Again we have had Medical appointments and this time Veterinary appointments, so work here is slow, fortunately this time the Medical appointements have been for Marcela and my Mother-in-law, not me (with the exception of my annual prostate test, which was fine), but since they were not local, and Marcela is not keen on driving in unfamiliar territory, I end up as Chauffeur!
The Veterinary visit was with Pepe, he has had a problem with a leaking backside, not only is it unpleasant for us, but it was upsetting him as well, I put it down to age, but we will see. The Vet sent off some blood samples, and we had to take in a stool for testing, the latter came back clear, but he has a slight kidney infection, we don’t know if that is causing the leak, but he is on antibiotics, the only other possibility is his anul glands, but he goes for a wash and brush up monthly when they check, or should check his glands. The Vet said one was empty, the other inflamed, so we just keep our fingers crossed.
So much for prices coming down, across Colombia, as per the promise of President Petro, prior to his election, everything is shooting up, and will rise much further from next month, as he starts to double the price of fuel, rising in monthly increments, all the changes are not going down well, not because they dont want improvements, but this Government hasn’t got the money to introduce them, and when people are already suffering following the Pandemic, to have everything increase in price is unacceptable, so tomorrow there is a Nationwide demonstration again those changes, not that I think Petro will take a blind bit of notice, he is already showing himself to be a dictator, and we have 3 years 46 weeks more, before there is change, unless he does a Maduro!
With the problems here and the sudden decrease in the value of the pound in the UK, things are going to be tight, in the matter of a week, the value of my pension has fallen by 10%, and may fall further, add that to inflation here, and it’s not quite so cosy. I am not going to moan yet, because I fully expected highs and lows, it comes with the territory of being an Expat, but I still hope it is not a long term change.
To counter all the negative, I have been back in the workshop every available moment, and I am getting on with making the Mother-in-laws Wardrobe and Dressing table, since it is made entirely with plywood / triplex, it’s not my favourite material to work with, but at least it’s wood of a sort, and there are now plenty of pieces, and still more to cut.
The problem now I am sanding and routing, is keeping an eye on which part goes where, I wrote on each piece, but with the sanding, that’s disappeared, I tried post-it notes, but with the damp weather, they just fall off, now I just cross my fingers and hope!
Times like this, I wish I still had my Spanish workshop, it would have been so much easier to lay everything out, here, I have to keep moving everything around to get the job done, fine with small projects, but something like this, is a pain. Saying that, the worst is yet to come… the painting, I haven’t decided yet whether it will be paint with a brush, of spray painting, either way, I will have to hope for a few dry days, because I will have to do it on the parking area.
Thursday was the Mother-in-laws 60th Birthday, so we took her out to lunch, however because my Sister-in-law and family are now further away, we are hosting a lunch today, Marcela and the Birthday Girl, have been busy all morning preparing, and Marcela putting up decorations, so now we wait to see if the family turn up in good time, or arrive late, and we are all starving, which is the usual way things turn out around here!
An Englishman in Colombia 