The blogging adventure will continue again once I have moved to Hereford, end September 2022: Tut-tut, chink-chink, 123-123, plink-plink, .........

HAPPY PISCO SOUR DAY (February 2nd) - What do you mean you did not have it in your calendar?

I am well settled in my “summer routine” of giving classes, taking rehearsals and slowly, slowly bring the harpsichord back to life and of course having “me” time …… well, in the last blog the cliff hanger was celebrating three months here in Trujillo, aided and abetted by Nick!

Tut-tut

Well ………………….

The celebration ……………….

El Celler de Cler - My trip advisor review - "they say revenge is a dish best served cold" - bit like the service! - so wish I had thought of that when I wrote ......

"Trujillo Special evening ruined by poor service"

This was my second visit in a month, on the first occasion everything was fine. Last night prices had increased and service had declined. What was planned as a special evening was ruined by poor service, I live in Trujillo and can speak Spanish, the waitress acted as though I was speaking some language from the planet Zog and kept asking my partner to confirm what I had said (he, a Peruano, gave me 95% for my Spanish), we ordered drinks, mains with a salad that we specified we wanted served with the mains. The last time we were there, we had a complimentary appetizer/starter, this time nothing. The waitress also failed to point out that a salad was included in our meal, so I wasted 22 Soles and she at one point tried to serve us with three plates of salad - which were sent back!

The drinks failed to materialize before the salads were brought, we had long since consumed the plate of garlic bread nibbles. 20 minutes no drinks and then three salads! She had forgotten that we had specifically asked for the salad with our main course. She had carefully laid out the cutlery - completely incorrect - why would I need two steak knives to eat pasta?

When the main course arrived, mine looked like it had been sitting around for a while as it had developed a skin on the sauce. We were offered complimentary olives after our meal?????

This is one of the more expensive restaurants in Trujillo, and getting more expensive ..... the service offered does not warrant the price, nor does the quality of the food ..... service 1 out of ten, food this time - 4 out of ten...... ability to ruin an evening 10 out of ten.
This was our last meal at this pretentious restaurant - on leaving the "patron" addressed us as "chicos" (boys) - I am a man of 56! He agreed my Spanish was perfectly acceptable as I told him in Spanish, his restaurant's service was Not acceptable!

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g298444-d2664005-Reviews-El_Celler_de_Cler-Trujillo_La_Libertad_Region.html

As I had the e-mail address of the restaurant I sent them a copy of the review as well as some other comments, I have yet to receive a reply …… I am not holding my breadth! Their loss, so many other restaurants to sample here.

Clink-clink

On a Friday evening Nick and I seem to be developing a routine of a nice drink to celebrate the weekend (I discount my Saturday and Sunday morning work/practice) our favourite place at the moment is a Pisco Bar Viejo de viejos (we go early when it is quiet) the serve the strongest and largest “Black Russians” I have ever drunk – long glass about 1/3 vodka, 1/3 kahlua the other third is ice and a slug of coca-cola! All for a stunning £2.50 (S.10), the only problem is that after the cocktail and a couple of bowls of peanuts we both experience a heightened sense of hunger …… and then have to wander off for pollo a la brasa (flamed grilled half a chicken) and a litre of sangria! But then it is only the start of the weekend once a week! And we really are trying to save some money for Colombia in April.

Every visit to Viejo I do promise myself a “pisco sour” for which the bar is famous but, I so love Black Russians!

123-123

Last weekend the international Marinera dance competition was held and last Saturday the 2012 campeones (champions) celebrated their last day before handing over to the 2013 champions on the Sunday. The celebration was a parade around the centre of town, they were all their, child, youth and adult champions, there seemed to be a category of champion for every need …… over 50, over 60, some dancers were definitely over 80 and I am sure I saw the couple who invented the Marinera back in 18^th century dancing, they even do marinera on horseback!

It was fun, even though I realised I had not put any sun-block on and we were standing in the mid-day sun for well over an hour – well actually, wandering, there was absolutely no crowd control, so you simply wandered into the procession to take piccies etc ….. a little worrying when a horse bolted and a young girl got knocked over by the horses handler, who was more than a little over weight, somehow he managed to avoid squashing the girl as he also fell over.

I love the sheer informality of things here, needless to say the parade was followed by a good lunch. Not expensive but a wonderful fish lunch, ceviche, chiccarones, arroz con mariscos, beer ……

The students and I are really started to get on well, they laugh with me at my Spanish, help me when I am stumped for a word and raise their eyes to heaven when I invent a word – (Spanish-i-fying an English word) – not as crazy as it seems there are some 3000 plus words that are almost exactly the same in both languages – and maybe 60% of the time I hit the nail of the head. (mas o menos)

Plink-plink

The main preoccupation now is the harpsichord, I spent 5 hours yesterday painstakingly cleaning every key with cotton buds, dipped in water with a very little detergent – and then started to tackle the regulation of the action. This involves making small adjustments to the quills which pluck the strings so that each key is plucked at the same moment, thus ensuring an even tone – this involved about 160 small adjustments made to a tiny screw over each quill. But because the instrument has sat unplayed I still have a lot of work to do in countering the effects of humidity and a little warping of the wood.

I am receiving excellent advice from Carey Beebe a harpsichord specialist in Australia, who is familiar with the maker of this harpsichord (made in Japan 2000 by A. Sato), I have purchased a tuning key (called a hammer) a selection of special wire to replace broken strings and some extra quills. At the current moment only one string is broken, but again, these strings have not been adjusted for years and are a little corroded, so I feel certain one or two more may break. I am hoping the parcel arrives by next weekend ……..

So that’s about it for now, went to Huanchaco last night to catch the sunset and realized just how much I really do not like the place, way, way to back-packy for me, half the tourists Europeans and Aussies, looked like a good shower wouldn’t have gone amiss, and being so touristy you are plagued with vendors and the food is overpriced, poor quality and distinctly not Peruvian!

And! ….. they have removed all the rocks from the beach and replaced them with sand, so there is now, no community of Pelicans, but tonnes more space for sun bathing! Not my idea of progress, but the sunset though not a spectacular as the sunset I witnessed from my room on Friday (purples, oranges and deep-deep pinks and fushia shades) was worth the trip.