Hi Everyone,
OK my worst day in BA was last week when I spent most of the morning making futile phone calls to banks trying to release money from one bit of plastic to another - all without success - and all very expensively from an Internet Cafe - being put on hold when you are watching the pesos tick round is a very frustrating exerience.. I was so cross I gave up and will try again this week. Luckily I do have access to money on one piece of plastic that still works so am not penniless in BA. As I was heading off to a Tea Dance to cheer myself up, I was asked directions by a young lad as I entered the Subte. He then continued chatting to me on the train - all very fascinating as he had travelled a lot and spoke quite good English. I nearly missed my stop. As I came up onto the pavement I was just thinking how rich and varied my life was, when I realized that my camera was no longer in its case on my belt. Was he the distraction while his partner stole my camera? I shall never know but all I can say is that they were incredibly skilful. It was attached to my belt and they had to remove it from its case which was on my belt.
The saddest thing for me, which I am over now, was that I foolishly hadn`t downloaded any of my photos - so that`s 2 months of Buenos Aires - gone! Some people just learn the hard way. I have since had fun in a police station with a very sullen constable. My spanish came sharply into focus as I tried to exlain the situation and ask him to give me some verification of the theft for the insurance which he has now done.
Anyway I continued to my Tea Dance feeling decidedly down in the dumps to find that there were loads of women and not many men in sight - not what I needed. I later found out that La Boca was playing River. The finals of the Inter Barrio Football Tournament so all the men were glued to televisions either at home or in every cafe in the city - or actually at the match. Bloody football! A day I would rather forget!!
It`s made a difference this last week meeting Johann, a colourful guy from Shri Lanka. We met at a Tea Dance and have just hung out together, trying different milongas and sharing the odd meal. He has now returned to London as it was just a short trip for him. The next time we meet it will no doubt be on a London dance floor.
The Musicality course that I am doing with Joaquin is fascinating and given me a completely new slant on how to interpret music. It feels like learning to drive a car again. Not only do I dance and listen to my partner and his lead, but now I also can interpret more fully what the music is saying to both of us. It will take a while for this all to filter through but he is a very knowledgeable and skilled teacher. I have given him your e-mail Tony as he has recently published a book on Musicality and would like to do some workshops (partly to promote it) in England and wondered if our area would be a good place to start.
I saw a Hibiscus bush to die for today. It had hug pillar box red flowers and was fiercely proud of itself, almost challenging me to defy its beauty. The Jacaranda trees are startlingly blue but there is a softness and a mist about them - this Hibiscus tree had none of those qualitites - it almost set me on fire as I drew near it.
I had my best ever Milonga last night at Canning. I went with a sense of anxiety as it has not been good for me in the past but some of the Musicality group were going so I thought I might as well try again. Different nights are run by different people and I think this was a neighbourhood night. Slow start but some very lovely dances and I ended up dancing with Carlos till they put the chairs on the tables at 2 a.m. This was utterly surprising - no guarantee next time but does restored my sense in my ability to dance - but also that nothing is set in stone. I also lost my purse that night but someone handed it in to the bar - not that I ever carry much money - but it was good to know people are honest. I also sat on a table with a delightful New Yorker who was trying to tell me her life story as I was desperately trying to cabaceo guys.
Penny, I meant to tell you that your lovely turquoise zip bag you gave me, is my shoe bag in BA, so you are never very far from my thoughts and Suesissima the lovely skirt you bought me in that little London market is definitely my favourite here.
I am sure there`s loads else to say but that will be next time.
Much love to you all
Sal xxx
Monday, 22 November 2010
Monday, 15 November 2010
Bits and Pieces 15th November 2010
BA is swarming with black and yellow taxis - they are everywhere - even when you want them! They outnumber private cars with ease. However today when I walked up my road looking for a shoe shop I realized that they come here to this leafy suburb to sleep, to eat, their owners dust them and love them. Time out with TLC for the taxi wasps that buzz and swoop through the calles and avenidas of BA, seeking, always seeking in a waspish sort of way. These yellow and black creatures never seemed to rest - their secret's safe with me!
