The perfect water jug

For two years now I have been looking for a certain water jug, I know what it is supposed to look like but just haven`t seen one. Not that I have spent lots and lots of time looking, my attention span is fairly short when it comes to shopping but I`ve just kept my eye open for one. When I have a vision of something I just can't seem to let it go or compromise.....I'm such a geek that way.  

Last week I was in the Golden Zone for a foreign immigration forum...just to make sure I wasn`t getting deported, just kidding. I stepped into a artsy little shop and there it was, my water jug. Exactly the right size, the right color, and the right price, and .... there was only one, just for me. I was so excited. Could hardly wait to get home but I had a few more stops here and there, back to central, visited some friends, walked to another friends, wandered around central and picked up a few things had lunch upstairs in the market and then walked back to the docks....all this, while cuddling my precious clay water jug. Got off the boat and walked home along the beach barefoot, which always feels so good after walking on concrete in the city in flipflops all day. Finally got home and went to put my precious package on the step so I could dig out my house keys and I stumbled....just a wee little stubble on the step, not even really a stumble but my package just tapped the concrete step, it was just a wee tap, but I knew something bad had happened. I wanted to kick my ass...hard. I even called myself stupid in Spanish.(I can do that now) It was with great dread that  I unwrapped my package, I don`t think I even breathed,  yup it was cracked all the way around, the cup that it came with was even cracked. I was so sad and so mad at myself. I schelped this thing all around all day and made it home and then broke it moments before getting it in the house. Stupid is the word. I put crazy glue in the cracks the next morning but it didn`t work. Remember, there was only one in the store. So the hunt begins again. It is still pretty, but it doesn`t hold water, I need it to hold water so that I can stop storing my water in empty plastic yogurt containers. If  any of my Mexican readers see one of these somewhere please let me know. I paid 85 pesos for it and was happy with the price. 

The perfect water jug is now a big paper weight  

The Old Bull

My Mexican sister (sister to my Mexican cousin, and daughter to my Mexican uncle) has a restaurant on the beach called the Viejo toro (the old bull) after my walk on the beach I stop in there for lunch, mostly I am there for the chatting which is good for my Spanish. I order Fish Zarandeado which is amazing. I watch her put a whole fish that looks like it is butter flied (cut in half) on a grill on an open fire, once it's almost done she puts some butter on it, a wee bit of mayonnaise, some bravo sauce, in a sauce pan on the stove she has fried up some onions, tomatoes, peppers with some salt and pepper, she puts that mixture on the fish as well and lets it all roast just a wee bit more...so good, served with rice, beans and tortillas....it was great and all for 80 pesos.

 They weren't very busy so I had a seat in the kitchen which allowed me to see the whole process. This is not a fancy place, not 2 plates are the same, the cutlery is mismatched, all tables and  chairs are mismatched, some tables are built with boards of different thickness so be careful that you don't spill your drink,  floor is sand, there is no hot water (as is standard in most restaurants here) and there is only fish and shrimp on the menu. After I am done eating her mother stops by (my aunt) and I help her wash some dishes, then we sit and chat about how the comasario (the band) is hunting down all the "stoners" on the Island this weekend, they laugh and compare it to the witch hunts from long ago, we discuss everything from recipes, to the price of fish, comfortable underwear (that was interesting) nail polish, all while we are watching her son clean fish, we critic and have a comment about every move he makes (more like heckling)....that is just how it is when you work in front of 3 women. We laugh at her daughter as she is trying to get a peek at the rat in some dudes backpack (don't ask) without letting it out. She squeals and runs away every time the pack moves but keeps coming back with a stick to poke it.

She tells me that she has a reservation on Friday for a huge group of people and a wedding on Sunday, she asks it I want to help...of course I do, I hope I can help her more than I am helping my brick layer, she assigns me to dish washing  I think I can handle that. Mi Tia assures me she has an apron for me. I am told for my pay I can eat as much as I want all day....she doesn't know me, I can pack it away, she might be better off paying me. She has no idea how excited I am. I ask her what words I should brush up on to make communicating little easier, her waiter has a great idea, he says he has something that will make me bilingual by then, and rushes off,  he comes back and proudly presents me with a Spanish/English dictionary....dude, I have 6 of those, one in every size, book size, pocket  size, purse size, big fat desk size that make me really look like a scholar, a kindle version as well. I have all the tools. He looks puzzled at why I am not bilingual by now....I'm puzzled too.

I walk home with mi Tia and we stop at her mother's (grandma) house to drop of a bag of scrap food that we scraped off the plates at the restaurant to give to her chickens. Grandma is 89 year old and still lives all by herself in a fair sized house, in the back yard she has a very interesting chicken farm. I'm intrigued. She has about 20 chickens and 3 big beautiful roosters, most beautiful roosters I have ever seen, and me without my camera. We sit on the front step and chat about, chickens, flowers and plants and about shoes, something about how all shoes these days make her look like a clown...I can see it, 89 year old lady wearing shoes with shiny bows and buckles, bright colors and whatnot, I see her point. Everything here is so blinged up, from underwear to shoes. 

Before we leave I ask her if I can come back with my camera someday, of course I am always welcome. As we walk home we see the people that sell peanuts coming in with a huge truck full of peanuts, we are excited, tomorrow there will be fresh roasted peanuts...the first batch of this season. Before we even get home 2 people stop and tell us that the first truck load of peanuts are in, this is exciting to all. 

