Spring Time (September 2011)

September is my favourite month, not only because it is the month I celebrate my birthday, but its officially spring if you live in the southern hemisphere, and everything is fresh and new.  This is the one month that I make sure to spend most of my free time out and about.  As a birthday gift this year, Brad gave me a photography course.  It was amazing!  The course was conducted in Spanish, so I got to practice a bit, but more importantly I learned to use my camera and its functions a little bit better.... of course the only way to get the hang of my camera is to go out and practice.  So the first practice was the spring blossoms at the Japanese Gardens, then a visit to the Fiesta de la flor and then of course just exploring the city from a different perspective.

During my first year here (2009) I visited Escobar for the annual flower show.  Being interested in plants and gardens its a wonderful treat to escape the city for the day and just wander around and enjoy the show.  Ofcouse I couldn't leave empty handed and came back home with a few more plants for my balcony garden.

The selection of plants, their amazing colours and scents is reason enough to visit this annual flower show which this year celebrated its 40th Anniversary.

8 month catch up................... November and October 2011

It's official... today is the first day of my summer vacation.  No more classes until 9 January 2012.  It has been a while since I posted anything, I know, I know I always have the best intentions but then I kinda get side tracked, so now as I have time, I'll use it to catch up on my life over the past months.  I'll start with the most recent of events. 

Birthday Cupcakes

BRAD'S BIRTHDAY!  Brad's not really one for making a big thing about his birthday, but this year we decided to throw a little party, and what a party it was... great food, fantastic company and to top it off cupcakes.  So watch out for next year ( 19 November)   ... I'm planning a huge celebration!

Marc at the Barrancas Antique Market

For 10 days in October  Iwas was really lucky to have my brother come and visit me.  I hadn't seen him since October 2007.............. which is a hell of a long time.  Anyhow he and 3 friends rented a fabulous apartment in Palermo neighbourhood, and I played official tour guide.  It was great to take him around my city and to show him the sites, and of course eat ear enough steak to last a life time and drink far too much wine and bubbles.  But I figure that you only live once and life is there to enjoy.  Talking of meat - well this I certainly have to share.  A friend told us about a huge big "meat tent" just out of the city, so we decided to give it a try.  There are only 2 things I can say about it:
1) Wow and totally awesome.

 and
2)  I haven't eaten any red meat since that visit - I have become a vegetarian................
Take a look at the pictures to see why.

The pork and lamb roasting

Platters and platters of delicious meat....

Sandra pondering on how she was going to write the review for The Lonely Planet

Finished...... I couldn't fit in another mouthful

29th of the month..... ñoquis for dinner

On the 29th of every month, Argentines eat ñoquis (gnocchis, as we would say). For the uninitiated, gnocchi is a potato-based pasta. It is pronounced nyoki. Like a lot of Argentine dishes, this flavourful dish has Italian roots.

Noqui with cream, garlic and basil sauce

 

Why gnocchi? Why the 29th? Gnocchi is cheaply made and belly filling, a combination appreciated by the working poor on the night before payday. The story goes that a poor family welcomed a hungry man into their home and shared their gnocchi supper. To reward the family’s generous spirit, the man, who was a saint in disguise, left a gold coin under his plate. Hard financial times in Argentina after World War II may have helped the tradition to grow and now Gnocchi Night is practically sacred.

The tradition comes with hopes of attracting prosperity and involves putting money under your plate during your meal. Donate that money (it has to be that money, now warmed by the plate) to charity after the meal, and it will bring you good fortune.

It’s a refreshing celebration of the good value meal. 

I love the tradition of sharing what little you have and, with that sharing, nurturing hope for good fortune. Clearly the Argentine populace is infused with good spirits and good humour: government workers that are scarce except for when paychecks arrive at month’s end have been nicknamed ñoquis too!

Paseaperros......... the dog walkers of Buenos Aires

a dog walker

Taking your dog for a walk is a whole different ball game in Buenos Aires. Professional dog walkers - paseaperros - will take care not only of your pooch's daily exercise and socializing here, as well as walking him twice a day, they'll groom him, see to his health checks and generally take care of his daily needs. Your dog and several others that is - it's nothing to see eight or ten dogs on their leads out for a walk on their way to the railed-off areas in the local parks that are set aside for the city's mutts. 

