Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, got up once during the night, finally waking/getting up at 6:45.

For breakfast I had a small bowl of cereal with the last of the milk and a bagel with strawberry preserves. Teresa went next door to Ara and bought a few avocados. Colombians love their avocados.

At 9am I ordered a Didi to take us to Punto Clave mall (near Estacion Industriales) for 10,500 pesos. As usual we arrived early for her 9:40am appointment and she was taken at 9:45. She came out a few minutes later and reported all is well.

We took a taxi to Pricesmart in Poblado for 17,300 pesos. (Our driver had never been there before but Waze showed him the way.) We stopped in their restaurant where we had lattes and shared a palito de queso. We picked up 877,444 pesos ($209) of groceries but no Butterball turkey breast. ☹  They were selling a side less tent which they called a gazebo so maybe that’s what I should be calling them.

I spotted Matt (the Englishman from Smartfit) going in as we were going up the escalator. We had a 15-minute wait for a taxi to take us back to our apt for 16,300 pesos.

I ran next door to Ara and bought 2 bags of milk (no line) before returning to the apt.

Teresa has her 2pm arts & crafts class so I told her I’m going to see The Substance (7.9) starting at 2:05pm. She wanted to see it with me but when I told her the next showing was at 5:20 and the movie is 2 hours and 20 minutes long she decided her butt would be too tired after class to sit through a movie.

I left the apt at 1:30 and took a Didi to the mall. I recycled a plastic bottle then went into the main part of the mall. Unbelievable: The atrium was full of people in a Disney World type line and there were 2 girls on pedestals in strange costumes dancing. I saw the word IKEA so I guess this was connected with their grand opening today. I wondered what they were giving away to have that many people waiting in line. I headed in the direction of the escalator and saw a long line wrapping around the corner. I asked a security girl if this was for IKEA and she confirmed it. The line wrapped around the other side and they had the up escalator roped off just for the IKEA line. I could imagine this line going all the way towards the metro exit for an entrance to IKEA. I had to take the back escalator up and then walk a bit to Cine Colombia. There were only 3 seats remaining for The Substance and I bought the one in the back row on the aisle for 8,000 pesos. Maybe the reason the theater was so packed was because tickets are discounted on Wednesdays.

I picked up a free small popcorn with my Platino card and bought a large soda for 14,900 pesos.

The movie was good until the end which I thought was disgusting. I considered walking out but stayed to the end thinking several times it’s got to end soon.

When I left, the IKEA line was down to the bottom of the escalator so it had shortened noticeably.

This is what the atrium looked like as I was leaving the mall.

So you can see how long the switch back lines were.

I stopped in Auros where I had printed a new set of SS backup codes. (Later I taped them in the back of my Password book.)

Outside the line wasn’t long for taxis but for some reason I decided to walk back to the apt. I detoured and walked up to Eduardo Madrid bakery where I ordered a latte and texted Teresa that I was there. Unfortunately, she didn’t see my message and called me that she was in the apt. I paid for my latte and walked back to the apt.

We watched the news about Hurricane Milton about to hit the west side of Florida. Really sad.

My Amazon orders arrived in Florida. I’m going to wait a little before releasing them in the hope my apostilled Benefits Letter will arrive soon.

We had some rain in the evening.

 

FUNNY