I'll leave you with these unrelated photos

Got a pedicure here on the Island, decided to go a little Patriotic with my nails. 

She painted an Island scene on my big toe, she also did a great job of cleaning up my feet, glad I don't have to go to mainland for this anymore. I'll will use her again for sure.

An artsy BBQ

I decided to go with building a BBQ and a brick patio instead of tiling my living room, and instead of putting in some shelving in my kitchen, and instead of finishing the tiling my bathroom....there is so much work that I want to do yet. I feel the outside is more important as that is where I spend most of my time. Where the bricks were going to come from has changed a few times, when the brick were going to get here has changed a few times what the bricks were going to cost changed a few times.  It has been decided that my land lady's son is going to do the work, and my Mexican cousin will supervise. There is a pile of bricks in my yard that were left over from the my new fence that got built this summer and so I get the guy started on the BBQ first while we wait for "other" bricks to arrive.  I draw him a plan and he understands what I want ( I think).

 Then the whole project gets stopped before it has even began because the Island has no water, you need water to mix concrete. As soon as water was back (4 days) on he gets started, I mostly watched, I was going to help but as soon as he started I realize that it was not going to happen like I thought....thing are just done differently here and I have never worked with bricks and concrete or used a thin clear hose with water in it as a level, or used string to square things up, or mixed concrete with the exact amount of gravel, sand and water...it looked a little finicky ( like mixing bread dough) or tapped a brick exactly in the right spot to split it in half, when I was done tapping my brick it shattered into little pieces. I decided to help by sitting on the back steps and asking questions and looking up the Spanish answers that he gives me in my dictionary and run to the store every once in a while for cold drinks, very helpful I was.

 As I am sitting and watching my BBQ take shape I see this project getting bigger, maybe it would be nice to have a shelf above the work space, 2 shelves would look more balanced, and you need a place to hang your utensils, then I think a sink would be nice, one of those beautiful Talavera sinks, how about a built in cutting board, this could be a project that has no end....he thinks I am just being funny, he doesn't know me. Maybe I will build the sink when he is done, I've learned so much about brick laying, I could do it. When he is almost done he tells me that he has never laid a brick in his life until now, he's a fisherman, he says now that he has learned he might built himself a BBQ like this too, I ask if I should help again...he laughs.

Once his work is done mine begins, I need to go into Mazatlan to buy some tile to put on the top of the two ends to make a nice smooth and easy to clean work space. Then I want to put some decorative tile along the edges and I plan on adding some shelves above the work spaces and of course some arty touches like some wall pots with herbs. Still pondering the sink. the end of all this is a ways away yet.

His work is done, now mine begins. 

We start measuring and laying out the string to make where the boundaries of my patio is going to be, I want all the space laid with brick that is not garden space. He pull out his trusty clear hose that is filled with water to see how level the ground is....it's not level at all, of course. He asks if I want it level? Sure I say. Then we will have to haul in lots of sand he says. I try to explain I don't mind if it is not completely level. He asks if I want it wavy, he makes some very dramatic wavy motions with his hands, really steep up and down waves, the kind of waves that would sink a tuna boat. No, I don't want it to be that unlevel, even a drunken sailor would get dizzy walking on that patio. I say I don't mind if it is a little unlevel but not like that...making the waving motion. Then we will need lots and lots of sand he says again. I am thinking he is not understanding what level of unlevelness I am looking for.

 The part of my brain that houses my golf course irrigation stuff gets triggered (thought I had that shut off) and I am trying to eye up the land looking to see where the water will all drain during the rainy season, not that I am here then but I still don't want all my bricks to sink in a sink hole created by a big puddle. I try to explain that I want it all sloped to the back of my property so that the water can run into the jungle in the back, he still keeps making the drunken sailor wavy motions in the air while I am making more of a slow slope motion. Just then his phone rings and it seems his ship has come in, or is ready to leave, either way he is outa here, might be back tonight, if not tonight, possible in 2 months when his voyage his over. He take off, leaves me with string and hose and 1000 bricks piled up in my back alley. I suddenly feel so lonely, he's been my companion for 6 days.

If this project was in my front yard I am sure all my neighbours would be offering to help me. My neighbours across the street got tiles put in their home last week, and it all went down like an Amish barn raising. There was so much excitement and fun, food, music, and laughter, women sitting in plastic chairs in a circle, laughing and chatting (probably heckling the men) and the men working away. Pots, bowls and dishes with food got carried out and in all day. But no one can see into my back yard, I could work away there all day no one would know. I need some Amish friends.

I spend the afternoon moving my string around and daydreaming about what plants I will plant and where. I notice that it would probably be a good idea to paint the house (that was on the to do list too) before I plant plants up against the house....painting is yucky work, I hate painting. Once again, some Amish friends would be nice.

As you can see a coat of paint would really spiff this place up, I plan on planting big plants up against the house of  the right side, would make sense to paint first. 

See my boundary string, lot of room for plants

When I go to bible study that evening I get handed a 400 page book (in Spanish) that apparently I agreed to read last week. I just got through reading "Curious George" in Spanish, it had 12 pages with about 12 words on each page, there is no way I can read this book. Sometimes when I don't know what is being asked I just say yes, I should stop doing that, but saying no sounds so harsh. I think I need to go back to saying "possibly" when in doubt.

The germinated seeds from my papaya today. 

totally off topic, it is so hot here that the seeds in the papaya that I cut open this morning had already germinated in the papaya....seriously. I carefully took them out and put them in a pot of dirt. We'll see what happens.