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BieniZine62 Ed
BieniZine62 Ed
NUMBER 62
APRIL 5, 2014
ourselves to one hour a day, usually in the late afternoon ,which was enough to tan at least a little!
We ate some delicious meals details later and visited some parts of the island that we had not seen before and will certainly visit again. Kula, which we could see from our condo, is located about halfway up Haleakeala at an altitude of about 5,000ft. and about a 40 minute drive. The Kula Lodge came highly recommended by Jamie who runs the General Store and we had a most enjoyable lunch there. The highlight is really the view. One can see both sides of the island from up there. The vegetation is lush, very varied and colorful all my South African favorites grow there in profusion proteas, bougainvillea, bauhinias, etc. Another find was the Kahili Golf Course and Restaurant, which was practically next door, situated on the West Mountain. This is a golf course to die for! Also they are justifiably famous for the best buffet on Maui. Sunday Brunch was delicious! A definite must next time. Not so, a restaurant, which was highly touted by a friend here and various foodie sites Mamas Fish House. This is located in Paia, halfway to Hana and a pain to get to. It is beautifully situated sand, palms and the sea, has a wonderful island ambience, waitresses very glamorous in sarongs BUT it was hideously expensive. Restaurants in Maui are generally pricey but an appetizer consisting of four butterflied, not very jumbo, shrimp in vanilla sauce for $30 was excessive. We returned to an old favorite, a small Japanese Restaurant, the Izikaya, which
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serves okonomiyaki, a kind of fishy noodle pancake, Japanese Pizza we call it. Delicious and impossible to find just about anywhere outside Japan. For my anniversary present Dad gave me a beautiful 24-carat gold pendant, a replica of one worn by Mary, Queen of Scots. He ordered it to be hand-made all the way from Fife in Scotland. It came complete with the following message in Gaelic: Bho nh-Alba le gaol (pronounced fo nAlba le ge-ul meaning From Scotland with Love).
He was delighted with my present of a brass (at least it looks like gold) ships clock very appropriate for an admiral-grade reservist in the Polish/NATO navy
We are back home again after those idyllic weeks and we look forward to celebrating our Golden Wedding Anniversary organized by our three sons in Stafford, Virginia, on July 5th!
A Wedding in Argentina: Next year! They have been dating for four years. Marco, an owner of a successful electronics games business, is 39. Micaela, a qualified attorney employed by a bank as a tax expert and studying for a doctorate, is 33. He is divorced with a 14year old daughter of whom he has custody. So life is complicated! As Mica has no father, Dads uncle Bogus has really been a father to her, but he is nearly 95 now and suffering from Alzheimers. There is no man in the family except Dad as her only Tio who can give her away at her wedding. So, he will be her El Padrino and is absolutely delighted. As they became formally engaged during this visit to the U.S., during the Las Vegas convention, we asked when might the wedding take place? Any chance that it could be in May this year? We will be in Buenos Aires then on a side trip while travelling to Brazil to attend the World Tunneling Conference where Dad has been invited to give the closing address - a great honor! No such luck as Marcos younger brother, he has two, will be getting married this year. Why, we asked, should this be an obstacle? Well! An ARGENTINIAN WEDDING, capital letters, are necessary is a BIG affair:There are two ceremonies, a civil and a religious one a day apart. Some 300 guests will be invited. The cost of wining dining and entertaining them will be ~ $150 per head, making a total of $45,000! So-o-o, one can now understand why only one wedding a year can be afforded by the family. Why so much? The answer lies partly with who Marco, or at least with who his father is. His father has recently retired as a pilot with LAN (the Chilean airline), prior to which he was a senior captain in the Argentine navy. All his navy buddies have to be invited, the family is extensive and well-to-do (five servants, which is a
lot even by their standards) plus all Mica and Marcos friends. His fathers position is the reason that they could fly so cheaply to Miami, at one tenth of the actual fare! We had hoped to spare ourselves another transcontinental, from here to Buenos Aires is 19 hours but cest la vie. Mica is a sweetheart and we can only hope and pray that the wedding does eventually take place. Having been once bitten Marco is probably twice shy. We do not think his family can be too enthusiastic about the match even though she is a clever girl, even an attorney, and nearly a doctor of law. Will this be enough of a recommendation in this highly stratified social structure? There are curious anomalies there. For example both Mica and Marco OWN their apartments, they plan to rent hers after the wedding. Her mother Beta Alicia owns two apartments as does Bogus plus until recently a quinta, a rather dilapidated and primitive country cottage! In a country, which is subject to frightful inflation, probably about 20 percent at the moment, US dollars and property are the only assets that keep their value! The diet is a little odd, too. Marco scorns what he calls the poor mans diet namely, fruit, vegetables, chicken and pasta! Our regular diet in other words! He only likes to eat BEEF. Worse yet, the parts he likes best, and are considered delicacies there are what we consider offal or organ meats for example intestines and sweetbreads i.e. pancreas or brains! All of which taste pretty good actually! As a diet, however, it is a surefire recipe for a heart attack! We introduced them to oatmeal and cereal neither of which they had ever eaten. Not very well received! Danish/ pancakes and very strong dark coffee is their breakfast of choice! However, they did like our outdoor kolacione lunch featuring kielbasas galore, ham and cheeses and adding roast beef also helped
Good news! Mica has just called us to say that both families are very happy about them getting married and the wedding date has actually been set: Saturday, March 7, 2015, which is the weekend just after Easter. And we have to be there!