Christmas for Kate

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Every year since at least 2006 I've made a CD playlist for Kate. Lately I've made these playlists available on iTunes and YouTube. Often times the playlist is packed with memories of places we've been, bands and artists we've seen or simply little love songs that move me and help me express how I feel about Kate. 

These days I still make a CD even though it's a struggle (my new laptop and our new car doesn't even have a CD player!) and we play music more often than not through streaming services. I never thought CD's would become "old school" but there we are. 

This year the playlist has a lot of old songs and only a few released this year by new favorites. Here's a track list with a bit of an explanation for each tune.

1. "One Good Year" by Slaid Cleaves (2000). We really like him and have been fortunate to see him play at the Saxon Pub in Austin. This song has quite a melancholic feel but, like him, having suffered through these awful pandemic times we can only hope for one good year.
2. "Another Like You" by Hayes Carll (2011). Another Texas artist who we have seen in Austin. This ribald duet reminds me of Kate, but I am "Wilder Than Her."
3. "Trudy" by Tyler Childers (2022). We watched a streaming benefit for the Hill Country Youth Orchestra (Kerrville, TX) with Robert Earl Keene and Tyler Childers. Apparently Childers has been using this rollicking rocker by Charlie Daniels as his set closer. We saw him play at the Cactus Café at UTX Austin a few years ago.
4. "I Remember Everything" by Brandi Carlile (2021). It's a John Prine song, his last, from the recent tribute album. Enough said.
5. "Listen to the Radio" by Nanci Griffith (1997). Another Texan sadly gone. This references Loretta Lynn who died this year. Nanci sings: "Where would I be in time like these without the songs Loretta wrote". Indeed, in times like these.
6. "Love's Gonna Live Here" by Buddy Miller featuring Kacey Musgraves (2016). It's classic country by Buck Owens. Musgraves (another Texan) has a sweet voice. She plays big arenas these days, we've never got to see her.
7. "Just Someone I Used to Know" by Buddy Miller featuring Nikki Lane (2016). Another classic country, this one by Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner. We saw Nikki Lane on a Country Cruise out of New Orleans a few years ago.
8. "I'll Be Here for You" by Robert Earl Keene (1998). A love song by a favorite Texan who we've been lucky enough to see a few times. He's retired from the road this year.
9. "Are You Sure" a duet of Kacey Musgraves and Willie Nelson (2015). It's a Willie tune done nicely as a duet about hanging around drinking in bars. We like Texas bars and miss visiting Austin because of the pandemic.
   
10. "You Get it All" by Hayes Carll (2021). Another love song by another Texan who we've seen. His "sweet Baboo" is Allison Moorer who used to be married to and tour with Steve Earle.
11. "Mockingbird" by Ruston Kelly (2018). I've heard this song many times this year. I don't know the artist or I why I keep hearing this song but I like it. He compares his love to a pretty little mocking bird
12. "Death to My Hometown" by Bruce Springsteen (2012). A protest song with a strong beat and an Irish swagger. I like it .... Some will rob you with a fountain pen.
13. "Help Me Remember" by Hayes Carll (2021). It's about dementia and Hayes explains the song thus: “I was fourteen-years-old and sitting in the passenger seat of my grandfather’s truck in Waco, TX, the town he had lived in for most of his life, when he turned to me at a stoplight and asked where we were. He looked scared. I know I was. I’ve thought a lot since then about what it must feel like to lose the thread of your own story.”
14. "Brother Taxman Preacher" by Margo Cilker (2021). Margo is a rising talent in the Americana world. I like the beat of this song
15. "Tehachapi" by Margo Cilker (2021). Again, I like the beat and will be watching this artist.
16. "One Love Song" by Michaela Anne with Sam Outlaw (2019). It's a love song. We've seen Michaela at the Cactus Café, UTX Austin.
17. "I Couldn't be Me Without You" by Eddie Brickell (2022). This is from the recently released Billy Joe Shaver tribute album. It's a simple love song. The title says it all.
18. "Yes I Guess They Oughta Name A Drink After You" by Tyler Childers (2021). Another John Prine song from the tribute album.
19. "Dead Horses" by The Local Honeys (2022). I bumped into this song on Youtube. It's county with a blue grass tinge.
20. "Feathered Indians" by Tyler Childers (2017). Another love song, again with that Kentucky bluegrass tinge. We were at the local market one day and a singer was playing this. I was surprised but see now that Tyler Childers has made a big impression on many others.

Clearly our influences are Country and Americana with a few artists like Tyler Childers and Hayes Carll repeated several times.

Xmas Letter

PO Box 3063, St Marys
N4X 1A7, ON, Canada
Dec 10, 2022

It’s December and we’ll put pen to paper for the annual “Christmas Letter”. Although this year, like others during the pandemic, has been quite subdued. Our Google Maps timeline is very boring – a typical month involves shopping in town, perhaps a trip to Stratford for more shopping or theatre, and an occasional jaunt into London.

For Reg’s birthday this year (he’s now a 70-year-old geezer) we had a weekend in the Niagara Wine region and special tasting event in a private geodesic dome at Featherstone estate. Actually, we had to delay it a week as a really nasty snow storm prevented our travel in February. We are not keen on having another long winter here in St Marys.

We were in Toronto in September to meet up with Gord (Kate’s brother), Leslie (his wife) and Paula (his daughter who is a postie in New Brunswick) – I can’t remember the last time we’d been to the “big smoke” and gosh has it changed. Likewise for the Highway 401 which seems to have collectors all the way to Milton, and the same around Kitchener/Waterloo.

We had winter plans to go to the Algarve in Portugal in February but with Covid surging at the time we were able to cancel. Good thing too as both of us have had mobility problems. Reg got a partial knee replacement in May (he’s pretty good, still not dancing but he never did) and Kate’s been suffering with knee and ankle problems. It looks like both will have to be replaced, but until then we hobble along. We won’t ever get to hike the Bruce Trail, climb into the Grand Canyon or return to Angel’s Landing in Zion. We hope to return to Texas for the warm winter weather and “honky tonk” music some time but are not quite comfortable with the idea of hanging around in crowded bars with folks who aren’t vaccinated. We’re fully vaccinated and willing take anything they offer (e.g., on top of covid boosters we have the flu shot, pneumonia and shingles of course).

Chris Fry, who we lovingly call our No.1 son, stopped in on a trip to Florida. It’s been quite a while since we’ve seen Chris and his family. They’ve been in Germany for several years now, the last time we saw Chris and Amy (his wife) was in Nottingham back in 2017! They’re now the proud parents of three little ones (Charlotte, Sebastian and Emily). We very much enjoyed his visit. We first met him when he was little when we visited his dad, Martin, and family in Germany. But it was 17 years ago when we really got to know him when he came and stayed with us for a couple of weeks. The picture has him tucking into some fresh Lake Erie Perch.

