viernes, el 2 de septiembre de 2011

Hola amigos y Feliz Aniversario to mi amigos D&M…22 años of marriage!! Felicidades!!

What a day!! I was at Nissan for 9am and by 945am when Tony (confirmed it is one N) arrived, Javier had the tanque almost unbolted!! Ja ja ja.

Ok…Javier is a mecanico who is 4 foot nothing, looks 20 years old and probably weighs 50 kilos. Great guy and a super jugador de fútbol rapido!!

But…he has never changed a tanque in a Frontier y he has been a mecanico for 4 years…sin clase…without any formal training!! Hola Mexico!!

So Carlos was keeping an eye on him (thank goodness it wasn’t busy as Carlos is the service manager) and Tony spent 30 minutes giving Javier some pointers before he took off.

Me? I spent 4 hours watching Javier work as well as talking with Carlos and the mecanicos who came over to chat.

While we waited for Javier, we rotated the tires and also discovered I needed un otra amortigua el muelle…a piece of rubber that prevents the rear of the truck from hitting the frame. Another $1100 pesos…arrives lunes.

Four hours of labour…$699 pesos to have the tanque removed, the parts taken off the old tanque and put onto the new tanque and then have that tanque installed. That equates to $57 Cdn…know why I had the work done here?

And what does Javier get paid? $25 pesos/hour. Yikes…$2 Cdn…but still double the minimum wage.

And this is why mañana I am taking the Nissan boys back to Senor Pucks for some chelas…cervezas…beers. My way of saying thanks for all the extra help.

Carlos puts it this way. He is not from Huatulco and has only a few peeps he considers amigos, myself included. Everyone else, including all the jugador on his equipo? Compañeros which translates to peers.

Total bill for tanque, labour and misc parts? Bill was $15,879 pesos but they charged me $13,455 instead…saving me $2400 pesos or almost $200 Cdn. Hello repeat customer!!! Even If I don’t want to be!! Ja ja ja

Off to Pemex to fill’er up con Premium (lleno con premium por favor) and I also threw in some fuel injector cleaner…just in case. I love Pemex…you tell them to fill it up and they ask you if you want to fill it “to the zeros”…round it off. $10 propina and off to the casa.

Late start for el gimnasio…almost 3pm…so I left it to 45 minutes of bike riding and headed home. No walk through town today…but a pit stop for pan, baguette y platanos.

Home for some overcast alberca time and then it was time to organize my computer and such.

Bexico? Hard at work. revisions coming and going for China and she has submitted Australia’s pelicula and is just waiting to hear back if there need to be any revisions to it.

Character design for her 3^rd client? They like the design so now it is onto clean up and then coloring. They also just emailed her and asked Bexico to sign an agreement so they can supplier her with more work!! Score!!

La cena? I know you want to know!! Sloppy Joes!! Did I tell you we found a stock of mil isla dressing at Che? I bought all 7 bottles!! Ja ja ja The other brand of 100 Island is horrible (hor-e-blay).

Our pre-Vancouver to do list? Almost all of it is now related to our move from G10 to B10 and we will have it all done by the 13^th.

Wow…fin de semana already?

No big plans other then the chelas mañana and Nascar on domingo!! Won’t spoil the surprise of our la cena…anticipation!! But I will share that mañana I am having pan frances para desayunos!!

Ahhh…fotos. Long day at Nissan so not too many…but here they are.

The oficinas at the condo gates.

Ready for Día de Independencia.

I saw this camioneta with a solid reflective tint on it’s drivers window.

And it had some words inscribed in it….but I think only the peeps in the truck would be able to read them? Translation? Nobody loves me like you.

The clima above la montaña.

The lluvia stayed there….phew.

And here come the fotos de animals.

I tell you, there is something wrong with this perro!!

Buen fin de semana amigos.

Marco y Bexico

jueves, el primero de septiembre de 2011

Buenos noches mis amigos. Straight to the fotos.

The animales.

Spotted this one on the way home from el gimnasio.

There is something wrong with this perro.

It is turning pink. Honestly. He has slowly been turning pink, starting with the paws and working his way up.


The clima? This shows you what kind of day we started with.

It belongs to a Fonatur worker.

Here are the montaña.

The nube reminded me of the low clouds you see on Grouse Mountain.

The lluvia brings out the verde...green.

And it also brings out the human lawn mower.

More fotos of La Crucecita getting prepared for el Día de Independencia. Looking towards centro.

Looking away from centro.

And in the zocalo.

Misc fotos.

One more taxi for the series. 

It is from Pochutla, an hour west of Huatulco.


Gran Hermano is watching.

A few weeks ago, every cantina y bar received a fresh coat of paint courtesy of Corona.

These hombres get together toda días (every day) to play dominoes. 

They are seated in a restaurante on a corner next to the zocalo.

Here is the external vent for the secadora in B10. Twenty feet up

And the lavadora y secadora!!

A tight squeeze in there for the two Whirlpools. Oh how we would have liked the stacking modelos.

So those are the fotos and now here was our day.

Up early to get to Nissan. Good news? Tonny was there. Bad news? Let’s do the installation mañana. ¿Por que? It was supposedly a busy day for Nissan…mind you I saw 4 mecanicos sitting around and doing nothing. Ahhhh Mexico.

More good news? Tonny will supervise the job and they are going to do all the work at Nissan as it is muy facil (very easy) due to them having the rampa y tools.

So 1015am and I am about to leave Nissan and Tonny asks me to come with him. Road trip. We drive through town and off to Pablo’s to see another carro that Tonny is buying. It is in rough shape but they are fixing it up for him.

