Normal stuff

Thursday, December 12, 2013
Today was an "off" day for me.  Slept late... watched tennis, slept some more, watched tennis, slept some more.   Am I okay?   You bet I am.    Just wanted to read my Time magazines, the newspaper, and relax.   Sure did that.   But Yesterday, that was fun.   I started off by going to the hotel to watch some CNN and international news.   Then, I made way to the central market to eat some yummy seafood.   When I got to the seafood place, there must have been twenty people ahead of me, but I plugged along.  I was going to ask for the calamari and shrimp plate that Paco and I had before, but I saw this lady eating a loadful of clams in this rich broth that made my mouth water, so I asked for that.   OMG!   Were they delicious.   Then I saw this man with a bowlful of a soup that looked absolutely delicious and he pointed to the name:  don't ask.   I'll tell you after I eat it which will be tomorrow.   It is made of spinach and calamari and I can only imagine it's fabulous.  I will go there everyday to eat everything they have on the menu.   It's the best seafood I have ever had.   I wish I had taken a picture of that bowl with all the clams.   They are the black-shelled clams with the orange clams inside.  Absolutely unbelievable.   Then I went back to the hotel for social hour and enjoyed wine, finger foods, and lots of conversation with the hotel guests.  I got home around 9:30 pm and went right to sleep.  Today, the only thing I did was to go out and go to an ATM machine because my card was not working and I was really worried that I didn't have access to my $$$.   Fortunately, my friend, Mucio, was able to unlock all the blocks and so I went out and tried to get money out and it worked!   Thank God.  I hope it keeps on working.   So far, so good.  I bought a hazelnut gelato on the way back to celebrate.  Yumyum.....
I have a big day planned for tomorrow, Friday.   Go to the hotel for breakfast, take pictures of all the staff to post on the blog and then take off and go to the market again for some seafood, again, and for some fun shopping.   There is a haircut place near the hotel, so I'll stop by to see if they can cut my hair or make an appointment for a later date.   It looks like a pretty good place, and let's face it, who cares?   All the churches here have the Virgen de Guadalupe paintings out in full force today.   They are great believers, and so am I.   Happy Day, virgen de Guadalupe and all its name sakes.   In Mexico, some people call themselves Guadalupanos, but not Catholic.... interesting.....    Okay, well, I'll be posting pictures of all hotel stuff tomorrow or Saturday as well as Florence in Christmas glory!
I hope you all are anxiously waiting the Christmas break.   I am going to find a small turkey, or parts of a turkey, and make my mother's recipe for chestnut dressing and hope to find cranberry sauce.  I'll be happy with that.   For a small peek, here's the Christmas tree at the hotel.  The ornaments are all shortbread cookies, an dried orange rinds pinned with lovely raffia ribbon all over.   The Nativity Scene is lovely....  I hope you can see it.   More about the hotel later...

Hotel David Christmas tree

Another view

Look at the Nativity scene

Lovely poinsettia (which I gifted) in the canteen section
of the hotel.