Our 42^nd wedding anniversary was this year. We had a local photographer take some photos of us to honor the occasion. We’re not as fab as we were back in 1980. The picture at the top of the page is one from the photo sessions.

We did have a summer holiday on Prince Edward County (that’s across from Belleville) with Gord and Leslie. The idea was to drive around checking out the vineyards and we did a few. But it was awfully hot for the few days we were there. We stayed in an historic old stone mill at the Glenora Ferry at the foot of the Mountain Lake, Gord and Leslie camped across the way on the mainland. They have one of those pop-up trailers and make good use of it. Gord got us tickets to see Whitehorse (the band, the couple), a really exciting show, at the Hayloft Dancehall (essentially an old barn) near the Sandbanks and Outlet Beach. Kate used to camp and hangout around there in her high school years and we did go for a swim. It's a nice beach and an Ontario Park.

We are just back from our first trip out of the country since returning from Texas in 2020 when the pandemic began. Gord and Leslie were/are in Argentina for a 5 weeks holiday and we met up with them for a week in Buenos Aires. We were somewhat reluctant to go expecting Buenos Aires to be a “hard scrabble” town like those in Mexico, Brazil or some of the Caribbean islands. We were pleasantly surprised. It’s often described as the Paris of South America and it really is (Manaus in Brazil, where we did an Amazon cruise several years ago, is described as the Paris of the Amazon but it’s hard scrabble and an insult on Paris). In Buenos Aires there’s a lot of Beaux Artes buildings dating from the turn of the previous century, wide tree lined avenues (the jacaranda were in bloom), lots of well tended green space with many monuments. It really does look like Paris. The weather was warm and we really enjoyed ourselves. The terrible thing though is their economy – it's basically screwed with an annual inflation rate at over 80%. Every thing is cash only, credit card exchange rates are prohibitive, and there’s a black market in foreign exchange.

Mind you, food and drink are inexpensive in BA (for us) and portions tended to be quite large. Reg got to pig out a couple of times on grilled beef – beef is one of the country’s major exports, that and wine. Gord and Leslie were great hosts and, having been there in the spring, knew how to manage the city. Leslie, who had lived in Columbia for 20+years, is fluent in Spanish (she’s actually a certified translator) and was a great help. It isn’t as English-friendly as some places. Although we did meet this English lady at a Tango dance club who was on her own and spoke very little Spanish and seemed to be managing.

Reg’s brother Paul and his wife El came home from Thailand for about 5 weeks in September and October. They have sold their restaurant and are moving into retirement mode. They stayed with us for a week or so, with David in Hamilton for some time, travelled to visit various friends back in Grey County, and visited with family in B.C. before returning to Thailand. Paul and El live in Songkhla where the weather is always hot and humid. El found our Canadian fall weather a little chilly, but we tried to keep her warm with sweaters, scarfs and “long-johns”, and she even came prepared with a puffy insulated jacket. The picture below is of Paul and Reg at the Stratford Festival Theatre where they saw Colm Feore in “The Miser”.

We plan to have Christmas dinner with David’s family (David is Reg’s next older brother) in Hamilton. We’re having our London family (Angela, Tandye and CJ – that’s Dale & Sherie’s gang) for an Xmas dinner the week before. And there’s a good possibility that Gord and Leslie will be having a New Years’ Levee again in Ottawa (fingers crossed).

However, we are uncertain as to what we’ll do this winter. We’re not looking forward to another cold snowy winter shut in our home. There has to be some escape to warmer climes -- perhaps we’ll just run off to some Caribbean resort for some sun. Although neither of us are up to much when it comes to “running”.

On other fronts – Piscine, Radar and Little Moe (our cats) have been well and are almost starting to get along with each other. Volunteer work has picked up a bit in the past year, with Reg kept especially busy with 2 book sales and assuming the chair for the Friends of the Library (he has wisely stepped down from the Library Board), while Kate has her volunteer work for the Board of Optimism Place (a local women’s shelter) and also continues to work on research (as long as they’ll let her).

Kate and her girlfriends continue to meet a couple of times a week – they do this all year long (outside on our deck in winter, at other places during warm weather). Reg calls them the “SnowBack Turtles”. It started as a way to get together safely and avoid covid. Lately it's become a challenge – how much cold can they stand? Reg and the boys are not so tough, they meet inside by the fireplace.

 Until next we meet, much love. Kate and Reg.

Politics in Canada

Name-calling and Ad Hominem Attacks

These days, even in Canada, political discussion has sunk pretty low and, in many cases, has lost any sense of civility. Far too often people attack one another, or the various parties, on personal and ugly grounds. Name-calling and ad Hominem attacks are the tools of those who have little to say. Those who fly the black "F*ck Trudeau" flag, or conduct a siege chanting "Freedom!", are good examples of politics gone seriously wrong. Recently an acquaintance posted a nasty bit of thin gruel on Facebook -- a repost of a purported article from a European paper that stated, without argument, that Justin Trudeau is an idiot and worse still are all the idiots who voted for him.

I challenged my friend saying this bit of naming calling was an ad hominem attack without substance and asked, "What exactly have you got against Trudeau?". His reply, and my rejoinders, follow:

Major accomplishments prior to being elected to the highest office in the land were instructing snowboarding, practicing yoga, and substitute teaching high school drama classes.

·        Jesus was a carpenter. To attack a person on where they come from rather than what they do is an ad hominem attack. If you have to be a lawyer or MBA to be in parliament then we are screwed.

Invoking the Emergencies act for a minor disturbance, all he had to do was go talk to these people, instead he went into hiding like the chicken shit he is.

·        Oh gosh, we disagree here. I don’t call it a “minor disturbance” nor did those in Ottawa who lived thru it (or the border blockades, or the guns at border blockades). If you believe that talking to these people (which leader of these people) was enough to resolve the problem you’re mistaken, eg. there was the manifesto to replace parliament, real threats, and people saying we’re not going anywhere until you lift border requirements (nevermind that the same border requirements were there to get into the US).

Paying off a terrorist with 10.8 million

·        I assume you’re talking about the Khadr affair. Two points. To call call Khadr a “terrorist” is again an ad hominem. I’d call him a prisoner of war in Guantanamo who was tortured by Americans and not protected by the government of the day (which I believe was Conservative).

Forcing carbon taxes on a nation that contributes little to world carbon footprint.

·        Canada has a small population. The burden we put on the carbon footprint is disproportionate. One of Kant's categorical imperatives is the universalizability principle, in which one should "act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law.” If you want to solve a problem, be part of the solution.

