Saturday, August 10th, 2013

I went to bed at 11pm, got up once about 4am and finally woke up at 7am.

Breakfast was a waffle with butter I bought for 500 pesos (25 cents) from Bunuelo Express last night.

According to the most recent issue of Gente newspaper “Neighbors concerned about theft at the stadium houses state that thefts have increased in the last month.  In the commune 11, 2013, have reported 38 cases.  Reports of robberies 146 people have come forward this year.  480 Vehicles, including cars and motorcycles have been stolen in the jurisdiction.”

Comuna 11, Estadio (Spanish for stadium), is a barrio (neighborhood) just north of Simon Bolivar (my barrio).

A lot of the articles in the newspaper have to do with congestion on the streets.  Just for kicks I took a look at the crossword puzzle and I only could figure out 2 answers: “30 diaz” is a “mes” and “Stravinski Compositor Ruso” was “Igor”.

At Jhon’s office I found out that Isabel was a no show today.  Too bad, she’s a pretty young lady.

When I arrived at Laureles Mall I observed the security guard checking to make sure all the cars in the parking lot were locked.  Lunch was Bandaja Paisa from El Comedor but I really didn’t care for most of it; Likkes is much better.

Andres (Andrew) showed up and we played 3 quick games of 5 minutes each and he won all of them.  I wasn’t surprised as he usually moves immediately even when we’re supposed to be playing a slow game.  Another new face showed up, a different Carlos, who spoke very good English.  He said he worked in England in Construction Management.  We played a slow game and he whomped me.  Then Andres and Carlos played a few 5 minutes games and it was amazing to see the good moves they could come up with so quickly.  It’s obvious they are both in a different class than I am. 

I cut through Exito on the way back to my apartment and when I got to the alternate exit it was raining.  I waited a few minutes and it just got heavier.  I decided since I had my iPad with me that I would sit in the food court for a little while as often these rainstorms pass after a short while.  As I was cutting back through Exito I found Beatriz and her daughter Maria looking at gift bags.  I told her I forgot my umbrella and was going to sit in the food court for a while but I would see her later – supposedly at 5:20.  Sitting in the food court I could hear the thunder very loudly.  At one point the wind even blew the rain through the vents at the top of the windows and some people moved away from them.  After about 30-45 minutes the rain slowed down to almost nothing and I finally headed for home.

Dinner was again just a bowl of cereal.

Beatriz showed up at 6:30 and we took the Circular 303 bus ($2) to Premium Plaza C.C.  (I’m pretty sure I’ve been there before with Reina.)  We walked around looking at the handmade arts & crafts for sale.  Beatriz found a ring she liked and I bought it for her for 10mil ($5).  We each had a slice of Hawaiiana pizza and shared a small Pepsi from Pizza Pizza for 6,999 ($3.68) and then followed that up with chocolate dipped vanilla cones for 7,600 ($4).  We took a taxi back for about 9mil ($4.73).