Origami peace cranes with added “determinations”

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autumn, craft, fall, Japanese peace cranes, seasons

We’re in autumn now, traditionally time for me to reorganise, plan, and find new inspiration out of golden leaves and skies turning dark blue in the early evenings. Call it the “back to school” effect; new stationery and pencil cases, different lessons and schedules. Never mind that everyone went back to school several months ago and it’s April here. I can’t escape the effect a seasonal change has on my outlook. Months on the calendar are less relevant. So, we’re in autumn and I’m reviewing my determinations.

Write your determinations on the paper before folding your crane

My determinations are words enclosed within the origami cranes I made at New Year. Peace cranes created from gold and taupe patterns, a shine of silver. My sister’s idea, something she does every year. Determinations are not New Year’s resolutions (I will lose 10 pounds, I will stop biting my nails etc) but are positive thoughts, intentions or considerations; “determinations” for a life lived more fully. I like to write them in the positive present, even if the ideas are only manifesting themselves in my mind right now. Perhaps… “I am a loving, generous partner”, or “my work inspires me”.

You write your determinations on the blank side of the origami paper square then make the tiny folds so you end up with your crane enfolding and looking after your words. You can open up the cranes and fold them back during the year if you want a visual reminder of your determinations. Or leave the cranes as they are, with words that don’t need to be read but are working away in your life because you have internalized them and let them in.

Summer weather in Buenos Aires

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pets, rain, storms, summer in Buenos Aires, sunshine, temperature in Buenos Aires

It’s been a while since I was last on here and I can immediately see I have a minor obsession with the weather. The last post was about the spring, and here I am talking about summer weather in BA. Well, it’s probably because I’m British. It is indeed a British trait to talk about the climate on any given occasion, which is why “what’s the weather like in BA?” is at the top of my frequently asked questions list.

Looking out over the city from the ecological reserve

It’s mid-January and the temperature hovers between 30 and 32 degrees C; it’s been like this for about a week and that’s pretty normal for a BA summer. We walk slowly, shut doors to keep the air-conditioned cool in the rooms we use most. The cat goes three paces then has to have a little lie-down, stretched like a floppy soft toy across the tile floor. On the other hand the dogs seem to want to lie, panting, in the sun. Errands are confined to the late afternoon. Evenings are warm and close but not overbearing, and we can still sleep (barring any power cuts, which is another BA story…)

A largely deserted city street in high summer

Also normal for January and the rest of the summer months: rain. The general pattern seems to be a building heat over four to five days that results in a heavy rain storm, usually with thunder and lightning, that floods our garden for a little bit and brings the temperatures down. Only for them to rise again with the sun the next day…

The garden green after a rainstorm

This spring/ summer, freak weather events include a scorching stretch of weeks in November, temperature into the 40s on Christmas Eve and downpours heavy even by BA standards that brought waist-high floodwater to parts of the capital.

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It’s hard to imagine winter, which does get chilly here, when the view now is bright blue sky and lush green vegetation, with a warm breeze and a heavy, languid heat. And it is even more difficult to imagine England now, on the other side of the world, with its polar opposite weather. Here’s England today, as a bit of a contrast.

Meanwhile, back on the other side of the world…

Spring Day in Argentina

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Argentina primavera, Palermo, spring, sunshine, weather

Happy Spring Day ¡Feliz Primavera!

Today marks the official beginning of spring in Argentina and to celebrate, it’s Spring Day. I love that there is an official day of spring here. Florists are doing a roaring trade in spring bouquets and the focus is on the outdoors. Today is also Students’ Day and the combined celebrations see teenagers get together and head outdoors to sit, picnic, play football, and chat in parks and gardens. Thousands end up in Palermo’s parks.

It isn’t always sunny on Spring Day but this year the weather rose to the occasion. These are the spring days you’d dream about in England, warm spring days that make sense. The leaves are lemon-yellow against the blue sky. Buds open out on branches and the birds reflect sunshine on their wings. The dogs snooze in the grass.  People loosen up, kick back, stop worrying about rain and dark days.

Spring is well known in Argentina as the season when love blooms and blossoms, where new beginnings are enjoyed. It was spring when, three years ago, I first came to Buenos Aires and met my husband. To me, love, the city and springtime go together.

