is we started with a pisco sour and i think i ended with a Baileys and i'm sure there was a frambuesa fantasia some where in between and a bottle of Pinot...Oh I had the lamb and I think it was good.

Sat: Today i was going to take Red to a winery but for some reason...the idea of wine tasting didn't appeal to me. So sunday's plain were put into effect. B & I too him into down town. We had Coffee with legs - I think the coffees are so strong they really do blow your socks off because the waitresses looked like they had their socks blown off and hadn't managed to get some more to put on. There was definitely no appeal in their coffees anyway. Seafood lunch at the Mercado Central [has a big seafood market]. I skipped the wine with lunch [ oh yes i am soft!] and instead had jugo de frambeusa [MARG -all rasberry dreams will come true here!]
Then we walked and walked and walked and then took the cable rail up to the top of San Critobel to see the big statue of the white virgin. She's quite pretty but we failed to find a glow in the dark version of her [ sorry aunty shirley ]. Dinner we had sushi.

Sun: Took the metro to the end of the world then apprehensively got on a bus and somehow ended up at the famous Concha y Toro vineyard. I was a little nervous about playing tour guide since nothing really looked familiar to me from 4 years ago. But I fluked it :) yeah me! Lunch we had empanadas at some little stall outside the vineyard since nothing seemed to be opened and GOD forbid there was no starbucks around! The tour was ok. We tried a nice 8 year old cab sav and got a free glass. Then back into Santiago and onto the artisans market at Los Dominicos. I remembered that I liked it from our previous trip. It's got lots of nice shops with hand made things from all over Chile and Sth America. And we had a nice coffee! yeah! happy me! Red bought a poncho to keep him warm during the cold chicago winters. Then after coming home and packing it was back on the metro. I took him to the end of the metro line and put him in a taxi to the airport. Now I hope the next visitors are not expecting this sort of attentive service. I might have better things to do by then.

B leaves for his 1st trip up the mountain tomorrow, which means I will be home alone BUT more importantly no computer so don't expect too many emails from me this week or any updates on this blog. Call me if you need me but it's China week on Discovery Travel & Living, so i'm swamped! Oh and the fridge might be delivered tomorrow. We got a refund from the last shop and now we've bought the same fridge from another shop. Actually a good thing about not having had a fridge is that I got out of the wonton challenge :)