Flying all over the world on meaningless jaunts while telling us that oil is bad.

·        There have been some meaningless jaunts yes. But let’s not tar them all.

SNC Lavalin. Enough said.

·        There’s the scandal of SNC Lavalin bribing Libya and the scandal of trying to suppress the story. The liberals under Trudeau are guilty of the second.

Calling an election in the middle of a pandemic.

·        Is there a party that doesn’t call an election when it’s opportune?

Backing off on electoral reform.

·        Agreed. As an NDP supporter I was pissed.

The WE charity scandal. Attempting to hand an unneeded sole-source contract to WE Charity for nearly $1 billion after Trudeau’s mother and brother received around $300,000 from it for speaking gigs.

·        Agreed. Scandalous.

Wearing blackface then calling anti vaxxers and convoy protestors racist.

·        The blackface was wrong, agreed. Anti vaxxers and convoy protestors are wrong and silly too. And at least some of them are racists.

Hiking the national debt by billions of dollars, thus indebting future generations in perpetuity

·        During the pandemic keeping people sheltered and fed is important. I have no qualms about going into debt for that. Nor am I concerned about spending to support the UA or other crisis. Solving the debt problem by taxing the poor will not help. I am happy to pay more taxes.

Millions spent travelling and giving away foreign aid in pursuit of a useless, temporary seat on the UN Security Council.

·        I think we covered the travelling issue already. I am for foreign aid (cf. convoy protestors who claim not to be racist). As for the motives for Trudeau doing so, that’s your guess. Supporting those in need is the compassionate thing to do.

Regulations and taxes on oil from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland, but not on oil from Saudi Arabia.

·        I am for taxing and regulating all our industries. I am appalled by what Saudi Arabia has done to Jamal Khashoggi. Nor do I like what the Saudis did/are doing in Yemen and that the Liberals have honored a previous (Conservative) agreement to sell them LAV’s to do so. Ps. Any taxing of any imports would be a tax burden on Canadians not the country of origin.

Imposing tough environmental assessments on new infrastructure projects, except in the case of a cement plant in Quebec.

·        Agreed. Regulations should be consistent.

I could go on but if you want to support this clown, that's your privilege as a Canadian.

·        Ad hominem attack on Trudeau and his supporters. Ps. I’m not a supporter of either.

Home Again

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Our whirlwind tour of Buenos Aires with Gord and Leslie ends today. We're heading home via Panama City flying business class on COPA airlines. This time we're just going to change planes and not stay longer in Panama City. On the way we had stayed for a couple of nights at the Evenia.

The day starts in Buenos Aires, as most do, with figuring out our cash supply. We want to have enough cash to pay and tip our Uber driver who will take us to the airport but do not want to have any Argentine pesos left to take home. Gord, our kindly banker, has it all figured out for us. He arranges for a Uber driver to take us the 20-30 minutes out of the city to the Buenos Aires Ezeiza Airport (EZE). Gord and Leslie see us off when the Uber arrives — many thanks to both of them for all of their help and hospitality.

It's mostly an expressway out of the city to the airport with a few tolls along the way. Most of the city is neat, clean and quite modern. There are a few rough spots but not too many, it's a fairly prosperous looking city.  However, Gord has noted that you don't see any cranes dotting the skyline — it's an indication that the economy is in trouble and no one is investing/building in the city.

The Uber driver, a young woman, has a very nice car and drops us off in plenty of time. The airport is not very big and we struggle a bit to find our way to the COPA check in counter.  We have an agent take Kate in a wheelchair to our gate and we tip him with the last of our Argentine pesos. There is a lounge we could go to but it's a long way from our gate so we pass on that; our flight leaves soon enough and we can get a drink and food on the plane.

From the air we have good views of the sprawling city and fly over Tigre and the Delta area where we had visited earlier. We fly over Bolivia and the upper reaches of the Amazon basin. We are served another nice meal with proper plates and cutlery. We have some wine with our meal service and watch more of our Netflix movies. Reg watches the Marilyn Monroe story "Blonde" (2022) which is a really sad story. I had always believed that Joe DiMaggio was a saint, not so in this telling. 

"There is a place, where you can go, where Marilyn's still dancing with DiMaggio ..."

... from Marilyn & Joe by Kinky Friedman (1983)

At Panama City, from the air, we can again see all the ships lined up for the canal passage. We arrive at Terminal 2 (the new terminal) and again need to transfer the considerable distance to Terminal 1. And again it's a bit of struggle to get a chair and an agent to take Kate but one arrives in due course and strikes out at break neck speed. Reg struggles to keep up and lags far behind. But we both know where we're going so not to worry, if lags he can follow the signs. The fellow pushing Kate actually stops at critical junctions to make sure Reg is still on track but he's often quite a bit ahead.

Our flight home is uneventful with another meal, more Netflix movies and we arrive in Toronto around midnight on time as expected. Kate recalls that the plane was pretty run down and the seats not very comfortable — especially for business class.

We take a taxi to our hotel, the Hilton Doubletree, and are charged an exorbitant fee for this luxury (I was expecting a $20 fare, he wanted $40 and we ended up paying with US cash). At checkin we discover that the free hotel shuttle runs all night long and we could have taken that instead. We're tired and to bed — we'll drive home tomorrow.

It is winter in Canada with snow on the ground. But it's much worse across the border in Buffalo. They're currently under 6' of lake effect snow and more is on the way. An emergency has been declared there and it will take some time to dig out.

The picture above shows the snow accumulation on our deck when we arrived home — quite a difference from the warm sunny spring weather in Buenos Aires, Argentina where the Jacaranda and Bougainvillea are in bloom!

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes

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Today we visit the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Museum of Fine Arts). Gord and I take one route on public transit, Kate and Leslie take another path with Uber and do some wool shopping before meeting up with us. Kate brought back some wool for our friend Joan who is kindly cat sitting for us. [Correction: actually it was cotton not wool]

Gord has been taking Spanish lessons near La Recoleta Cemetery (sadly we never got to visit) and has figured out the public transit to get there. We're riding on the crowded bus and I'm getting the usual warnings from kind citizens about "put that camera away, you're going to be robbed" when I realize I've made the cardinal camera mistake — I don't have a memory card in the camera having taken it out to strip the pictures last night! Back in our Balvanera flat I have several cards, but none on me. Fortunately we find a technology store when we get off the bus and are able to get another card. Many thanks for Gord's help there.

