Big Shopping Day

Today I decided to go buy a new pillow. The temporary ones supplied by the company are like airline pillows. I grabbed a tuk tuk to Arpico which is considered the Wal Mart of Colombo.

The tuk tuk driver told me that today was a Poya day, full moon Buddhist holiday, thus lack of traffic etc. Most Buddhist go to the temple today to pray etc.

Arpico was pretty much what I expected, I'd say a decent selection of items. Thankfully they did have several pillows to choose from and I bought a nice feather pillow for 585 Rupees. I also picked up some cleaning supplies.

The tuk tuk driver told me he would wait for me, and there was a parking lot just for that. That being tuk tuk drivers waiting for their passengers to return.

Given between letting me pay him for the one way ride and sending him on his way to drive up and down the streets looking for a fare or sitting in the parking lot and and having a guaranteed fare back, he would gladly do that. He didn't tell me how poor he was, in fact h showed me a picture of his son and some friendly chit chat, nothing more.

Deals Galore

I went to our company commissary and decided the check out the discount rack. Was surprised to see 2 jars of marshmallow creme for only .60 a jar. Apparently it was thought that it would be a big hit with the American's but it hardly sold, no problem for Doc! I love the stuff : ) Heat it up and put it on top of some ice cream yum!

I took another trip there today and found 2 bags of my favorite Starbucks coffee, Expresso Roast, for 1/2 off! I snatched both bags before you can say java time!

Tour of the city

So I went on a half day driving tour of the city. First impressions? The traffic is by far the worst I have ever seen in my life! We took a small tour bus and I swear the driver had nerves of steel!

Saw some interesting things, would have been nice if I brought my camera (DOH!) but some of the folks who did take pictures will share them with me. There was this Hindu temple that was almost cartoonish in how it looked, hate to say this, it was a little creepy too! We visited a Buddhist temple complete with big golden Buddah's and big old elephant (A real one). There was a couple getting married in traditional Sri Lankan outfits with drummers and dancers. Let me tell you, wow. The bride was barefoot in a ankle length gold colored dress and roses in her hair, she looked beautiful, the groom wore traditional royal garbs, it was pretty cool. We visited a place to buy what I call, more stuff for your house. Some cool things but did I need any of it?

The day finished off with lunch at a nice restaurant. I had some Thai green curry, it was spicy but not overly so.

We work half days on Fridays so when we returned I had the rest of the day off : )

Windy nights

The nights have been very cool and very windy. Right now the wind is
howling at 20+mph, it was like that last night. It is nice though, very
nice breeze blowing through the apartment. Skies were all gray today
with low clouds. Rain is foretasted for the next three days.

Now you see it... Part 2

So I make a trip to the grocery store and needed to get more cat food as
the cats just tore through the Whiskas. It was a small bag, half a
kilo. The Whiskas I had purchased was pollo y leche (Chicken and milk),
I knew they liked it so I wanted to get more. You know where this is going.

Not a single bag on the shelf. Plenty of other Whiska flavors, but it
can be risky. I decided for a 1 kilo bag of atune y sardine (Tuna and
sardine) hoping they would like it.

My fears where quickly quenched when the feeder made it to the floor. I
think the cats are still eating it. I put the old stuff in a zip lock
bag for emergencies.

Now you see it...

Now you don't.

Went to the store to pick up some cat food. First it was the Whiska's
pouch food that was pretty well stocked, now haven't seen it in months
and I don't expect it to make a comeback. Well I had been feeding the
cats some expensive Pro Plan stuff that cost and arm and a leg. I was
able to ween them to some generic Argentine made cat food and all was
going well, and at a 1/3 of the price of Pro Plan, good for me. Well
guess what, not a single bag of the generic cat food on the shelf.
Fortunately they had a decently priced substitute but I know the cats
won't be happy.

Muzak Attack

One funny thing that I noticed about shopping at the local grocery store has to be their choice of muzak, mostly classic rock and roll songs. Amusing in the fact that classic rock and roll songs that would be in English, not the most favorite music here.

Another thing about the muzak is it sure makes me feel old! Today at the grocery store I heard 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen,wow, never would have though that would make the muzak circuit, but then we heard 'Shine on you crazy diamond' by Pink Floyd, double wow!

So I'm guessing here that everyone knows what muzak is, for those of you who don't it's the instrumental music that is playing in the background at the mall etc. that usually has that lounge lizard feel to it.

Buy it when you can

One thing about shopping overseas is you have to buy it when you can! It's one of the first things I pointed out to Chris when we went shopping. If there was something on the shelves and she was buying one, I'd tell her she might as well get two or more because you never know if it would be on the shelves the next time we went shopping.

I've talked about cat food before. The last time I went shopping the grocery store had none of the stuff the cats like, only some strange looking stuff in a can.

I took my chances.

It didn't look so bad, I put some in the bowls. Well it hasn't gone over very well. They ate some of it for a couple of days, now they just look at the bowls and walk away.

Maybe this week the other stuff will come in.

Food shopping in Montevideo

Just returned from are usual trip to the mercado to pick up the usual staple items.  Our refrigerator is a bit smaller than it's USA cousin so we can only get so much.
The prices are generally reasonable, as I had mentioned before the beef prices are by far the best.

As you can imagine the fruits and vegetable that are not South American or grown locally can be priced anywhere from wow, to oh wow!

Other food items can also be quite expensive, case in point.  I noticed there was only one type of whipped cream on the shelf, around $7USD.  Most likely locally made too!

The peaches and strawberries are in season, mmmmm.  Priced cheap!

One vegetable that always makes us laugh is the bell peppers, be it red, green or yellow.  They are always HUGE!  I took a photo next to a 2 liter bottle of wine to give you an idea how big it is.

Pictures of our walking trip to Montevideo Shopping Center

New web album

http://picasaweb.google.com/docmeyer/Trip_to_Montevideo_Shopping