From nostrilizing to distant memories
I know it’s totally silly, but I’m still trying to stop laughing…
I turned on the TV this morning, just to have a different background sound while having breakfast. Usually there’s my cat bugging for no reason and my overly-polite German Shepard having her breakfast too, the only dog who would eat with knife & fork if she could. I’ve never seen a dog eating so slowly! My other dog instead (Golden Retriever) is a very, very fast eater.
I was saying? Ah yes, the TV. So, 99% of the channels have infomercials in the morning, like we don’t have enough of those during the day. BUT on one channel I found… *drums roll*
¡¡¡Three Amigos!!!
WOW, I haven’t seen it in ages, I’m cracking up (see, nostrilizing). They are doing that wacky ballet in front of the bad guy in the pueblo, haha. And ever since I saw Steve Martin playing the banjo at the Muppets Show (ages ago, again) and another show I don’t remember the name of, I can’t help laughing, in a good way of course, as he is an amazing player.
Anyway, I like when old stuff like a movie, a picture, a song or just a simple memory or a smell, brings me back in time. A trip down to memory lane…
Maybe I should write down all these memories. Someday my memory will start serving me less and less. I won’t remember them anymore and they will be gone forever *sigh* See, I’m one of those people who loves collecting: CDs and DVDs lately, but the collecting addiction started very early in age, focusing on:
- maps,
- champagne / spumante metal caps (being a 12 years old kid, I would just walk around the living room after my parents’ dinners with friends, then I improved my technique and switched to bugging the bartender or waiter at restaurants) and…
- books: books and books and… books!
Here in Ecuador what I miss the most are bookstores, spending a lot of my spare time in there. There are a couple of good ones, but 98% of what they sell is 1- in Spanish (which I don’t mind reading) and 2- from Spanish/Latinos authors, which yes, I do mind a little, as I believe there are great authors who are not Spanish/Latinos, but oh well…
(haha, what a nice fake background on The Three Amigos! Go studios, haha…)
So, given that here my books addiction had to be kept under control, I turned to another type of addiction, which was quietly coming out during my previous trips: musical instruments! Most of which I cannot play, of course.
Here they are some good quality ones and pretty cheap compared to other countries I’ve been, so I got myself
- another guitar (have a Spanish one in Italy that I couldn’t bring here),
- a charango (close to an ukulele but 500 times harder to play),
- an indio ocarina,
- a pan flute and
- a wooden flute.
Aside from the guitar, which I bought here in Quito, there’s a market in Otavalo (an hour or so from here) where you can buy typical instruments for a few bucks. The guy even shows you how to play them: impromptu lessons.
(The singing bush scene! Oh man…)
Well, I think I’ve written enough rambles this morning. I’d better get my day started. It’s already 8.45am and though my classes are over and have no tests left to grade, I’ve got to work on the shooting we did yesterday at a hospital, where some volunteers help poor people paying their treatment partially or totally, depending on the patient means. I’m finding out that here in Ecuador you can really do so much good with so little, and helping these Volunteering Associations coming out of the shadows is the least I can do.
Have a good day, y’all! And Happy 4th of July!