There's lots of lovely well tended gardens with epic monuments in this area (I sometimes hear it called Recoleta, it's also known as Barrio Norte). We walk by the British Embassy and at Plaza Mitre there's a grand statue — a Monument to Bartolomé Mitre (a former president 1862-1868). Next door is another green space with a monument to María Eva Duarte de Perón  (of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" fame). On our walk to the gallery there's a number of lesser monuments in other parks including a small bronze bust of Luis Braille (of reading for the blind). Across from the gallery there's the Plaza Francia with a Monumento de Francia a la Argentina (a 1910 gift from France to Argentina). These seem to be from the turn of the last century (or earlier) and the marble sculptures are starting to show signs of wear. I recall in Paris the beautiful sculptures on the Opera House have been moved to the D'Orsay and replaced with replicas; likewise for the David in Florence. They need to do the same here.

Kate and Leslie are already waiting for us at the gallery where we tour the ground floor exhibit. There's lots of Rodin, Monet and other European masters. It's quite an impressive collection but we only sample a bit of the gallery. I liked this gallery and the exhibits far more than the modern art of the MALBA where we visited earlier. Kate like the MALBA more. We visited one of the gallery rooms with impressive Argentine art from the same period.

We have lunch at the La Ferneteria (Bellas Artes) pictured above. It's directly behind the gallery in the Friends of Fine Arts (Amigos del Bellas Artes) building. A very nice restaurant, very busy as well. We are lucky to get seated at the bar and have a very nice lunch with good vegetarian options (again in huge Argentine proportions). There's a nearby conference centre across the street and the restaurant is crowded with folks from some conference. You can see in the picture that the Jacaranda and Bougainvillea are in bloom. It's spring and, in this area, there are lots of beautiful tree lined streets in bloom.

There's more classic public art outside on the grounds and across the street there's the slick shiny modern Floralis Genérica (it looks like a shiny chromed flower) sculpture in the Plaza Naciones Unidas.

We catch a cab on the street in front of the impressive "Facultab de Derecho UBA" (Faculty of Law, University of Buenos Aires) and head home. It's a huge building with a wide stairs and 14 columns. We bumped into a similar "Faculty of Engineering" building on our bus tour the other day. There are quite a few building in this grand classic style around the city.

That evening we order in from a local pizzeria just around the corner — El Español. Actually, we  were going to sit outside but the double layered cheese pizza we chose required a good half hour to make so we had them deliver. 

Finally, in the album, there's some more pictures of the neighborhood streets and Gord and Leslie's flat on Moreno.

MALBA, Palermo and Los Laureles

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Today we went to the MALBA (Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires) in the Recoleta/Barrio Norte area, had lunch in the Palermo district, continue our hop on/hop off bus tour and had an evening of Tango lessons at Los Laureles (a Milonga bar near the Los Boca area). The picture at left is a painting of some Tango dancers which was on display in the used furniture store next door to our flat on Moreno in the Balvanera district.

The MALBA is a very new gallery (since 1990) in a very modern building with a very modern collection that grew out of a personal collection. Eduardo Constantini is the founder and major benefactor. His personal collection became the original collection for the gallery. A couple of small Frida Kahlo pieces were recently acquired, again by Constantini, at considerable cost (see US$33-million Frida Kahlo painting becomes Buenos Aires’ new attraction '22/08/24). They are show cased in a a tiny dark room where they are displayed with some of her letters and other memorabilia. The other gallery rooms are quite large and bright.

The gallery has lots of quirky and challenging artworks. Some silly, some quite stunning. It's eclectic. The album shows some of the works we enjoyed. We didn't get to all of the gallery rooms — there's a lower floor we missed.

After the MALBA we were looking for lunch at Don Julio in the nearby Palermo barrio/district. It's one of the best steak houses in town. Gord and Leslie had been before, but when we arrived, they were booked solid. They said we could wait a couple of hours for a table, we declined, and they recommended another restaurant down the street a block or so. It was likewise very busy and we ended up taking a taxi to Plaza Serrano which was recommended as a night club area with lots of restaurants. It is a "Night Club" area and there were only a few restaurants open for lunch. Nevertheless we found a quick bite at one club and had some sushi at a table on the street.

We caught our hop on/hop off tour bus nearby after lunch and continued our tour of the city ending up back at the Congress where we had started the day before. The tour bus wanders great distances around the city. You would be hard pressed to complete a circuit in one day even if you never hopped on and off!

That evening we went to a Tango dance club at Los Laureles (a "Bodegon Milonguero" since 1893). A "bodegon" is a tavern and a "milonguero" is a man who spends time dancing at a "milonga" (a tango dance event). Gord and Leslie are true milongueros; we're just hangers on. It's an historic bar ("Bar Notable" is some kind of historic designation) and people have been coming here for years to tango, eat, drink and have a few laughs. Gord and Leslie have been before and return regularly to take dance lessons. It's one of those places where people arrive early for dance lessons, while the band and accomplished dancers arrive later. 

We had dinner at the restaurant/bar (Reg had yet another parilla steak) and got to meet acquaintances Gord and Leslie had established. They stayed until late, we ducked out early. The dancers who arrived after the lessons when the band arrived were very accomplished. But everyone who danced seemed to have fun. Kate and I did not dance — I have two left feet and a bum knee; Kate is currently barely able to walk but was an accomplished dancer in her day, having taught dance in her younger years at the infamous "Tijuana Dance School".

Another full day in an impressive city.

Bus Trip and Parilla

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Today we take a hop on/hop off bus tour of the city on the Buenos Aires Bus (there are several companies, we chose this one). We bought a two day pass which, by Argentine standards, was pretty expensive (about $35 Canadian). We try to get on the yellow double decker bus at the Plaza Mariano Moreno near the Congress where we had been a few days ago for lunch at the Gran Taberna. There's quite a queue and we aren't able to get on a few of the buses before we give up.

Kate is unable to stand waiting for the next bus so we're looking for a place to sit down. The Plaza Mariano Moreno across the street is a well tended park with Rodin's "The Thinker" on a plinth and there's a monument to Mariano Moreno who the park is named after. At the far end of the park is the Plaza del Congreso with the grand fountain and Monumento a los Dos Congresos in front of the Congress itself. Reg was wandering around taking pictures while Kate was looking for a bench to sit on. She ended up avoiding a very smelly hobo (one of the few we've seen) who had claimed a nearby bench and went back to the bus stop. A bus did come but they couldn't signal Reg in time to catch it and there was a long lineup for it as well. Those who had tickets got on right away, those who did not had to wait and, if there was room, they'd be let on and then buy a ticket. This wasn't working well for us.

