Monday July 9, 2018 Buying..

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. Even though that does not appear to work again either…...  Google sucks. 

THANK YOU all for your patience and support.

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Monday July 9, 2018

We went later than expected because Miguel had forgotten about a doctor's appointment he had at the same time, but better late than never..  So we signed the promissory note for the new house with a $3,000 penalty if either of us back out now.  I pay 1/2 the purchase amount on July 23 and the balance on the 30th.  Then we wait while everyone plays musical houses and we just might get in before possession date of September 1.  Other than them misspelling my name and missing digits on Cristina's cedula number, the documents looked good.
We then bought everyone a super lunch and confirmed with Miguel that his lawyer is obviously unreliable so we don't want to deal with him...  I contacted Tom in Manizales and got the details of his Visa guru, Luz Dary, in Pereira, so we made appointments to meet early Friday morning at her office, in Pereira.  I have all my documents ready which I am sure will surprise her and I have emailed her copies already.  Everyone here says it is 2 hours by bus but online says 3 hours so I will err on the side of caution.  I have been to Pereira twice before, and I know it is a long ride, not shortened by lackadaisical Latino guesses.
The next order of business was to head to the Transito office.  The car dealer had said that I had to register with the Transito office and give my fingerprints so that I could pick up the new car later.  It seemed patently ridiculous to me that Transito did not ask to see either of my driver's licenses, just my Passport...  The Passport says I know how to change countries, not that I know how to cross the road...  I have to ask the chicken for that information...
Tomorrow are the semi-finals of the World Cup, both at 1pm our time.  I am going to go out on a limb and predict a France-England final.....  maybe once we have gotten rid of the diving teams we can watch some soccer teams in action...

I apologize that I do not even think of bringing a camera when dealing with paperwork.  That was the day’s excitement.

Al

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Saturday July 7, 2018 KIA Picanto GT

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. Even though that does not appear to work again either…...  Google sucks. 

THANK YOU all for your patience and support.

******

Saturday July 7, 2018

We had no plans today except to go test drive a new car and Cristina decided to tag along.  First I felt an obligation to go talk to the guy at the Chevy dealer because he had a link to what I thought was a reasonably priced used Chevy but he kept coming back with an old Renault which wasn't in town for viewing so we looked at new cars.  There was a interesting pair of cars, wrong colours, and missing some items, but worst of all is they offer only a 2-year warranty...!!  It would not leave my head that KIA was offering a 7-year warranty for an equivalent car at a better overall price, because it included many of the comfort features we came to enjoy.  A center armrest may not seem like a big deal at first but it was among the things that made me move up to the KIA Picanto GT series for 2019.  It is loaded, minus automatic, sunroof, and cruise control.  We test-drove the KIA Picanto and it was predictably soft with the 1250cc engine but I am not the speed-demon I once was.  I sacrificed the automatic in the interest of about 18% better fuel economy, especially since we will be residing in the country.  It does have little creature comforts like the center armrest, electric fold-in mirrors (handy for parking in the new garage), back-up camera, fog lamps, signal/clearance lamps in the mirrors, 15" tires (for the urban pothholes), fold-down rear seats, alloy wheels, and much more.

The price even includes the taxes, licence plates and all.

I had not slept well so I probably shouldn't have bit the bullet today like I did, but every niggly detail kept pushing me to choose this model.  They had my color white with red trim right on the floor so we decided to cement the deal so we could get it sooner.

Only when we were in the process of the paperwork did they come back to say that that particular car had already been sold but they had a grey one available.  Thanks but no thanks.  I will wait 2 weeks if necessary to get my white one...  So Monday we have another stop at the Registro to give my fingerprints so that I can properly purchase the car in my name.  Cristina refuses to drive, too nervous at the wheel, car or bike.

The fun began again when I went to leave a deposit using my USD Visa card, and it was refused (a third time in Colombia).  Then my Debit card was refused too...  Somehow, my Canadian dollar Visa was acceptable, thank God.

When I got home I found a phone message from CIBC Visa Fraud Services saying they refused my card for suspicious activity.  I wrote again to CIBC online services for the umpteenth time telling them to stop this BS.  Then I got on the phone to Visa Services and tore a very loud, wide strip off the Toronto idiots for embarrassing me yet again.  I told them to either remove the blocks on my card forever or I will be changing banks, short and simple.  If they can't get their bloody act together and read the notes on my account then they will lose my business after about 40+ years.  Uuuugggghhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Somebody please kick Murphy out of Colombia.

Oh, and still no word on my home sale papers from Ecuador....   No word from the brother-in-law's lawyer either about helping with the Visa application.  No wonder I am completely grey.

The World Cup again went against my predictions today so I guess I was just a flash in the pan....

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.

These photos are borrowed off the internet, much better than my phone attempts.

This is the color scheme

Small car with great reliability record here

I love the electronics on this unit

Lovely comfortable seating with actual headrests

Good visibility as well.. 

Friday July 6, 2018 Closer..

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. Even though that does not appear to work again either…...  Google sucks. 

THANK YOU all for your patience and support.

******

Friday July 6, 2018

Boy!  Did my World Cup streak come to a crashing stop today!  First Uruguay bowed 2-0 to the powerful French team, winners of their last 17 matches, then my cousins from Belgium took out Brazil 2-1!!!!  Now I am in a real quandry whether to pull for France, where my ancestry is, or Belgium because I may have actual relatives in  action…

We got a call that the present owner of the Andalucia house is traveling Monday so we got asked to go back and meet her to see the notary to give the information to help prepare the initial papers today, which we were happy to do. They want to sign this Promise To Buy on Monday at 10 am.  2 weeks later I pay 1/2, then 2 weeks after that I pay the rest, then wait a month while everybody gives notice before we can get the house...  There is a slim possibility that we can get in sooner..

On the sour side, we still have not received our final house sale papers from Ecuador after more than 2 weeks…  Latin American lazy bureaucracy at its finest is causing me no end of problems.  I can't access my money and emails to the realtor and lawyer is not getting any results...  Am I pissed...??  You bet..

On the way home we discussed cars with Miguel because many cars are made in South America but not to North American standards.  Because he says that the Kia brand has the best reliability in SA they give the best warranty at 7 years, 150,000 kms.  So we had a quick look and probably will go back in the morning to test drive one model in both standard and automatic transmissions...  Automatics are hard to come by here, probably because gas mileage is about 17% better with a standard....  In the country it shouldn't affect us much but I have to weigh my dislike of shifting with the need to save money if we decide to go for a new car...  Because I don't have my Colombian residency yet I am not sure what the implications might be.  Regardless, I can't buy a thing until Ecuadorian bureaucrats get off their duffs......

That was the day’s excitement.

Al

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