Souvenir Photo Studio, by Al Bourassa: August 2017

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Wednesday August 30, 2017 IESS/Feria Libre

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Wednesday August 30, 2017

I went to get Cristina's latest chest x-rays and they look good to our untrained eye. More ammunition for her to get the operation she wants. I went on Buzzer, there and back in 1/2 hour which is much more fun than taking 4 buses.

At 11:30 we left to go to Feria Libre to buy entire fish for $1.50 each. She loves to cook these in their entirety but I object to my dinner looking at me. Feria Libre sells almost anything you can carry, especially clothing and food.

We wandered and wandered for 2 hours and my legs feel like rubber, especially when I had to handle the 5 dogs for their pee/poop break as soon as we got home. The good news we found today is that the #15 once again brings us door-to-door with Feria Libre so I am sure that Cristina will once again be visiting more often.

We had some chancho (freshly cooked pork) for lunch which was delicious but Cristina swore off street food after watching the lady going to handling the meat and potatoes with her bare hands, handle dirty money, and then back to the food... Yuck.

Then the wheels fell off the afternoon... I don't know about you, but my God has a wicked sense of humour where I am concerned but he sure saved up a bunch of crap to really push my buttons today...

Frist the computer wouldn't recognize my photo card, the mouse would only work sporadically, then nothing wanted to work... Several restarts and many cuss words later I got it working only to get a message from Jodie at Visa Angels that the Ecuadorian lawyer bald-faced lied to us in that meeting about being grandfathered in on our IESS insurance rates... So I had to get all the documents ready to storm down to the IESS office tomorrow along with friends Mike and Lotis. I just hope that I can keep from yelling at this gal tomorrow like obviously everyone else has... Anything to do with Government in Ecuador is the greatest exercise in patience at the utter idiocy in the way they do all these half-baked things which are discriminatory to say the least.

Then I went to pick up my repaired moccasins. I bought those in Canada from our Ecuadorian shoemaker there and they refuse to wear out, except they are no match for a puppy's sharp teeth. The shoemaker here is very expert and does a very good job but the darn things weren't ready. He doesn't have the leather thongs to finish the job. Grrrr I hate my time being wasted...

Now I am trying to use my PhotoShop presets for saving processing time and they are not carrying forward like usual,.. I have to go request them for every photo again...

I am not making any of this up. This is my day....

Now I just received an email from that Ecuadorian lawyer with the questions and answers she promised and there is a complete new tune being sung. Nowhere does she say that those of us who had our Visa (cedula) and IESS prior to February have nothing to worry about... My faith in lawyers, and pretend lawyers, is totally shaken. If they want to discriminate against us who have pensioner visas then that just may be the last straw.

I hope you enjoy the photos. That was the day’s excitement.

Cheers, Al

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If you want to borrow a picture for sharing with family and friends, PLEASE give me credit for the photo.

NOTE that you may click on any photo for an ENLARGED VIEW.

Hot chicks for sale, $0.25

Wednesdays and Saturdays are the busy days with the freshest stuff

Peter Cottontail is for sale

So is the delicacy called Cuy here

Even kittens

More rabbits

and puppies

Chancho comes from these offerings

Cristina getting her fresh fish

Lots of shrimp and ? tuna?

A tiny bit of the vegetables for sale here

Some do better merchandising than others

Ominous clouds but no rain

Acres of clothing

Row upon row upon row...

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Tuesday August 29, 2017 New Camera

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Please see more of my artworks for sale at my websites: http://souvenirphotostudio.neocities.org/ or http://saccc05.tripod.com/

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Tuesday August 29, 2017

Sunday was a wonderful day of rest that was badly needed after Saturday.

Monday it seems like I spent the whole day on the computer. Everything I touched took so much time. Heck I spent 1.5 hours just composing a short email to the Cuenca Camera Club.