Buenos Aires doesn’t seem itself in winter – there’s something not right about walking past palm trees wearing a thick coat and scarf. And Buenos Aires is often too much of itself in summer; too swelteringly hot and humid and worn out by 30-degree nights. Spring is the season Buenos Aires is most comfortable. Softly beating fans in cool rooms, asado smoke on the warm air on Sundays, blossom and leafy parks. This is a hectic city, heavily urban, often congested and crumbling. Spring opens up the city, colours it pink and mauve, and shoots it in perfect light.

Feliz primavera a todos.

Latin America travel memories #2: Belize to Guatemala

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Belize, Guatemala, jungle, Rio Dulce

Taken on the ferry from Punta Gorda in Belize to Puerto Barrios in Guatemala – startlingly still water and a perfect blue sky

My destination – a tiny jungle cabin at Finca Tatin on the Rio Dulce, Guatemala

To Tigre on a Winter’s Day Trip

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holidays, Tigre, travel, winter in buenos aires

Tigre, Buenos Aires owes its name not to tigers but to the jaguars that roamed the region up until the end of the 19th century (jaguars here are commonly called tigres or tigres Americanos). In mid winter 2012 neither animal makes an appearance but there are plenty of human visitors. Tigre is a popular weekend spot for porteños – the town is 20km northwest of Buenos Aires capital federal. On my first visit I’m reminded of  towns on the Norfolk Broads in England. But similarities end with the riverfront activity, kiosks and day trippers’ boats powering along the choppy water because Norfolk isn’t known for its subtropical flora and fauna. Nor is Norfolk known for its big cats.

Tigre is located on the Paraná Delta, a 1,000 sq km-plus expanse of (in summer) humid and steamy green islands ringed by rivers and streams. Tigre is the most popular setting-off point for a boat tour of the Delta but on this crisp winter’s day we are content to wander around town and along the Río Luján.

Tigre boats

Tigre town is home to palatial rowing clubs complete with mini train tracks to collect boats out of the water, mansions in varying states of decay or refurbishment, and a scattering of restaurants, shops, bars and museums.

Museo de Arte Tigre

The opulent Tigre Club, once the destination of choice for high society, is now the Museo de Arte Tigre. For boating and military history, there’s the Museo Naval. If you’re looking for candyfloss and roller coasters, Parque de la Costa, one of Latin America’s largest amusement parks, sends thrilled screams down the river. For more peace, walk alongside the water away from the main bridge along a path lined with trees, benches and grass. On the opposite side wooden houses seemingly held together with rope and planks teeter over the swampy banks. Tigre isn’t get-away-from-it-all quiet – for this you will need to sail into the delta – but there’s space, smog-free air and river breezes. On a winter’s day it’s a refreshing trip from the capital.

Reach Tigre by train from Retiro station (Línea Mitre). The journey takes about an hour and the train leaves you at Tigre’s riverbank station.

Midwinter Tigre

Latin America travel memories: Guatemala

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Antigua, Guatemala, travel, volcano

View of the volcanoes surrounding Antigua, Guatemala

Wanted: Karaoke Booths in Buenos Aires

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cafe, karaoke, karaoke bars, karaoke box, random, san telmo

I’m sitting having a quiet drink in a San Telmo cafe (empty) when the waitress turns the sound system up to 10 and “The Final Countdown” blasts across the room. Waiter and waitress start dancing and caterwauling along to this 80s classic and suddenly I’m transported to Karaoke Box, Soho, London. And I realise how amazingly great a karaoke place would be here in Buenos Aires, while at the same time wondering if anyone would ever visit it.

I’m not talking about karaoke bars or karaoke shows or anywhere people nurse a beer, steadfastly putting up with the variable singing qualities of strangers while waiting for their chance to sing. You can sing karaoke practically anywhere they serve drinks in Buenos Aires, so long as you like an audience. But where is the tiny soundproofed box you cram six of your friends in to torture with your rendition of “Eye of the Tiger”?

Private karaoke rooms don’t exist here. That’s karaoke where you pay for a room by the hour, Japanese style, and pick the tracks you sing from the in-room karaoke machine while waiters bring drinks on demand. But is that because people don’t want to sing in a little room to their friends or because they’ve never been given the chance to love it?

