Last night I fell asleep quickly and didn’t wake up until
6am - from street traffic. It took
another hour to fall back asleep and I woke up at 8am and got up at 8:30.
We got 2 emails from SmartFit about our payment not going
through but that might be from my initial incorrect online payment information. Teresa’s already talking about moving to
another gym because of all the payment problems we’re having. Laura’s going with me to the gym to see if
everything’s okay.
At the gym Laura paid for our gym membership directly with
her BanColombia debit card. I understand
they will deduct the following month’s payments on the 10th of each
month. (I hope they saved her banking
information in their computer.) Laura
left and I did 20 minutes on the treadmill at speed 5. MT came in with Laura and they both were on
treadmills when I left. I ran into
Teresa on the way back to the apt. She
reminded me that she’s going to have her first workout today with the trainer
and I’m on my own for lunch.
Back at the apt I took my shower, dressed and headed
out. In Citibank they finally have a
“fuera de servicio” (out of service) sign on the ATM. I stopped at a Servientrega ATM but found it
locked. I stopped at ATH where I
successfully withdrew some cash.
In $efecty I paid the monthly Une bill of 71,891. I stopped at my usual pharmacy but they
didn’t have Tums or Immodium.
I had pizza and a mango juice for lunch at Moriskos. The pizza was probably big enough for 2
people but I was a pig and finished the whole thing myself. (I can’t believe I ate the whole thing!) The total cost (tip & tax included) was
21,000 pesos. It was pretty good with a
cold fresh mango juice. A Coke would be
tastier but I’m trying to be good here.
I stopped at a total of 4 more pharmacies and none had Tums
but the 3rd did have a different brand of Immodium (6 tablets) which
I bought for 5,400COP.
I stopped in Exito and saw signs that today is paper-less
Thursday so I just picked up a bag of Aunt Jemima pancake mix, a yellow magic
marker and a Snickers. But when I
checked out, all of my things were put into a plastic bag – go figure.
About 2:30 Teresa and her mother left for a doctor’s
appointment with an ear specialist.
My deck shoes from yesterday were still slightly damp so I
wore my gym shoes. I left the apt at
5:05 without an umbrella (or my sunglasses) as I only saw a single large fluffy
cloud. I just missed a metro bus and
figured there wouldn’t be another for 15 minutes so I hoofed it down to the
metro. Herman was busy with customers so
I didn’t stop to say hi.
On the metro, when we got to the Aguacatala station, people
piled in and it was soon cattle car full.
At Poblado station, 5 more people squeezed on. I was holding on to an overhead horizontal
support with both hands and I couldn’t have put them down if I wanted to. At Industriales station, 1 person got off and
3 more got on. At Convenciones station,
1 person got off and 2 more got on. At
Alpujarra 1 more person squeezed on. At San Antonio
I transferred to the west line and it was another cattle car
and I got off at Estadio station. The
sky was completely blue with no clouds in sight. I walked to the chess league and arrived at
6:05. I saw Edilson right away and I
showed him a couple chess problems that he had no trouble solving. He wants to meet to play chess so we made
plans for Saturday at 5pm at Parque Envigado.
Today I had the black pieces and I played the French
defense. I don’t know why because I
don’t remember playing it before from the black side but I didn’t have anything
else in mind against e4 (P-K4). He
(Julio) played quickly but with strong moves and he had me in a bind. At about the halfway point of the game he had
used 0 minutes and I had used 35 minutes.
(For each move you make, the clock adds 30 seconds so if you move
quickly enough you can actually add time to your clock.) He sacked a knight for a pawn to open the
center and quickly got the knight back.
I was just trying to hold on and find saving moves, looking for some way
to make a comeback. (Never give up!) He did go to the flank with his rook and
gobbled up a pawn that gave me time to push a passed pawn. He sacked his rook for my bishop but if I
captured it with my king his bishop would then fork my king and rook. Only thing is I had a rook check that saved
it and then I took his rook. So, he
blundered, lost a rook for a bishop and with my passed pawn I had a won
game. But having a won game and winning
it are 2 different things. But I
persevered and got the point. (I’ll bet
he was pissed at himself for letting the win slip away.) So tomorrow I’ll play someone else who has
also won 1 game and I should have the white pieces.
On my walk to the metro I saw a lot of people out and
about. At San Antonio
I was back at the apt by 9:30.
T-shirt of the day: Have you ever listened to someone for a
while and wondered “who ties your shoelaces for you”?
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