We decide to flag down a taxi and go to La Recoleta Cemetery where we can take a tour, have a bite at nearby restaurants, buy tickets at the central booth and catch the same hop on/hop off tour. The walled cemetery is huge — about the size of a city block. It's busy and looks really interesting with all sorts of statuary and important graves. Unfortunately they require an admission fee and oddly only take credit cards; additionally they want to see international proof of identity (passports). We decline as we have neither at hand and instead have our lunch at a nearby outdoor patio restaurant. There's a sign at the restaurant announcing the special deals and a note "Solo Efectivo" which means cash only! This is just a short distance across the park from La Parolaccia Recoleta — the Italian restaurant where we had been on Friday night with Myriam.

We ride the double decker bus from Recoleta through quite a bit of the city until the bus has a rest stop and we take a pee break at the Galerias Pacifico. Across the street is a lovely old building the Centro Naval (it's got something to do with the Argentine Navy, a club of some sort for naval personnel) which, apparently, has an interesting restaurant/club on the top floor. We enter and find a couple of lonely old guys at a bar on the ground floor. They tell us the restaurant isn't open (not sure if not at all, or not now). We end up having a drink at a cafe on the street nearby. This is also the area where men on the street are announcing "Cambio! Cambio!". They're black market money changers. Gord says it's best to avoid them.

The tour drives past all sorts of interesting spots. There's the very long grand central avenue Av. 9 de Julio (which honors Argentina's Independence Day) with the impressive Obelisc at the centre (which looks an awful lot like the Washington Monument in Washington D.C.). At one end there's an impressive large portrait of Eva Peron on the facade of the Ministry of Public Works. The tour covers a good deal of the city, we even make it to the colorful La Boca barrio and the Estadio Alberto J. Armando stadium, widely known as  La Bombonera (the chocolate box) where the Boca Juniors play soccer. Gord and Leslie tried to get in to see a game last week, but getting tickets is hard, the team is very popular. It's good that we bought a two day pass as you couldn't complete the tour in a day, especially if you wanted to hop on and off at all the interesting spots.

Ps. Argentina ends up winning the FIFA World Cup in December of 2022. Football is quite the deal, the city celebrated and the streets were packed. The Av. 9 de Julio and the Obelisc area where packed solid with folks celebrating the win. Myriam sent us some pictures and short videos of the celebration in her part of town.

That evening we go to the local Parrilla El Litoral for a big feed of grilled steak ("parilla" means grill). That's us in the picture above. It's a small corner restaurant not a block away from our flat on Moreno and we were lucky enough to get a table outside. The steak was perfectly grilled, nice and thick, Reg really enjoyed it. You have a choice of how it's grilled — you can have it their way or not at all. Gord tells me there's some requirement that the steak must be 30mm thick (just over an inch). Reg had a steak another night at the Tango dance club, the steak here was the best.

One of the sides which we bump into several times over the visit was mashed potato and squash — not mixed but sort of side by side. There were some salads as well and Kate was happy with the limited vegetarian options. Again we had some wine (chilled at the table with ice cubes added to the glass). This was the house red and plenty drinkable. Kate tried a glass of the house white which was not drinkable at all. We ordered a bottle of another (the only other) white wine and it wasn't too bad.

We had a rather full day touring the city.

El Ateneo Grand Splendid

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Today is fairly uneventful. Gord and Leslie are trying to figure out a trip to Patagonia in the far south after their stay here in Buenos Aires. Given that this is a cash only society and many things sometimes fall apart (like the booking system of the travel agent they're trying to navigate with) there's not too much to show.

The day begins with Gord and Reg stocking up at the El Franjamar wine shop just down the street. We've all been doing our best to keep them in business. The proprietor speaks very good English and knows Gord and Leslie who are regular patrons. It's been a tough time to run a small shop but he stocks food and wine so was able to stay open during the pandemic lock downs. But now inflation is making life tough. In the course of our visit we stop in several times to stock up. Sometimes we are buying better wines he recommends, other times we are buying cheaper wines for the pissants. All his wines are quite nice, very drinkable, and very affordable. 

The picture above is within the El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookstore in the Recoleta/Barrio Norte neighborhood where Kate and I had a drink and waited while Gord and Leslie dealt with their travel arrangements. This was once the Grand Spendid theatre opening in 1919 and was converted to the El Ateno bookstore in 2000. It's a beautiful and very busy place. Many people, like us, just come to take pictures.

The photo album continues with some street scenes from the area — more lovely Beaux Artes buildings and small shops at street level. That evening we stay in and share a dinner at our flat in Balvanera.

Tigre and the Delta

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Today is our first day out of the city. To the north end of the city is the huge delta of the Rio Parana de las Palmas. The town or suburb, Tigre (or "tiger"), is on the mainland, the delta is to the north. There's a large market and many boat tours you can take through the delta on lovely old wooden boats.

We take a long Uber ride to the Maipú station where there's an interesting coastal train running up to Tigre. We could have taken public transit all the way to Tigre but it would have taken quite a while. The coastal train is also a scenic slow route and we're in no hurry. When we got home we discover that our friend Deborah in Ann Arbor has a connection to this area — her family had been here in the '70s working for Ford and lived along this short coastal line. The area is pretty plush with nice homes, people strolling or biking on well tended paths.

Along the way, at each station on this coastal route, there seems to be an outdoor cafe of one sort on another. The picture above has us at Tribu San Isidro, a restaurant at the Juan Anchorena station. There's quite a bit of green space along the coast there. We had a lovely nosh there on our return trip. Gord took that picture holding his cell phone over his head — I didn't think it would work but it did. We were enjoying some wine and a huge platter of cheese and meats on a lovely patio overlooking a parkland along the shore when a rain came up and forced us inside.

At Tigre, the last stop on the coastal train is the Delta station. There's a large market on the water front called Puerto de Frutos (which I understand to mean "fruit port") and it might have been at one time. These days there's lots of restaurants and gift shops. But there are lots of small boats servicing those who live in the delta and some shops with greenery.

We had some time to kill before the next boat we had decided to take out into the delta and had some lunch at a restaurant called La Vieja del Puerto (the old woman of the port). We had some beer, wine, fresh bread, some empanadas and a salad. Oddly rather than serving you chilled white wine they serve the wine with a small bucket of ice cubes and tongs so you can cool down your wine. We discover they do the same with red wines. The girls had wine, Reg had a Quilmes, a popular light lager, and Gord ordered a "red" ale. I had never heard beer described as "red" before but it seems to be an Argentine type. Perhaps our "amber" would be the same?

Kate, who was navigating with her cane, asked for the washroom (¿Dónde está el baño?) only to discover that "No, we don't have one for customers. You need to walk out of the restaurant and down the street." Actually they took pity on her and let her use the restroom upstairs for the staff (missing soap though). It's not very reassuring that the staff  use this washroom. Reg found the public restroom down the street before getting on the boat and foolishly walked into the women's side. My cousin Walter tells me, "Reg, look for the names Al Fondo - Damas y Caballero".

