It has been an interesting sort of day. First of all there was a guard changing ceremony at the memorial to the fallen during the 1982 dispute over the Falkland Islands. I then strolled back to the Paseo de los Granaderos memorial statue in Plaza San Martin. I was sitting on a bench minding my own business when a movement off to my right caught my attention. There was a young man that had dropped to one knee in-front of a young lady. He reached up and took her hand and it was immediately obvious that he was proposing and the response was equally obvious.
I left them to it for a few minutes and then when they were calming down I walked over and asked if they spoke English. It transpired they are an American couple and my observations were correct. I congratulated them, wished them luck for their future and then asked them to do it all over again. Hence the title picture. Typical old man though, I forgot to ask their names. Perhaps they will leave a message on here.
Thinking that would be it for the day I returned to my bench and suddenly realised I could hear music playing away behind me and I didn’t have my I-pod with me! Once again I got up and walked a short distance to find a 50 piece symphony orchestra playing various musical pieces that I assumed were mainly from South American composers as I didn’t recognise any. I was told this was a community concert celebrating one of their revolutions. As they have had several I didn’t like to ask which in case it was the one ousting the British. Anyway they were excellent and I stayed listening for about an hour.
I believe I have uncovered a dastardly plot to stop Bridget and myself from being the first to complete a round the world solo drive in an MG and try to complete it themselves ahead of us.
The main suspect is a South African trying to pose as an Australian, but I was suspicious from the start. His first ploy was to attempt to distract me with talk of travelling through China, something I’ve publicly declared I would like to do.
Ever since that first meeting I have been ‘unluckily’ held up with floods ahead of me, roads washed out, water trying to sweep us of the road and then problems with the sea journey from Freemantle to Buenos Aires.
Instead of the obvious route across part of the Southern Ocean and then the South Atlantic someone persuaded the shipping line to take the car all the way up the African coast, no doubt hoping Somali pirates would hijack it, then through the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean and finally across the Atlantic. This added several weeks to the journey.
This was followed by hold-ups in the unloading dock area, problems contacting customs agents and now, the coup de grace, a dock strike!!
Dock strikes can of course last for just a couple of hours or go on for months (particularly if a British style union is involved). Anyway we will not be beaten although we are now stuck here, eating great food and drinking excellent wine in the sun, until at least next Thursday.
I am now going to pass the weekend relaxing without having to concern myself with being available for meetings with officials or perched on the edge of my seat half expecting to get the car back.