the last post

at least until next winter, when i can escape the cold again....

so in the last few days before i left mexico, i was rushing with flight changes, and also, they closed the internet cafe for semana santa - holy week - so i couldn't regale you with the final news.

on my last sunday there, we went to a very posh resort, where a guy we knew was playing with his jazz band.  beautiful spot - overpriced entry fee, but great music, and a lovely pool, fantastic sun.  a woman came around to our table after the music, to say they were going to have a raffle - very spontaneous; she just ripped up bits of paper and told us to put our names on.  i said to my friends:
"take a picture of me just before i win", much to their sarcastic responses about being confident, and then, don't you know, they called my name, and i was the proud winner of one night in the honeymoon suite.
i had borrowed money to pay the exhorbitant entry fee, so was totally penniless, and my friends were going back to san pancho, which meant i had to take a bus back if i wanted to stay, so i borrowed another cinquenta pesos, and got myself settled into the enormous casa (it was not a suite, but a house) that was mine. i'll show you in pictures, although i see the computer put them in a different order:

the wall, with broken glass, around mi casa

the locked door into my territory - Casa Granada

part of the outside terrace inside the wall

one end of the living room, with marble-enclosed alcove for bed

my private jacuzzi

other end of living room and big TV

stairs up to my roof

back in san pancho at the polo club (that's not me)

triny and martin - my landlords and the fish market

the next day at my casa - naked (!) reflection in the ceiling marble

the band playing

me, elisabeth and karoul

the very confident "take it just before i win" me

NOW YOU HAVE TO GO BACK TO MY REGULAR BLOG:   zchilco.blogspot.com
for future info and blab
gracias a todo

not quite organized

this was going to be my last blog - the one i was going to post when still in sunny mexico -
what the hell is with the weather here?  it's freezing!!!
i've been a little slow to re-adjust, plus there were family gatherings over the easter weekend, and the sad news that my friend susan had died before i got back to see her.
this morning i managed to get to the library so i could post the last post, as it were, but forgot the cord for my camera, so here i sit, unable to show the final few days.

but wait!  my flash drive has those early short videos of me on the early morning crashing beach, then another wishing you 'hola';  some mexican music that was just outside my balcony and finally the stupid rooster noise, so take a look/listen until i get online again.
i love being able to see the beach again, for myself, but also for susan, because i walked there and thought of her so much, and wrote a song, which i hope eased her way into the next life.

i will be back

"you said goodbye...you slipped away...

you left this world a mournful day..." - words from a song i wrote.  it was march 23, 1985, 27 years ago, when zoot died.  "...with just your music, to tell me all the things you were..."

*****************

and today?  i played piano this morning at the red grand, which i will show you.  this is at the polo club.

now it's a very hot afternoon; i just spoke with my friend susan's husband, who told me she is getting very weak.  please pray with me that she does not "slip away" before i get back.

**********

i took karoul out to dinner last night as a thank you for all the driving around and entertaining she does for me.  a wonderful seafood place. she wants to hear some dance music tonight so we're off to sayulita, or cellulite, as i call the town.

my perfectly whorled thumb

likewise, peter pointer - perfect

el gato y el cangrejo

and lest anyone doubt the verdad - the truth - of my recent claims to spiritual advancement  ha ha,  i'll show you my perfect fingerprints - or two at least.  it takes too long to upload.  also a cat and crab on the sidewalk this morning.

obviously i haven't enough to do

and finally, me showing off my bit of tan...