Why I am on the road trip? No sé…I don’t know. But if he can spend 3 hours supervising, I can spend 15 minutes with him.

Tonny reminded me that we are invited to his hija’s baptism in diciembre..and now we are invited to his padre’s ranch where we can go horse back riding. Nice!!

Tonny’s finger? Broken and a nasty cut. Even nastier? The stitches that look like they were applied by someone whose ojo were cerrado (eyes were closed). Nasty.

Home after Nissan and then el gimnasio. Nice to have the lluvia stop just in time for my walk.

El clima para agosto? The temperatures were actually warmer then Julio, but with much lower humido, thus it felt waaaaay better.

Average highs of 33,5 vs 32,7 in julio and average lows of 26,3 vs 25,9. Who knew?

Misc tid bit…they do not use decimals here…thus the commas.

As for el gimnasio, a good work out…nothing new there.

A walk through town, hola to all of the boys and we had some laughs. I was called a word in español…and I was called it because I do not work and Bexico is always working. Won’t share what the word was…but we all laughed.

A quick alberca time, sin el sol. Did some wash…used the dryer at B10…nice to have that convenience again.

And then came the Magic Jack phone message. Bexico’s Air Canada flights to and from Vancouver, have both been cancelled. Give us a call was the message. Nice.

Now it was Aeroplan that called, as the flights were purchased on air miles. Change of plans turns out that Bexico leaves for Van one day later and comes back one day earlier. Same flight times.

Now that gets her from DF to Van and back to DF. What about Huatuclo to DF and back? And the hotel in DF?


I called Interjet and asked for a un Agente que habla Inglés…hello David. A great guy and once I felt comfortable, I started using as much español as I could. He appreciated that and we had some laughs about tamarindos and their “bite”.

$890 pesos later, we had Bexico rebooked. $890 pesos now a days is only $73 Cdn…score.

Next step was the Hilton and one Magic Jack call later, both her reservations were moved to the new dates. Phew. And last but not least was getting the info to mis padres as they are picking Bexico up at the aeropuerto in Vancouver.

Ta da.

Bexico and I then went to Mary Jose, el carpinteros. Bexico and I had a great chat with the senorita while we waited for her esposo to finish up with some clients.

We are not getting a break on their listed price, but we are getting a handmade mesa made out of roble. See this link about roble.

Roble

The table will be 1.4 metros long, 80 cm tall, 40 cm wide with 3 cajones (drawers) and un estante…shelf.

Precio? $3800 pesos…$308 Cdn but it will last a lot longer then what we had planned on buying from IKEA. And the best part, we have a new contact here in town for when we need our wood work for Mojon!!

de septiembre…right before we move into B10!!

We came home to eat ensaladas and so Bexico could get back to work. She has a few deadlines she needs to meet…1045pm and she is still at it. She even picked up another contract, some character designs for a previous client!!

Those characters are due mañana and the other 2 projects are on going. Bexico will need that new computadora!!

On that front…great news as her software supplier had a summer sale that ended August 31 and Bexico managed to buy some much needed software that she will download into her new Mac when she is in Vancouver!!

Misc

Gato Blanco has been spending more and more time here. Today she bolted up the stairs a head of me and both hoy y ayer, has spent 8 hours just sleeping in G10.

Helicoptero? We don’t hear them often but I am told el Presidente’s esposa has been in town, thus the helicoptero.

Here are three Wikipedia links that talk about Cinco de Mayo vs Día de Independencia y “Grito de Dolores”. All 3 are good reads.

Día de Independencia

Grito de Dolores

Cinco de mayo

Misc tid bit...they do not use capitals with their meses (months), thus no capital on that last link.

I mentioned the name Scott in a blog. He is a Newf that lives at Mojon…in a casa made of pino…pine!! He does some work with Roman and when they were installing the duct for the secadora, he told me he bought the Tipsy Blowfish. Crazy Newf!! Great opportunity…the bar needed some new direction. First thing he is doing is painting over the sign that states “coldest beer this side of Texas”. ¿Por que? It pisses off the Mexicans as they take it personally that they lost Texas to the Americans.

How long ago was that? But still…no need to rub it in!! ja ja ja

Anoche we went to see Super 8. It was Super horrible. But at 2 for 1 and one ticket costing $50 pesos or $4 Cdn…not an expensive treat.

Muy caro (expensive) treat? Fajitas at Los Portales!! But they were good and worth the $$. When we were done our meals, a mesero that recognizes us, asked if Bexico wanted the platanos fritos…fried plantains. They know her too well!! We said sí.

Here’s one for you.

I sent an email to the hombre that bought my beloved Kawasaki before we moved to Mexico. I wanted to know how the bike was and if he enjoyed it and here is his reply.

Hello mark, well in the year and a little bit since buying the bike from you I've done close to 14000km with not 1 issue and have received lots of complements on the bike where ever I go with it. I've done some cosmetic changes i bought a clear zero gravity double bubble windscreen and put Kawasaki green pin striping on the rims but other then that it's still how it was when I bought it from you. I know you have that kawasaki zx7r poster hanging up somewhere in your place so here's one for your computer this is a picture of the bike from last weeks ride to mt baker.

Thanks again

Jason

He was a young guy, brought his padre for the first visit and his mom y hermana when he picked up the bike. Nice kid.

We may live in Mexico...but I was a little envious when I read his email!! ja ja ja


Ok…you are caught up.

Off to Nissan at 9am…hasta mañana.

Marco