Tuesday 9 January 2018

A wet day! - updated with photos

Our hotel reception. In common with many public buildings
here, it is completely open to the elements.
Now I am right up to date with writing my blog! Today (Tuesday) dawned with a part-cloudy sky and if I had been in European mode, I would have checked the weather forecast. But when I come here, as demonstrated a year ago in Parc del Café, I go with the flow which is not always a good idea.
We bought some drinks and then I saw that Nini was remaining seated on a low wall, not coming towards the boat station. I thought at first she was talking about Sofi but she said that she was afraid of the boat journey, so that put an end to our trip to the beach. I have to confess, I sympathise with her, the drivers are a little crazy and the boats not particularly stable. But in fact, it proved to be a lucky decision because for most of the day up to 3pm when I am writing this, it has rained solidly. That is a strange English colloquialism because rain is not solid, it is liquid last time I checked! (I added this later, in fact what Nini had was a premonition, she had a pain in her chest and rapid heart-beat. As far as I remember, she didn't actually use that word, otherwise I would  have understood immediately, it is the same in Spanish. She spoke about it that evening.)
My little family looks a little depressed and bedraggled and I wish we were going home tomorrow. That was the original plan but Nini can't face the bus journey so we are flying back on Thursday morning. Apart from the obvious expense of the flights, that means one more night in the hotel. I hope the weather looks up tomorrow!
I have been looking up social groups in Pereira, apart from the one that I have formed. A guy who joined my group told me about another group called "Conversation Pereira" but they use a Facebook group and I do not like Facebook. I couldn't even look at their page because, unlike the rest of the online world, I don't have a Facebook profile, only a Facebook page for my paintings. I will be meeting people most of whom will have real jobs maybe so I am concerned that Nini and Alexander won't feel that I am rejecting them in favour of a slightly more intellectual level of conversation (However I write this, it sounds a little snobbish. But they are my friends, I didn't choose them to discuss computer programming!) What makes me sad is that they don't seem interested in learning new things from me, there is so much I could tell and teach them. They never ask questions, about Europe, about me, my work... But that's the way it is, I guess. I am spending a lot of money at the moment but that will stop when we go back on Thursday, I want to carve out my own life here and see if living here is viable. The great thing about expat groups is the exchange of information. We do that a lot in my Meetup group in Girona.
We had a European style lunch today in Subway, a nice change from little mounds of rice. After the meal, I was asking Alexander about his job prospects when we go back because he really has to start looking for work. I asked him what he could do if he couldn't find work as a baker and he said to me something which sounded like corsenda, because don't forget, we are always speaking in Spanish. Can you guess what that is? It took me a little while... Call Centre! Maybe he doesn't even know that they are English words.Why should he? And his shoulder injury doesn't stop him doing that.


 We went to a super restaurant this evening, very basic but the food was excellent. Nini told me it is the food from the Llanos, a region in the east of Colombia.

As you can see, Buenaventura is a big port!

The sun setting more or less exactly west!

After a rainy day!

 

2 comments:

  1. I'm going to include that in my directory of charmingly imprecise English expressions: "...more or less exactly."

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  2. Haha, I really said that! I can't even use jet-lag as an excuse now. S.

    ReplyDelete