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Friday, March 6,
2015
Happy 44th Anniversary to my late wife Patsy. You are missed every day....
Most of my day was spent trying to get control of my music machine in preparation for Tuesday's Oldies But Goodies dance at Villa San Carlos. The laptop tablet kept wanting to jumble the order of my songs until I had to go into each individual song and rename every single one... At least that finally solved the problem. I ran through the entire music selection and I have almost 6.5 hours of music available so we are good to go..... I have confirmed with the venue that everything is good on their end, so now I just need some signage and I am fully ready.
In the evening I decided to go to San Sebas Cafe on the other side of El Centro for a Cuenca Singles dance so I could see if some folks would be interested in my dance on Tuesday. I arrived at 7pm to avoid having to pay the silly downtown parking fees.
Every chair was occupied and Brian Gary was playing his usual fare but the people were not in the mood to dance and there were not many single ladies in evidence so I was not going to stay long. Two ladies indicated that they wanted to attend my dance on Tuesday.
Next to us were Kathy and her boyfriend Tony. Kathy is a linguist, teaches languages, and mentioned that she needed to be at a surprise Birthday celebration at 8pm for the wife of the head of the French team building the rapid transit system here, the TransVia. She asked if I wanted to go and practice my French.., so I said "Sure, why not??" Tony does not speak French so he begged off and walked to his nearby home. Kathy and I drove to this lovely home close to the Totems, arriving at 7:50 and we were the first persons there...
It was planned that there would be several co-workers there but I only saw one other Frenchman with an Ecuadorian girlfriend. Slowly, in typical Ecuadorian style, the rest of the crowd, all mostly Ecuadorian mothers with children in the same school as Alfredo's daughters, showed up late.
It is a good thing that Alfredo (French, but of Portuguese descent, head of the TransVia) had sent his wife off on errands and had made the promise to meet her at Tiesto's, a downtown restaurant. The two lovely daughters had decorated the kitchen and living rooms and Alfredo had someone cater a lot of platters of various foods.
When he called his wife Nezha (of Moroccan descent) with the excuse that he couldn't come to Tiesto's, that he had an emergency at home, he was getting a real earful back from her. After three or four uncomfortable phone calls, she said she was on her way home. In typical surprise party mode, we doused the lights and stood on the sides of the living room, and I was up front with my camera. When Nezha walked in, still berating her husband, her surprise was indeed total! The look on her face was priceless and the "sorry" look she gave Alfredo was touching indeed.
After a few shots I realized that I knew this lady, that I had danced a couple of songs with her at San Sebas on a previous occasion, months ago... I remembered that she had said that she was married and was almost embarrassed to be dancing with another man, but I did not know that she spoke French at that time. This city of 600,000 is getting way too small and I know way too many people...
Anyway, we stayed until a respectable 10pm then I took Kathy back to meet Tony. Some nights just take unpredictable turns and it is sometimes fortunate that I have transportation, and don't have to answer to anyone but myself.....
I hope you enjoy the photos. That was the day's excitement, Cheers, Al
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| 150306 Cuenca Singles- Tony & Kathy |
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| Tony and Kathy were the first to dance |
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| Little guy at the next table liked me... |
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| Some of the crowd at the Cuenca singles event |
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| The little guy's mother danced too |
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| Alfredo and daughter Sophie await Nezha's arrival |
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| The two lovely daughters, ?? and Sophie |
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| These lovely girls pose well |
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| Some roses for atmosphere |
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| The family dachsund |
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| A lot of mothers of kids at the same school |
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| French-Canadian tourist |
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| Total surprise for Nezha |
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| She couldn't believe it |
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| Acknowledgement to Alfredo |
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| A hug from her daughter |
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| Everybody dancing to music |
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| A quick crowd pose (some stayed in another room) |
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| The Birthday girl |
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| A good spread of food for everyone |
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| And a nice punch too |
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| Nezha and two guests |
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| The Birthday girl gets a rose or two |
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| One of the mothers dancing |
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| They all know how to party |
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| Alfredo and Nezha enjoy a dance |
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| Nezha's smile would not leave her face |
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| Everybody got into the act. |
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| Both daughters too |
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| A successful surprise Birthday party. |
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| Frenchman with Ecuadorian girlfriend |
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| Nezha and her daughters |
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| Group dancing was prevalent this evening |