The Tigre Delta is a distributed community of homes and services that can only be reached by water. On the city side as we start the tour we pass a number of parks, sea side restaurants, boating clubs and the impressive Museo de Arte Tigre.  Most of the islands we saw are pretty swampy with levees around the rim to keep the water at bay. There are many boats servicing the community including taxis, school buses, and grocery stores that ply their wares. There's also a municipal service, again by boat, that brings around bottled water and takes away the garbage. There are no roads and bridges in the Delta. From the air, Beunos Aires ends abruptly at Tigre with the crowded city separated by water from the lush green delta.

After our afternoon nosh at Tribu San Isidro we're back at the Maipu station (where the coastal train ends and the inner city train at Bartolomé Mitre begins) we waited for an Uber but after a while gave up and continued on inner city transit. It's quite comprehensive like London England, New York and Paris (of course). Toronto's transit system is laughable by comparison. We also took the underground subway system for part of our return trip and lastly a quick Uber home. The transit system is fast, clean, modern, and very inexpensive. We liked it a lot and it was easy to navigate with Gord and Leslie as they had figured it out already! You could easily live in this city without a car.

Finally, at several places along the train line, saw these small blue government signs saying "Las Islas Malvinas son Argentinas" (the Malvinas Islands, aka as the British Falklands, are Argentine). Oddly we bumped into the same at the Belgrano train station. You might recall that the ARA General Belgrano was an Argentine war ship sunk in the Falklands War of 1982. These "patriotic" blue signs seem to me to be a classic deflection by the government in power — stop worrying about these real problems (e.g., hyper inflation) and worry about that problem!

Oral History - Correspondence

The "BOLD", Juno Beach

On November 10 Kate and I were in Panama City, Panama on our way to Buenos Aires for a holiday with Gord and Leslie. My thoughts turned to those who are remembered on November 11, especially my uncle Mac. I have a copy of a type-written paper, given to me by Nancy Hiseman (uncle Mac's daughter, my cousin), which was authored by a "Karen Sykes" while a history student at Western.

With a little bit of research on Google I discovered that someone with the same name and Western background is a professor at Manchester University in the United Kingdom. So I wrote to her, hoping this was the same person, to ask permission to share her paper:

I believe you did an oral history of my Uncle Mac Dixon when you were at Western. I have a copy of your type written report dated Jan 3, 1983 where you had interviewed him in Mitchell. I'd like to share it on my blog to honor Mac on Nov 11.

Do you mind?

My intention is, and remains, to transcribe the text but I haven't done that yet.

Shortly thereafter on Friday morning November 11, we had arrived Thursday evening in Beunos Aires, I received her reply and additional insight to the experiences of those who survived D-day:

Dear Mr Quinton

Thank you very much for writing to me. Did you know that Mac's son Gordon had been my classmate in high school?

As the years go on, I have grown increasingly aware of what a great privilege it has been to have known the veterans of that extraordinary event called D-Day. We will not see the like of men like Mac and his generation again. My mother, who still lives in Mitchell told me when he died. It saddened me. I since have looked for a cassette tape of the interview in my mother's house, but I think it does not exist. Of course, I would send it to your uncle's family if I do ever find it.

The transcript you have is probably a copy of one I deposited in the First Hussars Regimental Museum in 1983. I'm happy you might use it. Matters of intellectual property have changed and escalated dramatically since that decade when I interviewed Mac, and if there are any rights to reuse, I imagine that the Regiment 'possesses' the copy right. To my mind, its greatest value lies in sharing it with others, and your blog is a fine place to do that.

It was a piece of research work undertaken while I was in the final year of my undergraduate history degree at the University of Western Ontario. The class was taught by Professor Jack Hyatt (also a veteran) and focused on the practice of oral history. Each student collected two interviews, and as it happened, I spoke each of Roger Pauli (Pop - because he was a father when he enlisted) and William Dixon (Mac) of the First Hussars. It was happenstance that led me to members of the same regiment, and a bit unusual too - most of the men around Mitchell and Stratford would have joined the Perth Regiment (infantry).

Pop and Mac were in different squadrons C and B respectively. I mention it because the entirety of Mac's squadron B died near Brettville about two weeks after the landing, known now as the regiment's 'black day'. It remained difficult to know what happened to them from the few gathered accounts of only a handful of men to return. But it seems the squadron had been ambushed. I am unsure that my interview did not go deeply into his experience that day, but Mac felt that he had given the fullest account of what happened to the higher in command at an earlier time. It is a terrible thing to remember an entire squadron destroyed - I believe about 50 1st Hussars supporting the same number of men in the Regina Rifles infantry in that field. In later years, I've spoken of Mac's experience of the first month after D-Day to others I've met while living in England, a few men who are serving or retired military. They say little more than let out a low gasp at the loss of an entire unit of nearly 100 men in one afternoon. "Those guys" One said, "we don't get orders (in Afghanistan and Iraq) like that anymore" and said no more.

But the story of the first month of the war really was Mac's to tell, and not mine. Looking back at the whole of his time in the north of France, in a strange way the hectic experience of losing his tank in the stormy waters on the morning of the invasion might have been a blessing: Tank drivers did not last long during the first months in France. When a tank was shelled and then burned, the route out was too complex to escape quickly to safety. Most drivers died while breathing air so hot that it destroyed their lungs.

Two comments remain in my memory (I do not have the transcript that you do) One of the two men, perhaps Roger Pauli commented to me, that the problem facing the armoured regiments during the D-Day landing was neither the storm or the remaining mines on the coral reef near Juno beach, it was simply that tanks don't float"

Mac shared a story of the end of the month of fighting, when they finally were sure that the Caen peninsula was secured, and they had a base in Normandy. General Montgomery visited them. After a short speech in which he shared that Churchill had known that the first wave of the invasion force would not make it and believed neither would the second wave but thought that the third stood a reasonable chance, he concluded "So, Well done Boys, you made it!" I can hear Mac's voice commenting to me, "What kind of thing to say was that!" But Mac had the paused before he shared that after his short speech, the General shook the hand of every soldier of every regiment assembled in the town of Caen and walked up and down lines of them to do so.

with all good wishes

Professor Karen Sykes

Director of Postgraduate Research,

Social Anthropology

With Professor Sykes permission I shared what have posted to my blog. Our conversation continued over email. I wrote back to thank her and said:

Gosh, you've shared so much and I've learned about things I'd never heard before. I had no idea.