At La Ideal (which is where I have been T dancing for the last 3 days with much more success) is palacial and beautiful - it has an average loo - but the loo attendant sits on her chair with this large door half open. She cannot see out from where she sits but on the door is this handsome mirror which reflects the dance floor to her. It reminded me of the Lady of Shalot except this lady was dealing in loo paper and not weaving at a loom. I tried to explain the story to her in my faltering Spanish - we laughed a lot but I am not sure if she understood anything. Hey ho!
A friend of Elsa's invited us both to a BBQ the other night which was great. Held in a house with the longest tiled entrance hall I have ever been in. Stairs then spiralled up to the sky passing different floors all with balconies overlooking the main couryard. We were on the roof. Huge chimney with an enormous grill on which beef was cooking when we arrived. I was a bit nervous because my Spanish is still not brilliant but there were also 4 Russian girls 3 of which spoke English and no Spanish. So we comprised 4 Russians, 3 Spanish, 1 English and 1 Portuguese, so languages were spinning round the table depending who was talking to who. All very fascinating. We went on to a Milonga afterwards at Club La Independenzia (I think). We stayed until the end and Elsa and I walked home in bright sunshine at 6.30 a.m. begging media lunas from a bakery on the way.
Tony, I am waiting to hear from Joaquim again to see if I am in this week-end. We have been in touch
Much love and hugs to you all
Sal x
At La Ideal (which is where I have been T dancing for the last 3 days with much more success) is palacial and beautiful - it has an average loo - but the loo attendant sits on her chair with this large door half open. She cannot see out from where she sits but on the door is this handsome mirror which reflects the dance floor to her. It reminded me of the Lady of Shalot except this lady was dealing in loo paper and not weaving at a loom. I tried to explain the story to her in my faltering Spanish - we laughed a lot but I am not sure if she understood anything. Hey ho!
A friend of Elsa's invited us both to a BBQ the other night which was great. Held in a house with the longest tiled entrance hall I have ever been in. Stairs then spiralled up to the sky passing different floors all with balconies overlooking the main couryard. We were on the roof. Huge chimney with an enormous grill on which beef was cooking when we arrived. I was a bit nervous because my Spanish is still not brilliant but there were also 4 Russian girls 3 of which spoke English and no Spanish. So we comprised 4 Russians, 3 Spanish, 1 English and 1 Portuguese, so languages were spinning round the table depending who was talking to who. All very fascinating. We went on to a Milonga afterwards at Club La Independenzia (I think). We stayed until the end and Elsa and I walked home in bright sunshine at 6.30 a.m. begging media lunas from a bakery on the way.
Tony, I am waiting to hear from Joaquim again to see if I am in this week-end. We have been in touch
Much love and hugs to you all
Sal x
Friday, 12 November 2010
Tantrums and T Dances
Elsa and I went to a huge milonga last night arriving late - sorry I can't remember where but it was further out than normal, maybe in Belgrano. Smart, very crowded, Comme It Faut shoes on sale and tempting clothes in the ladies cloakroom. We hadn't booked a table so stood for about half an hour till one became free - well I did while Elsa danced! Very crowded dance floor with minimal movement from anyone which was fascinating. At one point Elsa was asked to dance by two guys at the same time. After about 2 hours without a nibble of an invitation I was thoroughly demoralized and VERY pissed off. I do want to make it clear that this is nothing to do with Elsa and don't begrudge her all the dances in the world but definitely need to find my niche here in BA and I think it is entirely different from Elsa's. She does lead and will willingly lead but it is not acceptable in quite a few of the milongas so she can't help me. This is a very macho world on the dance floor. However there are other milongas - the gay one was great and anyone could lead anyone - and did!
