Life in the Burbs - Miami

Shut That Door!

Humitas Saturday

Fresh from a trip to the market, Arlette & The Diminutive One set about destroying the kitchen in order to make humitas. The sack of corn was a bit of a givaway, as humitas are little parcels of cooked corn and onion, wrapped in leaves. The Chicken & I were exiled to the living room for the duration.

Making humitas is a bit like buying a real Christmas tree - you are still getting needles stuck in your socks in July. Sweeping up the hairs that fall off the corn as the the leaves are pulled off is a bit like trying to bottle willow-the-wisp.

Serve up with an onion and tomato salad, and wash down with beer. Lovely.

Arlette upright before the beer
Corn mush

Making the parcels

Steaming humitas!

Mentalist

Back, due to popular demand - the original Mentalist.

Yoga

Those yoga classes are really starting to pay off.

Mine's a Pint!

I'll have none of that metric rubbish in this house!
The Chicken goes Imperial.

Mini Me

The Chicken - 5 months old.
Doll - age unknown.

Back to Basics

The Cheese Empanada has gone a bit stale. It's time to go back to basics, and get rid of all the fancy side-bar nonsense. It's time for a re-launch. I'm re-branding myself.

Prior to the birth of The Chicken (when she was born she was only 2.5 kilos, and a bit yellow, so they wrapped her in plastic and put her under the lights for a day or so, creating the 'chicken' look) The Diminutive One and I used to go out and about. I would take pictures, she would ask when lunch was. This provided the Cheese Empanada with content, for its readership of 4. I fear I have lost the 4, as currently the only out and about I do is to the fridge and back. I have returned to work, after a 2 month hiatus, but that's just a metro journey to sit in an uncomfortable chair in a dimly lit office.

Of course, The Chicken takes up a lot of time, and so she should, so The Empanada has taken a bit of a backseat of late (a child friendly backseat that adheres to international safety standards, obviously). It has also fallen out of favour somewhat, as it had to fight for my attention with an all new blog on music - http://www.itaughtmyselfhowtogrowold.blogspot.com/ - on which I collaborate with Peter D (http://www.allaboutd.com/). He drives a Fiesta and likes watching the telly.

In an attempt to rejuvenate the stale pastry of this past-its-sell-by-date website I am to once again start posting on a more regular basis, probably Chicken related items (unless something interesting happens on either my journey to a. the fridge or b. the uncomfortable chair in the dimly lit office), but you can't knock it. I've also enabled comments for the first time. This will let you ooooh and aaaaaah over snaps of The Diminutive One holding The Chicken, and make wise ass comments about how much hair I haven't got. I read this week that Facebook now has 150,000,000 members, although now I've switched on comments they will be shaking in their boots, as a rival Social Network site, full of cheese, gives them a run for their money. All Hail The Cheese.

International House Santiago

Choose either A, B or C.

A. Aaaaah, those were the days.

B. Those were not the days.

C. I have erased all memory for the sake of my mental health.

The Train in the Clouds, Salta, Argentina 2003

A friend of mine has just come back from northern Argentina. He reminded me of a fantastic trip I had there a few years ago. These are pics from very high up a mountain, so high in fact that I saw one guy get off the train and just pass out. The air is a bit thin. I think it's one of the highest trains in the world, The Train in the Clouds, that runs from Salta.

Laughing Vid

The Chicken & Sofia

Cristina is an ex student of mine, and ex classmate of Maria's. She had little Sofia just 2 months ago. Amber was fascinated, although I suspect she really wanted to get hold of her nose and give it a good pull.

Arlette's New Flat

Maria's friend Arlette has just moved into her new apartment in downtown Santiago. She lives on the 16th floor in a building with 25 floors. Can you believe, there are 500 apartments in that building? Amber, who has taken to screaming in the face of anyone who isn't her parents, semed to like Arlette.

Here are a few pics from the flat and from the roof.

The Chicken is 4 months old!

Baby Mod

Guess who?

Amber Shea - 10 Weeks Old!

The Guvnor......

You want some????

I Don't Believe It

What do you mean it was 4-4? I just checked on the beeb and it was 4-2 with minutes to go..........
Oh just give me the bloody milk.

Amberinha Hits Two - Months Old

Agoo!

Was Chuck Berry from Chile?

The good people of Chile speak Spanish in a chewed-up impenetrable way, dropping letters and generally mauling their way through sentences. Como estas (how are you?) sounds like 'comtai?'. One of their favourite letters to drop is 's', which often goes walkabout if it's in the middle or end of a word. Hence, the word 'escudo' sounds like 'cudo', which is worth knowing as it's a brand of beer. When my parents came to visit a few years ago we got into a taxi and I rather stupidly asked to be taken to the street 'Carlos Antunez'. The taxi driver, incomprehension writ large across his face as I continued to ask for 'Carlos Antunez' with increasing panic, suddenly had a eureka moment and exclaimed 'carloantuni?', to which I shamefacedly nodded.

Yesterday morning the ipod threw up Jerry Lee Lewis live in Hamburg for me to listen to. It's a storming set in front of an appreciative crowd. It perked me up no end. It seemed only fitting to do the return journey home to a soundtrack of Chuck Berry, as it had been a rock n'roll day. As I got off the metro to 'Too Much Monkey Business' it struck me that Chuck was actually singing 'Too much monkibi - ni', ditching the s like someone from Rancagua. Could the great duck walker himself be chileno?

Spurs Win at Last!

Google Know Everything

The Weigh In

Like Sugar Ray, Amber Shea has a regular weigh in, where she strips off and gets on the scales. Although unable to verbally spar with an opponent she usually contents herself with pissing all over the doctor's couch, thus prompting a flurry of paper towels and much flapping from those in attendance. Yesterday she came in at a mighty 3.9 kilos and has officially moved up the categories from the Baby Hedgehog bracket to Super Fly Tiny Chicken. As you will see from the photo she was later paired with a real bruiser, and they had to be separated for fear of serious injury. Big 'Agustin' had a serious jab and scary haymaker, that could seriously have damaged the Chicken, whose wild jerky punches tended to be upward and erratic. Milk rather put an end to procedings as both retreated to their corners then fell asleep.