Friday, August 3, 2018

Last night I went to bed at 11pm and it took me a few minutes to fall asleep.  The pill gave me a strange feeling, more annoying than bothersome.  I got up once during the night (noticed it was raining) but quickly fell back asleep.  I woke up at 6:15 and got up at 7am.

After further internet research it appears the Metocarbamol tablet I took last night was a muscle relaxant and the Zopiclona tablet is a sleeping pill and I think I should take them together.

Teresa was still here but soon her mother buzzed from downstairs and she left.

My usual M/W/F pre-gym routine, first thing when I get up in the morning, is to wash my face, wait about 20 minutes and then shave with my electric shaver.  When I got up this morning Laura was in the bathroom so I lost about 20 minutes until I noticed she had exited.

While on my computer she came in and she had on a white shirt that says www.Top10ToursInMedellin.com.  She explained that since her English isn’t perfect she will be meeting guests in the hostals/hotels.  I looked at their website and they have coffee tours on horseback which looked interesting.

Laura and I left the apt just before 8am.  We had breakfast at Carbon de Leña.  I texted John Joseph and informed him that he misspelled Guatape in one spot on his website.  (He later replied and thanked me.)  Laura left to go to a hostal in Parque Lleras and I stopped at the copy center where I printed another version of the cover page for my chess openings.

John Joseph texted me that Laura is his new promo girl, “primarily helping gather tourists and sending them on their tours but after that she has a schedule to visit all of our approx. 70 locations at least once, in 2 weeks.  ‘Promotion’ is simply entering a location, maintaining our promo there: flyers, etc..., greeting reception, and passing flyers to any guests in the area…then off to the next.  She is also required to check in (via Whatsapp) at every location, so we know where she is at all times.  She is directly under the control of Juliana, (my wife), since she is basically her assistant.”

I picked up Q-Hubo and Adn newspapers on my way back to the apt.  Teresa had already returned from eps.

I watched the first 20 minutes of the Today show and left for the gym.  I picked up a Gente newspaper at a Gana store on the way.  I completed all my exercises in 2 hours.  Walking back to the apt I ran into Charles at the temporary walkway across the new Metro Plus road.  He was going to meet a friend for lunch.  I told him I wanted to borrow a book I saw in his apartment – 501 Spanish Verbs.  My idea is to put the basic form of the verbs on index cards and learn them.  I’ll save future and past tenses, etc. for later.

I’ve been doing 2 Spanish lessons a day on Duolingo.  Recently they have been using the word automovil for car.  Here they use the word carro.  Today I responded to their translation request for car as carro and since then that’s what they have used.  Pretty intelligent!

Tonight’s the beginning of the Flower Festival chess tournament.  The first round is scheduled to begin at 6:30 but I’m sure they’ll still be doing registrations and then pairings and are not likely to begin until 7pm.  I plan to leave the apt at 5:30 and I should be there by 6:30 or so.

I was browsing through the Gente newspaper and found an article that says that the new Marriott hotel in El Poblado has brunch on Sundays from 11am to 2pm.  Besides local favorites they specifically mentioned hash browns, pancakes and waffles.   Yum!  Sounds like a good idea for some special occasion!

I called for an Uber car and it picked up Teresa at 2:20 to go to Stella Duran for another massage.

Among new US movie releases there isn’t anything I want to see.

Locally, I would like to take Teresa sometime next week to see Mission Impossible (8.4).  It’s playing at Vizcaya at 3:10 and 6pm.

I left the apt at 5:20 and walked down to the metro.  As I was coming down the stairs a train was just coming in but the platform was pretty crowded.  They were packed in so much in the car I didn’t even try to get on.  Another train arrived after only 2 minutes and I was one of the first ones on.  I got near the center of the car and a woman had a couple of large bags at her feet that gave me some personal (above the knees) space.  By the time we went 2 stations the car was packed.  As the train tried to leave the next station, the doors closed, there was a beep and the doors opened again.  This happened several times, probably because someone was leaning on the door.  When we got to San Antonio Station the only reason I was able to get off was because a man larger and stronger than I pushed people out of the way to get off.  I was right behind him pushing him and I got off but my tech bag was still back in the mass of people and I had to reach back and pull it out.  For the west line a train soon arrived and again I didn’t attempt to get on.  The next train arrived and this time when I got on I refused to move deeper into the depths of the car.  At the Stadium Station there was only a minor struggle to get off as others where also getting off.

At one point I noticed my step counter was open.  When it’s open it doesn’t count your steps to of course I closed it again.

I arrived at the chess league at 6:20 and Jose was already there waiting for me.  I also saw Edilson and gave him one of my old Chess Life magazines.  I have 4 more so I’ll give him another each day.  There are 217 players in the amateur section and there is also a stronger section.  As expected the 1st round started at 7pm.  I found I had a rating of 1667 and I was White against an Unrated player.

Bobby Fischer invented today’s incremental digital clock.  It’s normally set for a fixed time of minutes (or hours) and a secondary time of seconds which is added for each move you make.

The way the clock works for this amateur section is that each player starts with 1 hour on their clock and every time you make a move it adds an additional 30 seconds to your clock.  Incredibly, almost every time, my opponent moved almost immediately after I made my move.  I think at one point I may have had a chance to win but in the end I had a knight against 5 of his passed pawns so I resigned.  I ended up with 4 minutes on my clock and incredibly he ended up with an hour and 18 minutes.

Jose also lost and I quickly caught a taxi back to Envigado for 19,800 pesos.

The next rounds are tomorrow at 10am and 3pm.

Tonight I took one of the new sleeping pills Zopiclona and went to bed at 10:45.

Today’s Step Count was 9,312.

T-shirt of the day: Whiskey is my spirit animal.