So I changed my shoes and headed out the door. The Maitre de was seeing people into taxis so I waited on the steps with a well dressed charming man. It was now about 3 a.m. I suggested taking a bus and he said it was too dangerous. The Maitre de said it was fine so she found me another charming man to accompany me to the bus stop and to wait with me until colectivo 60 arrived. Colectivos cost about 25p wherever you are going and the taxi would have cost me about £6/7. I love the spanish word for bus because that is what it does - collects people! We waited for at least 20 minutes before the colectivo arrived and he then spoke to the bus driver to get me as close to home as possible. What a sweet man. However the bus driver obviously was not as knowledgeable as a taxi service and was restricted to his route. He kept stopping the bus (not at a stop), left the engine running and popped into a shop to buy something, or chat to a friend. I realized afterwards that he was trying to find out how he could get me as near to my home address as possible. In the end he dropped me in the south of Palermo - I live in the north, so I still had quite a distance to go. However he left me in the hands of another charming man who escorted me across the road and hailed a taxi for me. It was half the price it would have been as I was over half the way home. OK the men on the dance floor have often been less then chivalrous but that night the men of BA were gentle, sweetnatured and concerned that I should get home safely - they restored my faith in humanity.
I have decided to experiment with T Dances and have been to the same one twice. Once with a friend, Apricot from Oxford, and today I went on my own - from 4 p.m. - 8.30 p.m. It is Confiteria Ideal - marble pillars, marble floor and a place with wonderful atmosphere of a passed era. OK so most of the portenos on the floor are, at least, over 70, except for Roberto who is probably late 40s/50s and has taken rather an embarrassing shine to me - Apricot says I should only dance with him once or else he will get the wrong idea - it was ever so! But I was on the dance floor most of the 4 hours with guys of all standards - some do the Boa Constrictor dance and you can hardly breath, others tell you how to dance in the middle of the dance, others are good - they all have their very unique version of the salon tango in differing degrees of ability. It was a fun experience for me cabaceoing left right and centre with guys who were happy to return it. So maybe I just shouldn't set my sites too high. But I did chuckle to myself as I watched the beginning of a tanda as one of the more ancient portenos tottered across the floor to invite a muchacha to dance - should I have bought my zimmer frame?
These descriptions have been the two extremes of tango in BA - maybe I can find a middle road.
Muchos abrazos a todos mis amigos
Sal x
The blue Jacaranda trees are flowering in nearly every street now and I love them!
So I changed my shoes and headed out the door. The Maitre de was seeing people into taxis so I waited on the steps with a well dressed charming man. It was now about 3 a.m. I suggested taking a bus and he said it was too dangerous. The Maitre de said it was fine so she found me another charming man to accompany me to the bus stop and to wait with me until colectivo 60 arrived. Colectivos cost about 25p wherever you are going and the taxi would have cost me about £6/7. I love the spanish word for bus because that is what it does - collects people! We waited for at least 20 minutes before the colectivo arrived and he then spoke to the bus driver to get me as close to home as possible. What a sweet man. However the bus driver obviously was not as knowledgeable as a taxi service and was restricted to his route. He kept stopping the bus (not at a stop), left the engine running and popped into a shop to buy something, or chat to a friend. I realized afterwards that he was trying to find out how he could get me as near to my home address as possible. In the end he dropped me in the south of Palermo - I live in the north, so I still had quite a distance to go. However he left me in the hands of another charming man who escorted me across the road and hailed a taxi for me. It was half the price it would have been as I was over half the way home. OK the men on the dance floor have often been less then chivalrous but that night the men of BA were gentle, sweetnatured and concerned that I should get home safely - they restored my faith in humanity.
I have decided to experiment with T Dances and have been to the same one twice. Once with a friend, Apricot from Oxford, and today I went on my own - from 4 p.m. - 8.30 p.m. It is Confiteria Ideal - marble pillars, marble floor and a place with wonderful atmosphere of a passed era. OK so most of the portenos on the floor are, at least, over 70, except for Roberto who is probably late 40s/50s and has taken rather an embarrassing shine to me - Apricot says I should only dance with him once or else he will get the wrong idea - it was ever so! But I was on the dance floor most of the 4 hours with guys of all standards - some do the Boa Constrictor dance and you can hardly breath, others tell you how to dance in the middle of the dance, others are good - they all have their very unique version of the salon tango in differing degrees of ability. It was a fun experience for me cabaceoing left right and centre with guys who were happy to return it. So maybe I just shouldn't set my sites too high. But I did chuckle to myself as I watched the beginning of a tanda as one of the more ancient portenos tottered across the floor to invite a muchacha to dance - should I have bought my zimmer frame?
