Sunday April 29, 2018 GoodBye MaryAnn

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

REMINDER: If you are interested in getting the Blogs via email, simply send me an email to aljbourassa@gmail.com and I will add you to a special list in my Blog settings that appears to work, yippeee.  I won’t do that without your permission, and THANK YOU all for your patience and support.

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Sunday April 29, 2018

Because my friend MaryAnn is leaving this week to take up residence in New Hampshire with an old love, we decided to have a brunch, which circumstances changed to lunch.  MaryAnn has been a constant good friend with always good advice, plus she likes to dance, so we see her at OBG regularly.

Just as I was leaving on Buzzer it started to drizzle slightly but I was not about to jump on a bus at that point (I later realized that the buses were awfully scarce on this holiday weekend).  I parked at her temporary residence and we walked over to El Capitan for a delicious lunch of Corvina (Sea Bass) and it was perfection as usual.  Then we took a quick walk over to San Blas square and browsed the tent shops set up around the park, but neither of us were buying anything because we are both leaving town.  

We walked back to where she is staying, grabbed a few things, and walked out to Buzzer, so naturally it started to sprinkle again.  Because of the one-way streets we had to travel at least double the distance to go to the Windhorse Cafe, deliver a few goods and have dessert.  Lucy, the proprietress, was playing Scrabble on her own so MaryAnn asked if she would like a game with us and she readily agreed.  I hadn't played Scrabble in many years and got off to a quick start but the I never did get any tile valued over 4 so my lead was lost eventually and I think I ended up last in a very close game.

As we left there to go back on Buzzer, it started to rain again, this time more seriously.  By the time I dropped off MaryAnn I could see that I was going to get drenched going east but I really had no choice.  There was almost no traffic so I just took an even, steady pace and yes, got good and soaked.  My first stop in the house was in the laundry room.

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

Al

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© All my work is COPYRIGHT protected and may not be used in any way without purchase, or without my permission. 

If you want to borrow a picture to share with family and friends, Facebook or whatever, at least PLEASE give me credit for the photo.

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

Saturday April 28, 2018 Joes' Secret Garden

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

REMINDER: If you are interested in getting the Blogs via email, simply send me an email to aljbourassa@gmail.com and I will add you to a special list in my Blog settings that appears to work, yippeee.  I won’t do that without your permission, and THANK YOU all for your patience and support.

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Saturday April 28, 2018

Since my replacement photographers, Indy and Tulli, are out of town this weekend, Ken and KP asked if I would take the photos tonight for Joes' Secret Garden tonight and I agreed.

The traffic was very light because the President has declared a 4-day holiday culminating for May 1, so most Cuencanos have fled for the country or the coast.  It had rained, and the skies stayed grey, but I took a chance and went on Buzzer (who is starting just fine now).

So the crowd at Joes' was also very small tonight so it was more intimate and very enjoyable.  We had Oldies music in the background and delightfully witty tablemates to sample the Osso Bucco offering tonight.

It was just spitting a little when I left, but I just took my time and made it home safely.

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

Al

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© All my work is COPYRIGHT protected and may not be used in any way without purchase, or without my permission. 

If you want to borrow a picture to share with family and friends, Facebook or whatever, at least PLEASE give me credit for the photo.

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

Friday April 27, 2018 Interview

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

REMINDER: If you are interested in getting the Blogs via email, simply send me an email to aljbourassa@gmail.com and I will add you to a special list in my Blog settings that appears to work, yippeee.  I won’t do that without your permission, and THANK YOU all for your patience and support.

******

Friday April 27, 2018

At the dance on Wednesday my buddy Gustavo had asked me if I would consider doing and interview in English for a friend of his.  Because I was pretty tipsy I just said "Sure", without even asking who, what for, or anything...

The interview was set for today at 12:30 and we met at the Peruvian restaurant at Borrero and Cordova.  My #13 bus stops right in front.  The interviewers were late and they turned out to be 2 University of Cuenca students, about 22 years of age, called Leonela and Irene, who needed to do this project in the aid of English pronunciation.  Each of them were to ask 5 questions (like "what do you like about Cuenca") and do a video from 5-7 minutes.  

The restaurant was much too loud so we went to Gustavo's house, also on Cordova, and set up in the living room, but it soon became apparent that the passing traffic, especially the many buses made that room too loud as well.  So we set up in the kitchen.

After many trial and error tries, Gustavo settled on his little Sony HandyCam because of the superiority of the microphone.  Irene, especially, was painfully timid and shy, so we had to build up her confidence a lot to get her voice loud enough to register.

It is a good thing that I was able to see the questions beforehand and scribble down some crib notes or else I would have been bumbling and fumbling my way through with my poor memory.  As it was, I tried to give full answers, no simple yes or no's, and the video ended up at 8 minutes and 3 seconds.  There was a flub at the beginning that needed to be cropped off anyway, so hopefully they could get it back into the 7-minute+ range.

Then the fun was to try to download the video from the proprietary Sony to a computer (Gustavo had 3 different computers available, maybe more) and that proved to be a complete hassle because either the Sony was not cooperating or it was the computer...  Sony has their own sized memory cards and cables that make using their products a bit of a nightmare.

Anyway, I hope they eventually got it sorted out because I had to leave to be home to await the buyer of Nancy's Canon T3 camera at 5pm.  Naturally she did not show up for the second night in a row, and no courtesy call either.  I contacted the go-between, a photographer named Eduardo, and he said she had opted to buy a Nikon, probably because the boyfriend was a Nikon shooter.  I hate to mention it yet again, but the me-first attitude of Ecuadorians (and most Latinos) wears a little thin after a while.  They don't understand how to respect (the time of) persons other than family...

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

Al

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© All my work is COPYRIGHT protected and may not be used in any way without purchase, or without my permission. 

If you want to borrow a picture to share with family and friends, Facebook or whatever, at least PLEASE give me credit for the photo.

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

 

Irene and Leonola, my interviewers

$300 for this like-new Canon T3 camera kit. - It's a steal...