The dogs all seem remarkably sanguine about it all, each keeping their place in the hierarchy of the pack - and the paseapaerro's definitely Top Dog.

Bottom of Form

Dog walking is a big business in Buenos Aires, particularly in affluent neighbourhoods such as Recoleta or Palermo, where the residents are either too lazy or too busy to look after their pets, and where you'll often see a dog walker controlling group of 10 or 15 dogs. Dog walkers earn up to 100 pesos a month per dog. It is booming business in Buenos Aires. Apparently there's a law that prohibits professional dog walkers walking more than eight animals at one time but it seems nobody takes any notice. I've seen a guy walking 13 pooches of all different sexes, sizes and breeds at the same time - all seemingly under control and getting on with one another. I've no idea how they do it. 

street dog in la bocca

I'm still surprised that at the number of dogs on the streets and a lot of them are strays. According to the Argentine Society for the Protection of Animals there is around one dog for every three people in the Federal Capital of Buenos Aires. That puts the pooch population at more than one million.

Of course with so many dogs comes the poop, pooh, muck, shit, caca, mierda - whatever you want to call it. It's everywhere. The problem of dog faeces in BA is so bad there is even a blog called “I’m tired of dog shit” or, in Spanish, “Estoy harto de la mierda de perro” dedicated to documenting dog defecation around the city.

During my first few months in BA, especially when I was doing a lot of walking, putting my foot in it was at least a weekly occurrence. Now I have a 'porteño-like' (or should I say pooh-teño!) radar that keeps me out of the brown stuff. It does appear, to me at least, that a few more porteños are now carrying plastic bags to clean up their pets' mess, however I recently learned that many Argentines consider it 'beneath them' to pick up their own pooch poop.

Yesterday I watched a well-dressed middle-aged woman  look away while she allowed her Labrador to drop a huge steaming turd in the middle of the pavement. She then headed for the shops as if she hadn't a care in the world. The problem is that letting your dog foul the footpath isn't deemed disgusting by the locals in Buenos Aires - it's actually socially acceptable. 

 

The thick of it seems to be that (pardon the pun) they just don't give a shit!

Giant Spider Scupture

A new exhibition  in the colorful  neighborhood of La Boca is not for the faint-hearted or the arachnophobic. These giant spider sculptures are a trademark of the late artist Louise Bourgeois. A show commemorating her life's work had been put together by the curators at the Proa art gallery in Buenos Aires.

The French-born US sculptor died last year in June. She is one of the world's most influential contemporary artists but her followers say she was never appreciated until the end. Bourgeois worked in a variety of media ranging from wood to steel to stone and tended to center on the human form.

The exhibition at the Proa art gallery will continue until June 19.

Placido Domingo sings under the stars

The Great man himself

Going through my photos, I realised I have not posted anything about the concert.....On the evening of the 24th March, together with around 120,000 other people, I enjoyed a concert by one of the biggest names in opera – Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo. The concert was set up on a stage next to the Obelisk on Avenida 9 de Julio.  The maestro was scheduled to perform in the grand Teatro Colon, but because of ongoing disputes between the  theatre workers’ union and the Teatro Colón management  the theatre is temporarily out of action. So the venue of the  concert was moved to outdoors. 

I went down early to get a good spot and was delighted to find an entrepreneurial woman selling little plastic stool for 20 pesos. I bought a chair and then went and found a great spot with a good view of the stage. The crowds just kept rolling in....  the early arrivals were treated to  a sound check by Domingo himself along with his singing colleague, Argentine soprano Virginia Tola.

The stage in Avenida 9 Julio

The concert started at 8pm and went on until 11pm.  It was totally awesome.

The programme included arias, duets, operettas, tangos and pop songs. Domingo was accompanied by 160 musicians from the Colón orchestra and choir as well as the Buenos Aires Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra.

During the concert, Domingo said he hoped the two parties could soon reach an agreement and referred to the orchestra and choir as the real pillars of the theatre and said he hoped to return next year to sing a full opera in the Colón.

The 120,000 crowd enjoying the concert