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| MUDDLED MINT. SO BUSY SIPPING THAT I ALMOST FORGOT TO GET A PICTURE. |
We signed Monday on the dotted line. Well, more exactly, we signed — in triplicate — in the margin of every page and then at the bottom of the last page of our apartment contract. We then rushed to the bank to meet with our English-speaking banker, Rosario, who turned out to be our English-speaking banker, Amin, although no one told us it wasn't Rosario until the next day. We signed about 90 pieces of paper at the bank and we now have a Spanish bank account. We are waiting for the building owners to sign our lease paperwork, so we can take that to the appropriate offices to make our first (and, we hope, only) pass at obtaining our resident cards. We still have to get the utilities turned on. It took us the better part of a day to figure out the names of the two utility companies. Even the simplest task becomes a major learning opportunity. So many new chances to feel like complete idiots.
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| ANOTHER DINNER IN PLAZA MARIA LA BLANCA TUESDAY NIGHT. |
BACK TO CARMELA
Our new security blankets are our mojitos at Carmela. We tried Mojitos at San Marco Restaurant the other night but they were so bad that we actually sent them back. Carmela's are consistently good. So are Carmela's tapas. We had "comfort" tapas last night — light servings of meat and potatoes. |
| THE MISSION-STYLE DESK WILL SOON BE IN ITS NEW HOME IN SPAIN. |
MUEBLES (FURNITURE)
Except for the five pieces of furniture and miscellaneous items we shipped from California that will be here soon, we don't have enough furniture to fill our new three-bedroom apartment. And since we don't want to use our entire retirement budget to furnish it in grand style, we headed over to IKEA this afternoon to see how we can fill in cheaply. We had a very successful first look at IKEA and will soon take on the challenge of ordering everything and arranging for delivery (all in Spanish), and then putting it all together, which can be comical in any language. In addition to the antiques I included in earlier posts (the grandfather's clock, the antique coat rack, the antique cabinet), we've got my old Mission-style desk, our English pub table, some antique family portraits, Jerry's grandmother's mantel clock, my mother's sculpture (and needleworks and paintings), antique mirrors, and lots of wall art.
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| SOME OF THE OTHER MISCELLANY AS IT WAS BEING PACKED. |
These items and our "brilliant sense of design," should enable us to make the place homey, classy and not completely IKEA-like. I mention our brilliant sense of design since we are afterall a couple of gay men and it has been said — repeatedly and absurdly — that we ALL have a brilliant sense of design.
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| SEEN AT TABERNA MIAMI IN TRIANA THE OTHER NIGHT. NOT GOING UP ON OUR WALL. |
THE OTHER MUDDLES
So, as I mentioned, we await more paperwork that we can take to register for our resident cards. The lawyer offered today to try and turn on our utilities (since he represents the entire building) without requiring us to go in-person to the utility offices (the names of which, and addresses, we finally now have). We hope he's successful. And we'll need to make another trip to the bank because, although we have an account, we were unsuccessful yesterday setting up our online banking. The number we were given in a sealed envelope turned out to be unreadable. Very secure.
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| DOROTHY, WE ARE NOT IN CALIFORNIA ANYMORE (BUT THERE IS AN ELEVATOR) |
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