After work today, I headed to the big Waldo and Ley on Ejército Mexicano to get some household things as well as groceries.

I stopped at the bank first and discovered that the exchange rate is just getting worse when I only managed to squeeze $4,600 out of the ATM, instead of the $4,800 I was taking out each time I went in November… For once, there was no wait for a teller so I could change my bills, and the one I got was very impressed that I had a Post-It note laying out how many of what denominations of bills I want.

Waldo’s had nearly everything I wanted and a few things I hadn’t realised I could get there. Love shopping there. It’s like Dollar Tree!

By this point, it was very late and I wanted food!  I was looking forward to pizza at Rin Rin, but they were out when I got there so back to the Chinese place I went. This time, I got a server who was very sympathetic to my not being a native Spanish speaker and she spoke slowly and did a lot of pointing and pantomiming, which was appreciated, if not entirely needed. They were out of hibiscus water, so I tried their ‘lime tea,’ which was bizarre… I also tried a new main, pork with veg and potatoes, and it was pretty good (liked the hint of lemongrass), but not as much as the mango chicken since some of the pork was gristly.

Look what I came across in the Ley parking lot:

Those are Christmas trees, folk. And right there, in the sweltering heat of Mexico, I was transported back to a northern forest, the sharp scent of pine in my nose and the crunch of snow under my feet. It was unexpected and delightful. It did not make me ‘homesick’ one bit, but it did make me realise that much as I love my rolling Prairie hills, I do miss the black pine forests and granite cliffs of the Canadian Shield.

I did an epic grocery shop (dropping $1,200 at one time!), including taking advantage of a 3 for 2 sale on wine (which, spoiler alert, was a bit sweet but delicious!), so I was loaded down to go home and willing to accept any help I could get. I’d also been up since 4:00 a.m., so I was eager to get home. But it was an odd sort of day. I waited forever to cross to Maz on the lancha, long enough that I could have practically walked to the bank from the embarcadero between the time I bought my ticket and the time we actually took off. Well, on the way home, I learned that those tracks separating the parking lot from the ticket booth and dock are actually in use!

There was a very, very, very long train chugging along very slowly, making that sound trains make (cue ‘Folsom Prison Blues’). The wait by the time I got there was 10 minutes, and someone said she’d been waiting for 10 minutes before I showed up and she hadn’t seen the beginning of it!

The package carrier guy took the opportunity to tease me about my very heavy and clinky bag, asking if I was hooked on Mexican tequila. I told him about the wine sale and that I’d also stocked up on beer. “Oh, you have all the essentials, then,” he replied in heavily accented English with a twinkle in his eye. I did, seeing as I’d also cleaned out Ley of its plain and roasted red  pepper hummus. 🙂

I did a bit of impulse shopping today, remedying some impulse shopping from several years ago, when the size and price of this really dull bath towel overrode my common sense about buying something so bland:

It’s not too bad in my colourful Miranda, but here it is pretty much the same colour as the floors. 🙁

By the way, I rented the house through photos I’d seen and in them, it was painted with bright colours. But by the time I got here, it had been painted bright white because my landlady realised that “Canadians don’t like colour.” 🙁 I told her she could paint with colours for me if she painted over the summer, but in the offer chance that I wasn’t going to come, she went with white again. At least, I got the purple and yellow curtains in the kitchen!

But I digress. Ley was having a sale on towels and when I saw this, I just had to have it:

It goes with the lime green walls in the bathroom (a colour I normally dislike, but, in this house, it’s like an oasis in the desert), as well as with the blues in the office. It’s just so bright and beautiful and now I’ll smile when I go into the bathroom instead of staring at more beige!

The only further purchases I want to make are a few area rugs. I’m glad to be spending a little money on the casita this year. Last year, the purchase of a terrible computer chair was really the only expense I could afford at first, and then it was too late for it to be worth buying anything.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say the house feels ‘homey,’ but this year it’s comfortable and a bit softer around the edges, and that’s a huge improvement! I still can’t believe my landlady listened to my suggestion and because of that, I had a comfy place to sit down tonight, put my feet up, and enjoy some vino!