The blogging adventure will continue again once I have moved to Hereford, end September 2022: Muy Cansado - A busy week

1. You know the routine if you get this by email - click on the title of the blog and view from within the blog itself.

2. As I am no longer contected by broad(ish)band my blog posting will be a little haphazard - connection is now via mobile dongle and its slow! So have to wait until I gettime at the Volunteers House to do my uploading etc.

This weeks blog is in two parts ~ part two will include a video and details of the Arts festival, I hope to publish that on Tuesday. (Stretching my one post per week rule)

To start with a quick orientation:

My new house is in Calle del Hermano Pedro on the map below righthand side just below the centre.

1. My house is about half way between the Ruins of La Concepcion and the 7th Calle Oriente.

2. CasaSito is in the Calle del Candelaria, nears the ruines of La Candelaria! (top rightish).

3. My Spanish School is on the 6th Avenida close to La Merced Church.

(click to enlarge)

Exhausted! It is Saturday Dec 3, 21:00 contemplating my bed! Was up at 7 am this morning along with the CasaSito team to make the final preparations for the arts festival. We had already worked last night from 4 to 7 at the Cooperación Española – we hung 104 and labelled pictures!

My feet feel as though they are going to drop off. Didn’t sit down all day, came home around 6 and made myself food, my first cooking in “My little yellow house with the lovely gardens” – could actually have used a large G and T but made down with lemon squash! And no, I haven’t gone TT just no booze in the house! That will be rectified!

So, the move ……. Well I was all packed and ready to go with my 3 suitcases, backpage, a box and about 5 plastic bags and happily managed to get the whole lot in a Tuktuk so by 2:00pm I duly arrived at the house, the agent was late (Guatemalan time keeping) but moved in and completed an inventory by around 3.30pm and just sat and looked at the garden, and started mentally planning allsorts! Fountains, plants, vegetables and on the terrace/patio lots of twinkly lights, and candles for outside dining/living! But that is for another day!

Spent an hour rearranging the furniture – it is so odd to have your sofa on the covered terrace but non the less open to the elements! Will probably try a few combinations before I am happy ….. even in so small a space. I reckon “my little yellow house” is 23 feet by 11 feet, and painted the same yellow inside and out!

So, having no food I shot down to the shops (well the Bodegona – our only “supermarket” cum departmental store! For supplies, came back only to find that the was an omission from the lovely “Celeste” no pots or pans with which to cook, so had coffee and biscuits for supper. No hardship really.

Now Antigua is a small place and I normally bump into somebody I know on a shopping trip ….. Friday morning I dropped the agent a quick call to say about the pots and pans and the fact that the cable TV didn’t work. “No problem it will be fixed” ….

I have decided to spend the Q.1400 (£110) I saved on my budget last month on a few “luxury” items so after a few errands for the Arts Festival I was free from 11:00 – 15:00 to do a little shopping, and of course ran straight into Celeste and her husband out buying my pots and pans! It is very interesting but “quality” items here are VERY expensive Celeste paid the best part of £75 on a fry-pan, a saucepan and a casserole pot – outrageous given the average wage here. I bought a kettle (well actually a water heater with a thermostat including “boiling” still trying to work out why you would want to heat water to warm only and then keep it warm …. Anyway the kettle was £10 (a bargain) and I also purchased a liquidiser essential for soups and salsas (£35 negotiated down from £45) so along with some plastic food containers and more foodstuffs have started to equip my kitchen. Am debating whether or not tpo buy an electric oven, as my own means of cooking here are 4 gas rings (Guatemalan traditional food is all cooked on the hob – and I think £50 is a lot to pay for the occasional roast potato!) But I shall probably buy a toaster. I have an iron!!! A real luxury item!

I want to live basically and simply but some items are just so necessary. I may be a single electric ring (£10) as that can be controlled better than the gas hob which does not really have a simmer level of flame, stews and suchlike are a big staple here.

Anyways enough kitchen talk. So my little yellow house consists of “A habitación, a cocinar and a baños” plus a terrace. The habitación, is my bedroom come study, the kitchen need some thought yet, (oops back to kitchen talk) but has an area where the sink and washing machine (a REAL luxury – it’s a top loader with a was and spin facility and a huge capacity).

Am already contemplating some decorating maybe around Christmas- I have a new sideboard currently in the habitación – but likely to move to the kitchen Celeste sent her “boy” (30 married 2 kids) round to wax it ready for use and he said that he would happily some and do the painting for me in the evenings to earn some extra dosh.

Can’t begin to tell you how lovely it is just to make a pot of coffee and to sit on the terrace and simply contemplate or walk round the garden pick an orange of two and just “be”. Sadly I don’t see the volcanoes from my garden as it faces north but down here in the tropics the sun is so high in the sky it is in the garden by 8 and still shining ion the garden at sunset around 6. And I am actually lucky it does not come full force on the house (or will be lucky Feb – May when it is really [relatively] hot and dry here).

Oh yes, my other luxury I am contemplating is to by a terracotta “ecofilter” for the water as I don’t wish to buy the great big bottle of “agua pura”- when filtration through terracotta works as well if not better! It will cost around £35 pounds but pay for itself in a year! And looks so cool as well as being environmentally friendly!

Well I think that’s it for tonight – tomorrow Sunday I will tell you about today’s Arts Festival ………… been up since 6 the church of San Franciso is about 200 yards away and the first “peel” of bells ~ don’t think grandsire triples it’s 2 bells one “cracked” so clang-thunck, clang-thunck, clang-thunck (at the whim of a no doubt rancorous but devout ancient bell ringer!) …… it is the most popular church in Antigua and contains the shrine of Peter of Saint Joseph Betancur (Santo Hermano Pedro). Still it means I am up in time for the first rays of the sun to hit the end of the garden, cup of fresh Guatemalan coffee in hand! So every thunck has a silver lining!

Planning a nice day at home and in the garden, after a trip to La Bodegona (Antigua’s the other shrine - this time to the God of retail!) for sponges, polish and some plugs so I can start to decorate my terrace yes, lots of twinkly lights at £1 per box! Well Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without loads of twinkly lights …….! So far I have white, red and purple; they come with a music box and change in time to the tune! J But I shall not be having the music as it is indescribably awful! What do you expect for a £1!

A few pictures of the arts festival as a taster!