Wednesday, April 19, 2017

8 more days!

As usual I got up 2-3 times during the night finally waking/getting up at 7:30am.

It’s an overcast day and it’s obvious we had some rain overnight.

After watching 20 minutes of the Today show I headed for the gym.  At one point a woman was struggling to use the “butterfly” exercise equipment.  I asked a man who doesn’t speak English to help her.  I said “Tu puede mostrar ella como?” which I thought would be understood as “You can show her how?” but even after repeating it he didn’t understand what I was asking.  So much for my communicating with locals in Spanish!  I stopped in the middle of my exercise and showed the lady the proper way to hold the handles and how to adjust the machine for another exercise.  I completed 16 of my 19 exercises and left at 11:35.

I didn’t see anyone playing chess in the park.  Back at the apt I took a shower, dressed, grabbed my things including my large umbrella and only had to wait a minute for a Metro bus.  I felt a few sprinkles on my walk from the bus to the metro.  On the metro I checked their route map and it shows the new MetroPlus route currently under construction.  It appears to start south of Envigado almost as far as Sabaneta, runs north to the Aguacatala station, crosses over the river and expressways, and then proceeds south through Itagui.  And there is even a circular route within Itagui.  Hmm, maybe it will be easier (or at least cheaper) to get to Pizza Americana.

Walking from the metro to the Aventura mall there were again a few sprinkles but not enough to prompt me to open my umbrella.

At the mall I ordered from Sr. Wok which reminded me a lot of Panda Express back in the States.  I chose my base of fried rice and my 2 additions of orange chicken and beef (I’ll never learn) with onions and peppers.  Add a 16 ounce Pepsi and the total came to 18,400 pesos (about $6.50).  Surprise, surprise, the beef wasn’t chewy for a change.  In fact it all was mildly tasty although none of my food was hot or even warm, at most just room temperature.  But, if I’m ever in a hurry this is a good option because you get your food right away as long as there isn’t a line.

I arrived at Dario’s store at 1:50pm.  First thing he told me is he’s having prostate surgery next Wednesday although he still wants me to come to the clinic to play.  He said he would call me.

I had the White pieces to start and in the endgame I was just trying to hold on against his aggressiveness but I lost on time.  In the second game he played the Colle System, as usual, he made an early mistake and I got his king on the run and won fairly easily.

I returned to Envigado and walking past Citibank I asked the guard if the ATM machine works and was told “yes”.  Finally!  Also I noticed they are now tearing up a portion of the street that leads to our apartment for the new Metroplus line.

I posted a quick review for Sr. Wok to Trip Advisor but I mistakenly called it Mr. Wok and it appears they are about to post it to the wrong restaurant.

Teresa informed me that Jose is coming over tomorrow afternoon to help Teresa with MT’s Social Security deposits into her Bancolombia account.  It would be nice to get that out of the way.

Tomorrow morning Teresa wants me to go to Tecnoquimica alone for the free Isoklon refills.  We’ll see how that goes.  I can see the location on my Medellin map.  It appears to be close to Estacion Poblado so I think I’ll take the metro and then a taxi from the station.

I have yet to receive an email but the MBE online website shows that my orders are available for pickup in Medellin.  I’ll probably go Saturday morning.

T-shirt of the day: Honesty is the best policy but insanity is the best defense.