These descriptions have been the two extremes of tango in BA - maybe I can find a middle road.
Muchos abrazos a todos mis amigos
Sal x
The blue Jacaranda trees are flowering in nearly every street now and I love them!
Monday, 8 November 2010
Raining and Dancing in BA
Hi Everyone,
Had a few technical hitches this end like no Internet Access for 2 days and also unable to recall my password correctly so that took a bit of sorting out in Spanish! I seem to have a mental block about such things so have written it large where I can't fail to find it. My Spanish feels like it has slipped as now I am living with Elsa and we talk English all the time which in some respects is lovely and in other ways is sad. Palermo, where the little apartment is, has a whole different feel to it than Solis where I was living before. Solis was very near the centre, close to Plaza de Congresso, and I felt like I was involved in life in the city. Up here is is full of leafy avenues, still bad pavements, very little rubbish and hardly any poor sleeping rough. The apartment is perfect.
Elsa is on a tango mission, which interestingly I am not so much. Or maybe it is just the hours that she keeps that I can't cope with. She will always be returning from the early morning milonga at about 7 a.m. where I have maybe not gone to the second one or dipped out by 3.00. She knows a few people here which is great for both of us but I do feel a bit like the shaggy shetland pony tagging along with the thoroughbred. She is very dark and could easily be mistaken for an Argentinian tanguera, dances beautifully and is at least 15 years younger than me. She is never off the dance floor whereas there can be some milongas where I am rarely on it! The places where the milongas are held can be stunningly beautiful, extraordinary, like film sets in wharehouses, scruffy rooms with awful floors, very formal with a organizers in charge who show you to your table and that is where you sit - no changing or swapping even if in a bad position. The standard of dancing at most of them is fantastically high and I have never seen so many great leaders. It is an absolute joy to watch them, although I would rather be dancing with them, but that is rarely an option - fabulous musicality and poise. The Milongas so far we have been to for those who would like to know are: Chachirulo, several times, El Beson, several times, La Glorietta which is outside under a huge bandstand, Canning which is big with a wonderful photo on the wall from one side to the other with a milonga in session, Konex which is an art centre in what appeared to me to be an enormous old bus station/film set, half outside and half inside. I am going to a T dance this afternoon to try another option to very late night dancing at somewhere called Conf.La Ideal which is an old old building with marble dance floors and chandeliers and was at its height in the Golden Age of Tango so that will be fascinating. It is all fascinating and have only had one evening where I just went home early because I couldn't take the wallflower element - in tears!
I am having lessons now with Hector who has been very good for me. The sad thing is that I don't get to practice as I am not on the dance floor enough. I suspect that those who went to the Mango have probably danced more than me, in your one week, than I have in the 10 days I have been in Palermo. My lessons are in a huge old Buenos Aires house with one of those wonderful old lifts that creak up and down the building with metal concertina doors that you have to slam shut to make the contact. Hector and Silvina are off on tour to Europe soon. If anyone wants to google them their address is www.HectorSilvina.com.ar. I am also joining some classes at DNI which is a well known dance school round the corner. Classes are big but from my point of view it is a way of meeting people. Hey, ho it is all a BIG learning curve.
Still visiting the art galleries and exploring more when I am awake. It feel like I have gone underground and lead more of a nocturnal existence than my first few weeks.
My score on dog walkers is 10 plus the other week-end. Why are the dogs so well behaved in such packs of assorted beasts but they certainly seem to be.
Thanks Tim and Cliff for your comments on my blog - it is really nice to have a response! And thank you too to all those who are emailing me. I am sorry if I haven't replied but I seem to have got a bit snowed under recently.
By the way just for an extraordinary piece of fate I was on television the day that Nestor, the ex President died. I went to the Plaza de Mayo and unbeknown to me the news film camerars were rolling just taking pot shots of the public milling around. Because I have a very colourful jacket I was easily spotted on the news channell by various people at the Spanish School the next day. Famous in Argentina!!!
