Gavin McHamish
Nov-19 to Mar-20
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Tenis
Sorry, but I'm amused by how the argentines spell it with one 'n'. We are watching the Australian Open on TV. Although there are twice as many words in a Spanish dictionary, there are no Spanish words for set, game, match-point, tie-break, slice, back-spin, ace, timing, qually, rally, top-spin, drop-shot, warning, box, slam, chance, winners. All in an Argentine accent, particularly “slice” and “chance”
Lampshade
In Jan 19 we were in Calle Defensa, the main antique shop street in Buenos Aires, and we bought this lovely lamp shade for our bedroom. It was like a sunburst globe about 2 ft in diameter, made of about 100 glass tubes of different sizes radiating outwards. It was sort of art nouveau, but weirder, and it wasn’t cheap. Anyway, we put it up above our bed and liked it very much (still do). Then this autumn in London we went to Ikea, and the exact same lampshade, though in rather better nick, was on sale there.
Market
The market in San Telmo, 10 years ago, was mostly veg stands, butchers, antique bric-a-brac, this and that. Now it has about 25 different eating stalls, mostly catering to the tourist trade. We preferred it like it used to be, but that was then and this is now. Get over it. I suppose.
Earthquake
There was 6.6 earthquake far away in the middle of Argentina, and I felt it here and the ceiling lamp swung a bit. At school in Santiago we felt much bigger ones, about twice a week, but no damage done.
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CasaSan
Mercedes’ foundation for kids in Boca is going great guns. In Boca there is a strong sense of community, and families are quite intermixed. In the villas, or slums, society is much more fractured. In UK Mercedes would get a knighthood or whatever. She was on “Who wants to be a millionaire” on tv, and won 300,000 pesos, partly because she answered correctly that Queen Elizabeth has 4 children, which she and Amber were talking about the day before. She is using her winnings to take 120 children (and 20 grown ups) for a week in Cordoba 800 miles away.
Cruz
Oak’s in-laws regularly stay in our London house Jan-Mar while we are in Argentina. In Nov Cruz fell and broke her hip. The first thing she said in hospital after her op was “I’m still going to London!” Good for her!
Cristina
On TV news one day, all the talk was about ex-president Cristina Kirchner who had made a speech in the parliament lasting for 3 hours and 45 minutes, without stopping for a pee.
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Ongamira
We went to the 24sq.km Dos Lunas estancia 80km north of Cordoba for 6 days in December. This was the 4th time we’d been, so we love it. They have 8 bedrooms, 100 horses, 300 cattle, 300 sheep, 5 llamas, a pool, and about 12 nice dogs. Amber goes riding for 2 hours every morning and afternoon, and I hang about happily. And the food is spectacularly good - Amber put on 2kg while she was there (I don’t weigh myself).
Horse
This is a photo taken from our flat looking out over the city. The chinese horse is just a reflection in the window of it standing on our kitchen counter. It is a bit startling at first.
Warm
The nice thing about the weather in BA is that grey skies are only ever temporary, and if it is warm enough to sit out at a restaurant at 7pm, it will be warm enough at 11pm.
Phone
As we were sitting outside at a cafe for lunch (just us) a guy rushed past us and grabbed Amber’s phone out of her hands and disappeared. But it’s much nicer having it stolen from in front of you than just leaving it somewhere. Nothing to be done. But the aggro of sorting out the consequences - phew!
Mar-2020
Seba
This is Seba (!), Amber’s tennis coach, in the Cayman Islands. He is a lawyer in the ministry of justice, and lectures at university. Seba was with us and all Amber’s family in Italy last summer. He and his family live in a house half a block from La Bonbonera, Boca Junior’s football stadium, which is much too small, and Boca are threatening to extend it...
Diana
who plays tennis with Amber in London is here for a couple of weeks (it’s her fourth time). It’s great, because she goes to the pool upstairs with Amber, etc, and they can talk lots about this and that (Amber and I don’t talk that much, you really notice it when we are eating out, because like all couples we’ve said most of it before)
Teo
We were talking last night to Mercedes, who had with her a couple of boys, Chino (18) and Teo(10), who she has brought along to our flat for dinner before, and whom she sort of mentors. Teo is extraordinary. He was talking about possibly undiscovered whales which were bigger than mastodons, but were unseen because they suffered from albinism. Then he was on about Area 51, where in the 50s in the Nevada desert the US had captured a couple of extra-terrestials. Then he was on about the current political situation in Argentina. And explained in detail how he would program a robot to do various household chores. So, so much knowledge and erudition. And delightful with it. But he has none of the advantages associated with class. It’s true, the more you find out about life, the less you realise you know about it.
Coronavirus
None in Argentina yet. We are now 2 weeks away from our return, and sort of hoping that the coronavirus hooha might prevent us from traveling. Astra says Beijing is unbelievably quiet, and her group of friends now arrange boozy parties and hold them over the internet. It could catch on.