Monday, May 13, 2024

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, fell asleep quickly, woke up once from someone outside talking and another person revving their motorcycle, got up at 5:30 to go to the bathroom, finally getting up at 6am.

Today is another holiday here, Day of Ascension.

When Teresa got up she complained about someone using a leaf blower at 2:30 in the morning so I guess that’s what I heard.

She wants to check out El Tesoro mall and I said I would go with her if I could wait for her in a café. She agreed, so we’ll probably leave around noon and have lunch there.

I left the apt at 9:45 and took a Didi to the mall carrying my chess book and Chess Life magazines. I had my choice of tables in Urbania and IM Juan Castro Guerro Sierra soon joined me. He told me he’s tutoring several children in chess including 2 in the US for whom he charges $70 an hour. (He said Grandmasters charge $120 an hour.) He has 1 GM norm and I was mistaken there is NOT a time limit to get the other 2 norms to become a GM. He has a sister who has one of the booths here in the mall and she sells cheesecake but it isn’t cheesecake; I didn’t really understand that. He has another sister in Australia and he might play in some tournaments there.

We talked about all the places we’ve visisted and he recommended Cayo Santa Maria in Cuba.

He’s still studying French and reads a daily Russian newspaper online.

I told him about my chess table and how I’d like to leave it to him in my will, if I had a will. I need to do more research on that but at least I’m making it clear here. (Later, at lunch I also mentioned it to Teresa who wasn’t very happy with me talking about my death.)

At 11:30 I informed him I had to leave, I paid the bill for 2 coffees, bought milk and bananas in Exito and returned to the apt by taxi.

Teresa and I left at 12:15 and took a Didi to El Tesoro mall for 10,500 pesos. She did some shopping (unfortunately Zara is still closed 😊) then we had lunch in J&C Delicias. I told her that I want us to go to Popoyán before September when football season starts. I also told her that I want to leave my chess table and chairs to Juan Carlos when I die. She didn’t like me talking about me dying.

ONEIPAMETATO1453 resigned our game increasing my rating 8 points to 1588.

She did some more shopping and bought a pair of sunglasses in Le Solar for 580mil ($149) and a couple skin care products at a discount in Medipiel for 270mil ($69.50).

I suggested we have coffee in Victoria’s Café but she wanted frozen yogurt across the hall in Madelo.

It was 4pm when we both realized we’d better get home before all the people clog the roads returning from the fincas for the long weekend.

We had no problem getting the next taxi and returned to the apt for 15,200 pesos.

I spent most of the rest of the evening watching the news about DJT’s court case on CNN and MSNBC.

I finished reading Ken Follett’s 800+ pages The Evening and The Morning on my Kindle.

 

EL ARROYO SIGNS