I conducted a poll among a cross-section of the population (me, my husband, and the pets): Would you go to a karaoke booth where you could sing in a private room to your friends, drink cheap beer and pick your own tracks?

Yes, private karaoke lets you sing to your heart’s content without fear of being booed off the stage.
Maybe, but I have YouTube, a microphone and cheap beer at home.
Yes, definitely, but I’m a cat and consequently wouldn’t be allowed in.

I still think it’s a good business idea. Even if we’re the only customers.

Saying goodbye to the pine tree

Tags

Buenos Aires storm, garden, pets, vegetable plot, winter in buenos aires

It’s been a while since the storm in Buenos Aires uprooted our pine tree but we’ve finally had to say goodbye. The giant tree was taken down last week by a team of workers with chainsaws and a head for heights. It had to be done – the tree was leaning dangerously across the garden towards the new construction on the next-door lot. Who knew when a strong wind or some movement within the earth would cause it to fall? Now it’s down we don’t have to worry about the dogs, the car, a lawsuit from the next-door-neighbors… But it was with great sadness that we said goodbye to the pine.

The tree was part of the yard since Mario’s parents first moved here over 40 years ago. And while I’ve only known the tree for a few years, Mario watched it grow from a tiny twig to the stately tower it became.

The pine marked the house. It was decorated with lights at Christmas, and it gave shelter to hundreds of species of insects, birds and animals. Our cat climbed up to the height of two floors when he was still little and hadn’t realised how scary it would be to come down again. The pine was settled, steadfast and solid. Somehow it never seemed to change, not like the other trees and plants that shed leaves and dropped branches and moved in the breeze.

But it moved on. There’s a smell of pine in the air and a gap in the garden. The space seems incomplete. But I’m planning a new vegetable plot and we’re looking forward to spring. Many things change.

Blue skies in wintertime

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garden, sunshine, weather, winter in buenos aires

I realise I risk the wrath of family and friends in England who have been suffering under cloud and rain for much of the summer but I want to post a few pictures from winter in Argentina. And winter in Buenos Aires means one thing – blue sky. OK, we get rain here too. We also get cloudy days and even a little fog and mist (not much, mind). But for days on end the sky can be clear and blue, which is astounding for a person like me who grew up associating winter with overcast weather.

A few clouds over Puerto Madero

I love the crisp winter days with an azure sky, the sun low and weak and the light sending silver shadows across the garden. It seems like we have more birds but the truth is we can just see more of them; fat pigeons resting in the fine web of bare grey branches.

Blue sky through the branches

And when September and October bring an end to winter, springtime is a blue sky spectacular. Spring brings the bonus of warm air to take the edge off the chill, while the temperatures are not yet hitting the often uncomfortable heights of summer (I’m from England – I don’t think I’ll ever get used to 40° summers). Blue skies are here again, and again…

Balloons over Puerto Madero

Yoga in English in Buenos Aires

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Buenos Aires yoga, health, Inglés en Buenos Aires, wellness workshops

I take some stretching classes here with a Castellano-speaking teacher and I can understand what I need in order to get a good workout, but my mind is half on what my body is doing and half on the language. The class makes for an effective Spanish lesson but with yoga I don’t want to be distracted by tenses, vocabulary and verbs. I need to focus on the breath, the warmth in my muscles, the bend in my back; anything but spoken words. There are a few places in downtown Buenos Aires for yoga in English and for the last few weeks I’ve been going to Buenos Aires Life Centre. This cosy place offers group yoga classes as well as massage, reiki, nutrition counselling and a number of wellness workshops.

Located on French (nearest Subte station Aguero), Buenos Aires Life Centre is in a regular apartment block so choose the buzzer with care out of the rows available. And don’t worry when it seems like you’re lost in domesticity on floor five – the centre is at the end of a dark corridor distinguished from the other apartments by a sign on the door.

It’s a long trip from the west and there are many yoga centres more conveniently located for me but I think it’s worth it. The teachers are warm, knowledgeable and enthusiastic. And until I’m fluent, yoga in English works for me. The practice is what matters, the act of putting aside the day’s preoccupations (which often include the struggles with language) and removing barriers. I’m focusing on my Castellano and I’m focusing on my yoga – just not at the same time.

Buenos Aires Life Centre
French 2647, #5E

Looking forward to yoga outside…