Tuesday, March 18, 2025

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, got up once during the night, finally waking up at 5am and getting up at 5:45.

I left the apt at 8:15 and walked to the mall. I recycled a few plastic bottles then cut through the parking area hoping to find Home Center. I ended up having to take an escalator up to the main floor and using their main entrance. I ended up having to go down the escalator to their first floor anyway where I bought a toilet flapper with chain and another small tube of silicone gel for the other toilet. My cash receipt was a QR code that can be scanned to show the actual receipt. That’s a first for me.

I stopped in Starbucks and bought a blueberry muffin which I took to Urbania. This is my Starbucks receipt for a single item, my muffin

The price breakdown seems like overkill.

I ate it with a latte while starting to read my new chess book, The Iron English. (The price of my latte had gone up from 9,800 pesos to 10,100 pesos.)

I left at 10:45 and stopped in Claro to ask about the constant text messages I get asking me to pay my Claro Hogar bill, a service I don’t have. I was given number T31 and they were only on T22 so I left, I can certainly return sometime when they are not so busy.

I stopped in Exito and bought a few things before returning to the apt by taxi.

I left the apt at 12:15 and took a Didi to Santafe mall. I arrived only a couple minutes late and Teresa already had a table in Crepes & Waffles. She had chicken something and I had a Cesar salad with chicken and we both had a glass of water.

She said she found a beautiful pair of cheap Nike gym shoes for me. She walked me to Pro Champions and I thought the shoes were very nice but they only had them in size 10 and I’m size 9 or 9 ½. She insisted I try them on but they were obviously too large.

We went to Dollar City where Teresa purchased a few things.

We went down to Valentina’s where we had lattes and shared a slice of yogurt cake.

Teresa told me her the husband of her friend Nigely?, who had esophageal cancer, now has lung cancer so we’ll probably be visiting him on Saturday.

With Teresa’s help I finally got in touch with Dr. Francisco Vargas’, the Rheumatologist, office and got an appointment for Monday April 7^th at 5pm. The address is Calle 4 sur #43AA-26, Edificio Formacol, and it appears it’s in Oviedo mall. The cost of the visit will be 320,000 pesos ($78).

A storm came through about 3:15 but it ended about 30 minutes later and we returned to the apt by taxi.

I replaced the flapper on the toilet, to Teresa’s surprise, and we’re back in business again.

I understand last Sunday was Emeralda’s birthday. She came over about 5:30 and Alejandro a few minutes later. I told Alejandro about my Claro Hogar problem and he started a chat with them using Whatsapp on my cellphone. By the end of our evening together Claro’s last message was, “Estimado señor Andresen, en este momento he dejado la evidencia en las notas para que el área encargada pueda validar a detalle y así este inconveniente no se vuelva presentar nuevamente.” We left at 6pm and took a Didi to Antica Pizza where we all had individual slices. We walked down a block to the bakery where I bought 2 pastries for our security guards. It only took a few minutes outside to catch a taxi back to our complex. Alejandro showed me his new 160cc motorcycle, which looked nice.

They left and we prepared for bed.

 

EL ARROYO