I'm 70, just a little older than Gordon. Walter, the older brother, is my age. As I age these stories become more important to preserve. I'm not a historian, not even the family historian.

Mac never talked about the war, or at least that was the lore. At my mom's funeral, she was Mac's older sister, he said the war was a complete waste of time, that so many had died, and that nothing had changed. I increasingly understand how he must feel.

Your kind words and insight is appreciated.

Today we're in Beunos Aires. On the plane I watched the recent version of "All Quiet on the Western Front". The idea of silly young boys going off on an adventure only to discover the frightening reality of the battlefield probably applies to Mac. The pictures of him as a cocky, proud recruit make me wonder. All wars are awful ... we have a colleague in Kharkiv who is living through the current one. I never imagined we would be living through another.

I also shared with her my blog so she could see what I had posted and shared the correspondence with family and many replied that they were not aware of this story. David, my next older brother, replied

....I can't thank you enough for sharing the attached "oral history" covering Uncle Mac. I had no idea that this interview, this record even existed. How did you come across this major piece of information?

Like you, the interview in question outlines a lot of facts re Uncle Mac's experiences...and that of Uncle Walter to a lesser extent...which I never heard of before. It's an amazing recounting of his life and in great detail. One can almost "hear" Uncle Mac speaking to the interviewer in very honest and polite terms.

As family, I recall being encouraged to not question Uncle Mac on his wartime experience. If he wanted to share something, that was fine; but, don't question him out of concern for his own well-being. This interview tells us so much and provides so much detail....especially the horror of war, the sacrifices made by so many, and, the truly AMAZING fact that Uncle Mac even survived. Talk about a cat living 9 lives!!

In the end, aside from reinforcing our memories of Uncle Mac as family, and, truly outlining his heroic and selfless acts of bravery in foreign lands during WWII, I can't think of a better and more honest war-time movie yet to be made. It makes one both proud to have known Uncle Mac, and, humble in dealing with today's inconsequential challenges.

Tony, my oldest surviving brother, added his comments:

There isn't much I can add to David's comments. Every time I hear about his wartime experiences I learn something new. How he lived through it all is truly amazing. He was an modest man and I'm so proud to be related to him. Thanks for tracking down this history.

Our niece Alison shared her comments: 

Thank you Uncle Reg for passing Uncle Mac’s interview along. I just finished the read through…just can’t believe what he went through…staying alive so long in the waters and crawling for miles, I just can’t believe his strength and will to survive. To think back then too, the horrors of war he went through and coming home, how he survived PDST when it wasn’t identified back then. I wonder how Aunt Shirley was able to support him and guide him for the rest of his life. An amazing woman. I talk to Colin every year on Remembrance Day about Uncle Mac and Uncle Walter.  This summer, we took him to the Canadian War Plane museum where we actually found Uncle Walter’s name in their directory.

It’s extremely sad to hear what is going on in Ukraine and to have you actually know someone there I’m sure breaks your heart even more. To think they may not have power during the winter months…

 And to these family comments and memories I added:

I'm pretty sure I got this from Nancy. Just doing my part to share and preserve in this digital world. It is available through the archives of the 1st Hussars.

I read it over again this morning before sharing. It is quite the story. Still brings tears. Karen Syke's insight in her note is so helpful.

On the way here to Beunos Aires on the 10th I watched the recent version of "All Quiet on the Western Front". A different war, and from the perspective of the other side, but the story of silly young men off on a lark only to discover hell on earth rings true in the stories uncle Mac was able to relate about his time in battle. The smiling pictures of a cocky young recruit we have contrast so sharply with the battle stories.

Sadly we are here again. You might have seen some of my FB postings about our friend Igor in Kharkiv who lives with daily bombardment by Russian invaders of homes and critical infrastructure in his home town in Ukraine. Over 260 days learning to live in this current hell.

The new world order continues to defy common sense.

Professor Sykes replied and added more details. Especially her recollections of the interview and her knowledge of the wider context. In particular, it seems that there was an expectation that D-day might have failed (cf. the Dieppe landing) and that many more would have died before there was a successful landing in Europe.

Thank for posting the interview Mr Quinton. I've no copy myself, and not read it since I sent it to the regimental archive. I winced as I read it because I could see that I was 'tone deaf' to Mac's experience and missed chances to nudge him into a fuller story.

All Quiet on the Western Front is an extraordinary book. It amongst the best of the literary works that give us reasons not to go to war as a 'solution'. And Mac and Shirley too were right that the war cost too many young men their lives. It left its marks for years later on them, and on Mac too. I see it's not recorded in the interview here, but Mac did speak more freely and more animatedly when we were done the formal part.

I think Mac suspected that the generals created the tragedy his unit suffered of the 11 June. The war records were embargoed for 50 years (some 100) and therefore the events were not much discussed for several decades, but later historians think that it seems plausible that Mac's regiment had been sent ahead as a decoy that day. The 1st Hussars met the main German Panzer Division into combat north of the advance of the rest of main push towards Caen. In regimental history its said that the sacrificed men enabled the success of the day. But, that's how war histories are written for the official record.

It's taken a very long time to get the more human story. I think that interview is pretty pale by comparison to what later records would show. A few years ago, I thought of Mac's somewhat bitter recollection of Montgomery's speech, and his perception that the general had admitted that Churchill and others believed that they were sending two waves of the invasion to death on D-Day. After some embargoes on military records lifted in 1995, amongst other things researchers got access to the early maps of the invasion plans. The maps recorded the beaches by different fish. On that first map Juno Beach was named Jelly (fish) Beach, the others Gold (fish) Sword (fish), etc... remained the same on later versions of the plans. One historian doggedly researched the reasons or the changes only to find Churchill's papers and diaries recorded it. Jelly became Juno because Churchill couldn't bear to think that he would send young Canadian and British men to die at a place with a silly name.

Well, today the BBC reminded us that the war poet, Sigfried Sasson said only Lucifer would want humans to forget what they commemorate on 11 November. That might be true.

Thanks for putting up the interview. It's good to know it has some use.

Professor Karen Sykes

Director of Postgraduate Research,

Social Anthropology

My final correspondence to Professor Sykes was to thank her for her permission to us the interview and to let her know that her comments were shared as well 

I have shared the blog with family and friends via Facebook. Many really appreciate your work and are pleased, nay stunned, to read of his recollections. We all wince about our youth, yes I could have done better is easy to say, it's harder to have been. We're older than that now.

I share your notes with family who are keen to know more. I hope you don't mind.

I will come back to this story in my blog and fill in the details that you've shared. Your insight is very much appreciated and sadly not known by us. We walked carefully around Mac knowing, or being told, of the damage war had done.