"what a lovely day today...."

it was an italian movie, with giancarlo giannini and marcello mastroiano and a goil, but i can't remember the title.  no, i've got it: "a drama of jealousy and other things".  good film.  she was dancing.

so i checked the ten-day toronto weather forecast, and am revising the tentative idea i had to return a little earlier.  no like cold. 
it's spring here, as it no doubt is in toronto too - at least on the calendar - but here it actually is.  there was a parade this morning to celebrate with all the pre-schoolers in costumes - i'll put a couple of pictures up.
also got the photos of the baby sea turtles that i posted about way back, so i can show you some of them too.  don't know who the "you" includes, or if anyone reads this besides pancho canada, but it's there, for whomever has the time to follow my drivel.

the other morning i was alone on the beach when i arrived, so i had my exercise/meditation/walk/run in peace. i was becoming quite philosophical, watching the water come in and go out, thinking that each run onto the shore was like one life, when so many had been arriving there since time immemorial.  we wash in, get wiped out, then another one is there in seconds.  it's all relative, isn't it, in the zillions of years that the ocean has been pounding. so i was in a zen frame of mind.  but then the dogs - and owners - from hell arrived.  stupidos perros that came charging towards me, jumping up and all over me.  do i hate dogs like that!!  i was hollering "jesus christ!!!", and trying to knock them away, which just maybe translated my annoyance at these stupid people who won't keep their animals on a correa, a leash. 
the next morning i kept my keys, which are on a long lariat, handy in my hands to whap at the idiots if they reappeared.  how quickly serenity and love goes out the window, eh?  idiots.
this morning i was back, and standing in one spot, and espied, just turning my head ever so slightly, the jerks with their dogs now safely leashed.  my contribution to customer satisfaction.

baby sea turtles just before release

scrambling to the sea, where they will swim for 6 days to reach the current

the king of primavera taking a drink while the queen looks on

the zumba routine seems to be waning for me.  jumping about non-stop with no thought to stretching or my own body's needs, as opposed to those of the woman who runs it, just doesn't suit me.  i go, but i often end up by just doing my own thing along with the music.  just like my real life.

as for the "access consciousness" treatment i had - that throwback to the 60's hippies and gurus - i must be perfect already. well, i sort of knew that years ago, when another one of those 'spiritual guides' looked at the whorls of my fingerprints, and was astounded to see they were all "whole", - round and complete, - which is apparently very unusual.  I hate to brag, but....
in any case, i've been waiting for some super consciousness to arrive, but alas, i'm just 'xactly like  i was.  she had told me that all the points cleared, no problem.  i must be amazing. and I must introduce my head to my soul sometime.   will be massaging her, in return payment, this afternoon.

a few spring frogs dancing

let's all keep dancing.

ET LA MER EFFACE SUR LE SABLE.....

...les pas des amants desunis. - The sea wipes from the sand the footprints of separated lovers. - from the song "Les Feuilles Mortes", or in english - "Autumn Leaves".

Today, just about everything i've tried to do has been wiped out, but before i get into that, here's what was going on over the weekend.
Actually, can't remember much of saturday - oh yes, it was nice for the morning walk/run, then enjoyable while i read and the mexican music was playing on the street, with the neighbour guy singing along very loudly.  sort of local colourish, you know?  but then another fiesta started to compete with their very loud music, and it was sort of like two boomer rap radio stations on those cars - where the bass reverberates right through you.  i got, how you say? - very enojada, which means pissed off, and was stomping off to the beach to escape, which was nice until the people down the way actually did start to play rap music.  why do they all have to play at top volume, i wonder?

fortunately, k came over and saved me - took me away in her car to her cool house, where we downed vodka and tonics - ( i think i could seriously start to drink here ) - and then we tucked into some chicken and roast potatoes before watching a funny film called "Hysteria".  i stayed over, and the next day we went to a few markets down the highway, before ending up at a new beach where we sat on lounge chairs, i swam in the ocean, and we drank and ate nachos.  altogether very pleasant, and i have some very lobsterish thighs to show for it.

also some pics:



a community building - san pancho

mango-on-a-stick vendor at sunday beach

my after-ocean-swim salty hair

leaving the sunday beach



san pancho beach - la mer effacing

sunday night sunset at san pancho beach, with runner

so nice, nice, very nice, but today - ho boy!  did the early morning run/walk, then after breakfast walked the fairly long distance to the polo club to get in my piano playing, which i hadn't done since friday.  it was closed!!, and that made me way too early for a nearby appointment, so i just sat on the kerb for a bit, then came home and read.  got to the appointment later, which was a session to have my consciousness accessed - good luck, there!! - no really, it's a kind of therapy which is called "access consciousness" - you can look it up online, i haven't yet.  basically just touching your head a lot, so i relaxed real good, but i think i would have relaxed just as much lying on my bed.  still, the results are supposed to be active over the next little while, so we'll see what my mind pukes up.

