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Thursday October 22, 2015
Yesterday it was a breeze to get my new Cedula at the Registro Civil. I think I was in & out within 40 minutes...
Therefore I was hoping that things would go as smoothly as we went to begin a new Visa process for Cristina today. However...... we got all our documents submitted but they asked if we could get a new police report from Colombia. I countered with the information that they have the information on file in February plus she has no stamps in her passport showing that she has been out of the country... They still recommended that we order it online, plus make up a letter saying that we want them to accept certain documents, so we came home to try to comply.
They also asked for our original Marriage Certificate and I said that they had taken that from me during the process for my new Cedula, so they went to the other department and swapped a copy for the original. Typical right hand vs left hand BS.
One very pleasant surprise though was that the new Visa only cost $30 for the Mercosur region folks, instead of the usual $250.
We could get the Colomian police report ordered easy enough online, but when we went to pay the $10 fee (31,000 pesos) with my Credit Card it showed that it would only accept a debit from an account in Colombia... Since Cristina has no such account, we made several phone calls to her sister and brother-in-law to use their account. Every time we input some info, the next page would ask for more, ... like a Cedula number, debit card password, a token password, etc. Then, because it had time limits, and we fouled it three times, the bank site would not accept any more tries... After 3 hours I was just burning.... We went back to Immigration, gave them the completed letter and explained the situation and Cristina offered to try another tactic via her sister... Going through all these hoops for unnecessary, and maybe unneeded, documents just burns my ass.
And I got a visit from my ex, Bella, with the wonderful news that our Powers-Of-Attorney are invalid, so we have to do a whole bunch of new Notary and lawyer visits to get our own properties free and clear. That will be next week's headaches....
At 5pm we went to the Hearts Of Gold 2nd Anniversary celebration of being a legal foundation at the MetroCar dealership on Huayna Capac. MetroCar is supplying the Chevy Aveo for our raffle (even though we are paying for it..??) so they hosted the event with some snack food, music, and a model for a photo booth. The turnout of people was disappointing but everybody had a good time. The HoG personnel and the MetroCar folks are to be commended for putting on a pretty classy event.
I didn't expect to have to apologize for these photos, which were taken in RAW format, but unexpectedly my PhotoShop didn't want to accept them from my camera even though my camera is on their accepted list... UGH!!!! More trials and tribulations from upgrading my computer in an effort to sort out problems with a site where I sell my photos. Today RedBubble tells me maybe the problem may stem from using the AdBlock Plus program..... Why didn't those dummies tell me that in the beginning??????? UGH....
One of my sisters had a sign in their home "Every time I think that I can make ends meet, somebody moves the ends..." I sure am feeling this is so true lately.
Late update: I have just been informed that one of my oldest friends, Ray Zotzman, of Edmonton has finally ended his suffering and is finally pain-free. His family now has the incredible chore of sorting through Ray's many collections and dispersing thousands of items. I do not envy them in this task on top of their grief.
I hope you enjoy the photos. That was the day's excitement, Cheers, Al
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| A visit from Andrea The Giant (its a female) |
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| A brilliant sunrise this morning |
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| They had 3 different cakes |
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| The wife and I were happy to attend this event |
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| We have our tickets for the Gala |
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| This is the kind of car HoG is raffling (only 500 tickets!) |
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| Umberto entertaining us |
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| A lovely spacious showroom for the event |
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| People kept arriving right until the end |
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| Part of the HoG family |
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| The photo booth was popular. I wonder why?? |
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| The wives were very watchful, lol. |
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| Dave and his Cuenca Expats Magazine |
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| We were given a tour of the shop area too |
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| People got to show off their soccer skills too |
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| Food and drinks and amiable company |
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| The dealership folks were active |
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| Avalina stayed occupied and scored regularly |
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| The Hog and MetroCar principals |
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| A little closer shot |
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| The 3 cakes are lit with 2 candles each |
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| Did they make a wish each?? |
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| We even had dancing |
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| Many different styles |
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| Lots of moves |
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| Everybody had a dance |
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| Some of us won prizes |
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| All the HoG and MetroCar folks |