Ps. I am simply Reg, not Mr Quinton. I am a UWO graduate as well and around about the time you were graduating in History I was developing email solutions at Western before we had an internet.

Again, many thanks. You've been too kind.

Congress and the Gran Taberna

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Today we continue to explore and dine in the neighborhood. We walk a few blocks to the Gran Taberna pictured at left for lunch.

This restaurant is just behind the Congress (i.e., the National Legislature or "Congreso de la Nación Argentina") so I suppose they get a lot of traffic from well heeled staff and legislators. We're here because it's a good restaurant for sea food and pescetarians like Kate. There's middle aged male servers dressed in white shirts, bow ties and vests; crisp table cloths; lovely bread and olive oil appetizer while we select from a large menu.

We each order a dish and share some wine. In the album there's a picture of the cod, potatoes and chick-pea dish I ordered. It would have been enough to feed all four of us and the remaining three of us ordered likewise large dishes. The waiter had cautioned us that perhaps we were ordering a bit too much but that must have got lost in translation. It was an incredible feast and we ended up taking much of it home which we had as leftovers for several days following.

The Congress itself is a very grand building very much in the style of what one would expect in Paris or some European country. Nearby are likewise impressive Beaux Artes buildings including an odd spire with a wind mill. There's a lot of fine architecture here. In front is a large green space: the Plaza del Congreso with the grand fountain Monumento a los Dos Congresos (currrently dry and fenced off) and assorted monuments including a version of Rodin's "The Thinker" at the far end. We are back another day when we try to catch a hop on/hop off bus tour of the city.

That evening we have we're on our roof top patio of our flat on Moreno in Balvanera watching the sunset. Gord and Leslie practice their Tango dance.

BellaGamba & Parolaccia

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It's our first full day in Buenos Aires and the morning in the Balvanera neighborhood starts with a dance lesson. Gord and Leslie are keen about learning the Tango (as in it takes two to tango) and have arranged for private lessons from a teacher they've met at a Tango club (more on that another day). Kate used to teach dance lessons and I'm constitutionally unable to grasp any dance moves so we're only onlookers.

There's some pictures of their AirBnB rental and street scenes in the neighborhood. They have private access to a large roof top patio where we often go to enjoy the end of day and a glass of wine. The building is only two stories with a shop on the ground level, us on the second and the roof top patio above us.

We walk only a few blocks to have lunch at the Bellagamba (does that mean nice legs or great shrimp?). It's a neighborhood restaurant that Gord and Leslie know, having been before. We are careful about how far we can walk as both Kate and I have some mobility problems. Kate is using a cane which helps quite a bit. Gord and Leslie are very accommodating and it turns out we do pretty well.

The restaurant is only a few blocks away on Rivadavia (we're on Moreno) which seems to be a major shopping street. Along the way we admire the many Beaux Artes era buildings. Gord and Leslie's place is a prime example with wrought iron balconies, large rooms with high ceilings, a servant's quarters and what would have been an inner courtyard. Streets in the area are tree lined and well shaded with many ground floor shops. Along the way we pass a plaque to "Carlos Gardel" who Leslie tells us was an Argentine singer/songwriter/performer and an important character in the history of Tango (the dance and music). We also pass a Tango dinner club (Café de los Angelitos) where one goes for an expensive dinner in a very classy joint to watch dancers — we investigate and discover that it's too expensive (and for tourists) so we pass in favor of another club farther afield where real folks (like Gord and Leslie) go to dance and to learn to dance.

Leslie is awfully concerned about me and my camera. I'm intentionally travelling light with only the one camera (I often travel with several, a camera bag, various lenses, etc.) and have it secured with a neck strap and a wrist strap. It's well secured and would be hard to grab away from me. Nevertheless, I'm often approached by friendly neighbors telling me to be careful, watch out you'll get robbed and so on. As we're wandering the streets, Leslie brings up the rear making sure I'm not left behind and vulnerable to a snatch and grab. I've bumped into this before, especially in Brazil, and really don't want to stop taking pictures and documenting our memories. In retrospect I never felt threatened in all our travels around Buenos Aires. There are more dangerous places we have visited, e.g., New Orleans and Chicago.

We have our lunch outside on the street and enjoy some white and Malbec red wine. Service is a little slow but it's busy at the restaurant and in the neighborhood. When served it's one of those meals with good food, huge portions and, for us, very modest prices.

That afternoon we visited a neighborhood mall (the Spinetto Shopping Center) and wine store (El Franjamar where they remember your name) to stock up our supplies. Along the way, just a half block away, there's a small corner restaurant, Parrilla El Litoral, where we're promised a good feed of grilled beef on another night. Kate makes sure they have some vegetarian sides. Beef is a big thing in Argentina, they have lots of it. The butcher counter at the market within the shopping center was packed to the gunnels with huge hunks of beef. Gord tells me the butcher will carve off steaks and roasts as you like it. 

That evening we have dinner with our friend Myriam, a colleague and friend of ours through the KBS (the international conferences Kate has been attending for many years). Myriam has recommended an Italian restaurant, La Parolaccia Recoleta, which is in the Recoleta/Barrio Norte neighborhood. There's a large group of very fine restaurants, with outdoor patios overlooking the parkland. It's very near the famous Recoleta Cemetery (lots of sculptures and famous grave sites, e.g., Eva Peron). We met Myriam as we arrived and were greeted warmly with a big hug. Myriam says we are her favorite KBS couple. 

We have a reservation at a table inside. Kate and I would rather eat outside but Myriam says we might be bothered by panhandlers and beggars which, as far as we've seen, are few and far between. I've seen more street people in London and Toronto than here.

The restaurant is a gourmet's delight with white table cloths, formally dressed waiters and wine stewards, an excellent menu, and, by Buenos Aires standards, quite expensive. But we ate our fill with appetizers, main courses and desserts slurping down lots of Argentine white and red wines (Malbec). At the end I think it amounted to about $40CA per person which ends up being quite a stack of peso notes. At home it would have been probably at least $150 a person. Reg had a plate of Cacio e Pepe — a very simple dish done very well  — and a mango flavored panna cotta for dessert.

Gord and Leslie are very familiar with the neighborhood having stayed nearby in the spring. Gord is currently taking Spanish lessons nearby in the park.

Gord and Leslie got us back and forth this evening via Uber.

—

This morning, November 11 being Veteran's Day, I've been in communications with a Professor Sykes of Manchester University in England. She was raised nearby in Mitchell (Ontario), was a history student at Western (London) in 1983 and had written an oral history of a couple of veterans of D-Day and World War II. One was my uncle William (Mac) Dixon. She kindly gave me permission to publish that account to be shared with family and friends.