Then I resumed my search for my replacement camera. I had to read a lot of reviews to find a camera in my price range that takes good clear pictures. In the end I decided to stay with Canon and upgrade 4 models from my EOS Rebel T3i to the T7i which is 24MP and has touch-screen, bluetooth, wifi, etc. I kinda needed to stay with Canon so I could use my existing lenses and accessories. I found a kit on eBay for $10 more than just buying the camera body and also found 2 extra batteries because they are different than my existing. Time is of the essence because my mule from Canada is chomping at the bit to be in Ecuador in 4 weeks... But I had to wait to order until my pension got deposited...

Today started off with Cristina giving me another with's brew to drink which is supposed to cure my ills... Oh well, it tasted OK and I managed to get through the day alright.

We have been having trouble with the calefon (on-demand water heater) which has been acting as if on whim, especially when I wanted to take a shower. Finally I called Patricio the plumber (who had bought our old washer) and he came promptly enough and found that the problem stemmed back a couple of years to the day that I almost burned the house down. A couple of wires with the insulation burnt off meant that I had to buy this whole relay system. He ran downtown to get the new components, installed them, confimed everything works right, and it only cost me a grand total of $65.... Aaaah, to have an on-demand shower again...

I ran to the bank to make sure that the money I moved from Canada had arrived and it looked like it got transferred the next day. Yahoo! Because the rates are the most favourable in a long, long, time I moved almost everything. Then I checked that the pension money was in my Canadian account before going through with the eBay order for the camera and batteries. Can't wait to see these new purchases amongst all the stuff we ordered for Cristina.

Then I ran down the block to get my leather moccasins repaired. A few weeks ago Jack had chewed off the back of one of them and also the leather thong that holds it tight. I paid the $3.50 charge and will pick them up tomorrow.

Cristina had fed me lunch with pasta, potatoes and rice and I tried to explain that having 3 starches is not a good thing but it falls on deaf ears. I tried looking quickly online for a definitive explanation of the pitfalls and came up short of anything decent. I'll have to try again later.

Then Cristina got a surprise call and we had a visit from Cecilia and daughter Elisa who we haven't seen since Ken's (of Joes' Secret Garden) birthday. I was hoping that her Italian husband, Alex, might be tagging along but that didn't happen. We had a delightful visit and Cecilia borrowed a few movies from my collection and left us with an invitation to come out and visit their big hacienda on the outskirts of Azogues. Hopefully we will do that some Sunday soon.

I hope you enjoy the photos. That was the day’s excitement.

Cheers, Al

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If you want to borrow a picture for sharing with family and friends, PLEASE give me credit for the photo.

NOTE that you may click on any photo for an ENLARGED VIEW.

Sunday's sunrise

And the accompanying fog over our forest...

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Saturday August 26, 2017 Joes' Secret Garden

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Please see more of my artworks for sale at my websites: http://souvenirphotostudio.neocities.org/ or http://saccc05.tripod.com/

******

Saturday August 26, 2017

Sorry that I am late getting out this Blog but it was a very long night...

First we had a very special, and new, event at Joes' Secret Garden with a Steak Diane Dinner and dance event with the amazing vocal stylings of our friend Lynne Nadeau.

Lynne sang many old standbys that everyone knew, appreciated, and sang along to... What great fun!! Just watch and listen to these 2 videos taken with my phone:

https://youtu.be/VM67JNUoi70 and https://youtu.be/_dFvNB04IUk

Almost every song brought back such special memories for everyone and many folks got up to dance as well.

Combined with the terrific meal served up by Ken under very trying circumstances. An electrical suger the day before had fried the motherboard in his fancy stove, as well as several electrical outlets so he was forced to cook the steaks in cast-iron frying pans on two hot-plates, then had to deal with blowing the breakers a few times... It is amazing that he was able to pull this off.

All in all, a very fun evening at Joes'.

Then I ran off to meet Gustavo to watch the Floyd Mayweather fight which ended up very late so it was much too late to work on this last night.

I hope you enjoy the photos. That was the day’s excitement.

Cheers, Al

******

If you want to borrow a picture for sharing with family and friends, PLEASE give me credit for the photo.

NOTE that you may click on any photo for an ENLARGED VIEW.