19.7.02006
Gidday Mates!
How's your week treating you? More ups than downs I hope!
Friday night was a 'gem'. I finished work at 8:15pm & the mother of one of my students gave me a lift to the supermarket close to home. Unfortunately it was all out of what I needed so I caught a taxi to the next one (it was bucketing down with rain). Purchases rapidly made, I nipped out expecting to grab one of the many taxi's permanently stationed outside. In the immortal words of Homer Simpson "Doh!" The taxi rank was empty and there were at least 30 groups waiting ahead of me. Quick calculation completed I guessed I'd be waiting at least 3-hours before my turn.
"Blow that for a game of soldiers at this time of night!", I thought.
For a fleeting moment I considered catching the bus then decided there was no point cos I'd still have 3 blocks to walk home. Gamely, & possibly naively, I started walking, thinking I'd hail a taxi on the way, but if worse came to worst I'd be home in an hour on foot.
Unbelievable! In the 3 km's I walked, I saw only 6 taxis. Usually they're wall-to-wall. The 1st 3 were full. By the time 2 empty ones were spotted I was so dripping wet they wouldn't stop for me..the brutes! I was getting a bit nervous by then as the lightning was popping directly above me in all its blue glory. The next taxi I saw was empty too..unfortunately for him I caught him at a red light. He didn't want to let me in, & it took all my powers of persuasion to convince him..I finally won out when I showed him that although I was drenched & dripping on my front half, the back half was dry. Plonked into the back seat & feeling relieved, he screamed off at a great rate, breaking all speed & road rules in order to get rid of my soggy self ASAP. Once he'd delivered me to my gate & collected his fare, he couldn't resist twisting round to check the condition of his back seat, & was gratified to find it dry. I popped through my front door envigorated by a refreshing soaking & successfully negotiating a ride home.
The rain continued all night and throughout Saturday.
Saturday morning my students took me to Sanbornes for a 2-hour 'English over coffee' lesson. Sanbornes is considered one of the 3 best places to go for coffee. It's simply filtered & as weak as a newborn kitten! Still, it's better than instant and as I haven't had coffee for months now it was a real treat. I'd planned to blinfold the boys for the 1st hour to hone their listening skills but Paco was full of the 'flu & I didn't think it would be fair.
Lesson over, Paco offered to drive me wherever I wanted to go. I declined his generous offer, preferring to head home, curl up on my bed with my e-book (The Count of Monte Christo..I had to delete Gulliver's Travels; what a YAWN that book is!), some chocolate & apples, & to read and snooze the day away. Heaven on a rainy day!
And snooze I did! I was amazed when I woke up & found the day had disappeared; it was after 6:30pm and I was still feeling shattered.
I stumbled out of my room to find the accountant sitting in his office & showing no signs of moving. I transferred my lappy to the kitchen where I could read some more & eat up a storm.
Midnight rolled around & the accountant was still here. I started puffing out a few irritable sighs. He was crowding my precious 'alone time'.
At 1:30am I appeared at his office door & told him to "vamos!" I finally got rid of him close to 2:15am.
The weather was still manky on Sunday so I repeated Saturday's indulgent & lazy performance.
4:30pm & the accountant rocked up again. "No!" I said. "All I ask is one day each week to be left entirely alone, now go!" I surrendered the battle in the end. He left after 10pm.
The ridiculous thing is that he invaded my space all weekend, but has nothing to do this week because of it.
Monday brought me my reward for an invaded weekend; back home by 8:30pm & yeeeeha!, the accountant was already gone for the day.
Uh-oh..no I wasn't alone. A massive flying cockroach & I played squealy cat & mouse for a couple of hours before I beat it into fatal submission. Just to be sure, I dumped a heavy archive box on top of it.
I had a meeting with Marifer's mother this afternoon. I was quaking in my boots. No need..she's quite happy for me to continue the informal 'chat' sessions now that she's seen the homework I set.
Earlier in the day I was walking back to the office/home from a lesson & spotted a chihuahua puppy playing in the window of a florists. I'm not a big fan of chihuahua's, but this little guy was so small & cute I had to stop & play with him through the window. Not good enough, I went inside. The owners had been watching & immediately uncaged the little man. I picked him up & he snuggled into me. MELT! We played for a while & then I left.