went home, ate more chicken and potatoes, read, then went out to the internet cafe.  walked right past it by accident, so back the block and a half, to find it closed - walked another 2 blocks and a half to another cafe, where the internet didn't work, so here i am  60 miles later at the first place, where the guy has returned, presumably from his dinner.

maybe i wasn't supposed to do anything today

the search continues

can't seem to find a keyboard; one guy who would have let me use his, loaned it to someone who trashed it.

meanwhile, sad to hear about aunt theresa.  if i had my list of contacts on email, i would write the merizzis, but cannot remember addresses.  may she fly the heavens in peace and joy.

and here on earth, it's pretty gorgeous today - full sun is back, after some cloudy, but still lovely days. i had been looking forward to this break i.e. the trip down here -  to give my brain a new wash; to open up new possibilities or directions for myself, but i don't seem to be getting anything from the universe, not right now.

yesterday, on my early morning walk/run on the beach, i sat down for a bit, waiting for inspiration on the shore.  the waves pounded and rolled and i listened for the secrets to be revealed, but - nada....Later that night i was on the beach again for the hopefully less damaging rays of the sun.  the waves had increased in size, and i watched a family that was nearby:  three small kids, and an older girl and boy.  they raced along the beach, back and forth, timed by the father:  "marka!  listo! corra!!", while the surf pounded and rolled some more.  it reminded me of being young, and the universality of children's play, so amazingly cleansing.  just freedom and happiness, and the whole rest of the world has no existence.  two adult men came along and joined in the runs, and the whole scene was laughter and brilliant light and roiling waters, and the sun about forty minutes from sinking down to thailand. 

i went home when it disappeared, and made my noodles with beetach (remember that, chris?) - beet leaves, which taste like spinach.  when you add a bit of real cheese and organic cilantro hummus, it improves kraft dinner (crap dinner, as i always call it), a lot.

heard that last weekend was unseasonably warm in toronto, and got to thinking about changing the flight back to be there for easter, but air canada wants a fortune for that, and besides, it's still too cold, so it's plan A, as before.

what i look up at every morning when i awaken

the beach on saturday morning

 from the town i didn't like, except for this building

today's photos.
agus go raibh an la padraig go maith.  which maybe, in my broken irish, means happy st. patrick's day.  tomorrow, that is. and i don't know how to say saint.  buicheas le Dia.  meaning thanks be to god, even if it doesn't make any sense. taim anois.  i'm going now.  yo me voy.

singing in san pancho

well, it is my blog.

so what`s been happening? you must know my routine by now.  beach, zumba, class if it's tues or wed, internet, piano, walk walk walk, and eat.  what else is there?  some reading time, and the occasional dinner out with karoul and her friends; maybe a movie - watched "hitchcock" last night.

i had word that i looked a little washed out in the last picture i posted of myself, so to rectify that, i have some more, including the one from last night.  there is a couple in town who own a huge studio in seattle, i believe - their kids run it now - they've recorded eric clapton and lionel ritchie, among others.  the guy had a gig last night, so we went, and he let me sing a couple of songs while he took his break.  i may get my own gig from that (this is different from the other place i mentioned), but comme toujours, the piano is missing.  so still working on that one.

me of course

my "sueno de amor" pillow - dream of love

lovely lilies and my teeny piano

street juggler taken from the van at a red light

a pic of the restaurant and me at the piano, -  and also some silly ones of me at home, then some from the trip i took today with elisabeth from vancouver to a little town north of here.  we went on the "collectivo", which is a van that picks up people till filled and charges $3. for the ride.  the town was not attractive at all, although they had a market - but since i'm running out of money, i only bought 4 beets.  i had gone to this place because they have a bank, and i wanted to cash an american express cheque, but didn't have my passport, so nada.

good food at that restaurant; hope i get a gig there.