Yesterday was so hot and today we are in a deluge of rain so you never know what the weather is going to throw at you.
Much love to all of you
Sal x
Had a few technical hitches this end like no Internet Access for 2 days and also unable to recall my password correctly so that took a bit of sorting out in Spanish! I seem to have a mental block about such things so have written it large where I can't fail to find it. My Spanish feels like it has slipped as now I am living with Elsa and we talk English all the time which in some respects is lovely and in other ways is sad. Palermo, where the little apartment is, has a whole different feel to it than Solis where I was living before. Solis was very near the centre, close to Plaza de Congresso, and I felt like I was involved in life in the city. Up here is is full of leafy avenues, still bad pavements, very little rubbish and hardly any poor sleeping rough. The apartment is perfect.
Elsa is on a tango mission, which interestingly I am not so much. Or maybe it is just the hours that she keeps that I can't cope with. She will always be returning from the early morning milonga at about 7 a.m. where I have maybe not gone to the second one or dipped out by 3.00. She knows a few people here which is great for both of us but I do feel a bit like the shaggy shetland pony tagging along with the thoroughbred. She is very dark and could easily be mistaken for an Argentinian tanguera, dances beautifully and is at least 15 years younger than me. She is never off the dance floor whereas there can be some milongas where I am rarely on it! The places where the milongas are held can be stunningly beautiful, extraordinary, like film sets in wharehouses, scruffy rooms with awful floors, very formal with a organizers in charge who show you to your table and that is where you sit - no changing or swapping even if in a bad position. The standard of dancing at most of them is fantastically high and I have never seen so many great leaders. It is an absolute joy to watch them, although I would rather be dancing with them, but that is rarely an option - fabulous musicality and poise. The Milongas so far we have been to for those who would like to know are: Chachirulo, several times, El Beson, several times, La Glorietta which is outside under a huge bandstand, Canning which is big with a wonderful photo on the wall from one side to the other with a milonga in session, Konex which is an art centre in what appeared to me to be an enormous old bus station/film set, half outside and half inside. I am going to a T dance this afternoon to try another option to very late night dancing at somewhere called Conf.La Ideal which is an old old building with marble dance floors and chandeliers and was at its height in the Golden Age of Tango so that will be fascinating. It is all fascinating and have only had one evening where I just went home early because I couldn't take the wallflower element - in tears!
I am having lessons now with Hector who has been very good for me. The sad thing is that I don't get to practice as I am not on the dance floor enough. I suspect that those who went to the Mango have probably danced more than me, in your one week, than I have in the 10 days I have been in Palermo. My lessons are in a huge old Buenos Aires house with one of those wonderful old lifts that creak up and down the building with metal concertina doors that you have to slam shut to make the contact. Hector and Silvina are off on tour to Europe soon. If anyone wants to google them their address is www.HectorSilvina.com.ar. I am also joining some classes at DNI which is a well known dance school round the corner. Classes are big but from my point of view it is a way of meeting people. Hey, ho it is all a BIG learning curve.
Still visiting the art galleries and exploring more when I am awake. It feel like I have gone underground and lead more of a nocturnal existence than my first few weeks.
My score on dog walkers is 10 plus the other week-end. Why are the dogs so well behaved in such packs of assorted beasts but they certainly seem to be.
Thanks Tim and Cliff for your comments on my blog - it is really nice to have a response! And thank you too to all those who are emailing me. I am sorry if I haven't replied but I seem to have got a bit snowed under recently.
By the way just for an extraordinary piece of fate I was on television the day that Nestor, the ex President died. I went to the Plaza de Mayo and unbeknown to me the news film camerars were rolling just taking pot shots of the public milling around. Because I have a very colourful jacket I was easily spotted on the news channell by various people at the Spanish School the next day. Famous in Argentina!!!
Yesterday was so hot and today we are in a deluge of rain so you never know what the weather is going to throw at you.
Much love to all of you
Sal x
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