Striding down my home street I spotted the really pretty little kitten that lives up the road from me. We played 'You can't catch me, but I want you to'" for a while.
Tuesday, the day I have an early lesson & a horrid cold shower. How pleasing..no water in the tank! Once I'd performed the mandatory fight with the pump & the water started flowing, I got to have an even colder shower, given the water is pumped from an underground tank.
Joel finished with, Jorge arrived to collect me for his 3-hour (groan) lesson. I don't believe in lesson's lasting longer than 90-minutes max. It's too exhausting for both the teacher & the students..& especially when it's a 1:1 ordeal, which is what it is with Jorge.
Some respite today..half way through, Jorge had to stop for a business meeting with his lawyer, another bloke & HIS lawyer. The 2 lawyers & the other guy were dressed like Mafia Dons (an unusual sight here).
Holy Tamoly! Such passion! So much shouting & gesticulating! How nervous was I when these men erupted from their seats in their fury? Really bizare when all this was interspersed with jocularity. Jorge & his lawyer 'vanquished the enemy'. It was a very interesting performance for me to observe whilst sitting behind a spare desk in a corner & pretending to read my Lonely Planet Mexico guidebook. The 'enemy's' lawyer wasn't fooled; he kept catching my wide open mouth & even wider eyes.
The lesson resumed but with an unanticipated change of focus. Jorge, still full of adrenaline, 'interrogated' me. "How long have you been away from home? How long are you going to do this for? When do you plan to return to NZ? Where are you going next? No, not there, you should go to this place! Will you return to Mexico?"
Just as time was up Jorge received a phone call from his wife, Ceci. More drama, but this time a tragedy. Ceci's best friend, on her way to the hospital to deliver her baby, had died.
I've been asking myself all day how a woman can die giving birth in the 21st Century. I know Mexico's considered a 3rd world country, but this is supposed to be a civilised & educated city I'm living in.
Due to the unexpected turn to the lesson with Jorge, I arrived 15-minutes late for Marifer's lesson. Today's lesson with Marifer involved bathing her little dog, Cuca.
Cuca's a cute little 'motorised slipper' of indeterminate breed. She's absolutely filthy & has dreadlocks Bob Marley would've been proud to sport!
Until today Cuca has waited for me to get myself settled at the table before coming to leap into my lap & give me cuddles. Today she was leaping & pawing at me from the minute I walked through the gate. I needed that attention & distraction.
I don't think Marifer was particularly looking forward to the bathing exercise, & she was certainly rougher than I thought necessary, but I was determined Cuca would receive some long overdue personal hygiene & grooming. Cuca took it all in her stride, although she did try to escape a few times.
Her body & legs were washed with soap, but her "hair" was treated to the luxury of some conditioning shampoo I'd brought along with me.
What a hoot when she'd dried off & was brushed. Not much change to the terrible state of her body & legs, but the hair on her head was outrageous! The conditioning shampoo had worked magic..all soft & unmatted, & seriously fluffy! Marifer's description.."She looks like a crazy rock 'n' roll chick!"
It's true..she did! Actually, she looked like she could join Rod Stewart in his good old days without a 2nd glance.
After such a traumatic experience I expected Cuca to hold a grudge against me. Nope..she was all over me like a rash. Bless her little fluffy head! I took a couple of photos of Cuca & Marifer.
From there to a 2-hour meeting with Rene to discuss some timetable changes & 'issues'..aka "I'm really ticked off..my camera's been damaged by either you or the accountant..I know both of you have been in my room when I've been out teaching!"
I haven't touched my camera for a couple of weeks, & when I pulled it from its pack today I found the casing bent out of shape. I value all my possessions, but my camera & lappy are the most prized & savagely protected. Luckily for all, the camera's still working.
Even more bent out of shape than my camera, I'm having a lock put on my bedroom door tomorrow.
Back to home; oh heaven, oh bliss, it's only 6:15pm & the place is locked up & deserted!
It's occurred to me today that perhaps I should've become a pet psychologist. As much as I get a kick out of meeting new people & learning about their culture, it's the furry beasts that really make me feel happy at the moment.
For me, there've been a couple of downs this week, but the ups far outweigh the downs. I AM worried about Ceci though. I emailed a friend of hers tonight who lives in Mexico City, asking her to call Ceci.
Eternal power to 'fur therapy'!
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