Take your hat off to the man who’s got the plan

Jonathan Richman’s got a new album out! Can’t wait to get my hands on this one. It’s been a long time and I was starting to get worried.

Travel journal entry from 13th June, Bs As:

He’s the man, with the plan
Got ten counterfeit pesos in his hand
Heeeee’s Bubba Triiiiibunales…

… to the tune of Stevie Wonder’s He’s Misstra Know-it-all

Can replace “Misstra Know-It-All” with “Bubba Tribunales” on all the lyrics, except for the whole cash thing. Bubba is just a petty criminal. And he only does his little malandragems to get by, to survive, to see another day and another city and bottle of red wine. He’s a lovable rogue even, unlike the big-time gangster banker stockbroker described in that awesome song.

So far, the journal entries may give the impression that I was in a cynical mood in Argentina and didn’t like the place that much. That’s far from true. I loved the place. The people are amazing, some of the landscape is the most spectacular I’ve ever seen and Buenos Aires is my new favorite city on the planet. I’ll write more from the travel journal where I hope some of my admiration for the place shows through. It’s interesting for me too, rereading the journal. Actually it’s probably interesting ONLY for me. In Buenos Aires, where everyone goes to the therapist, I realised that that’s what this blog is; a form of therapy, for Bubba of course, who could do with some, even though he’d never accept it. Just pray he doesn’t start going on about his childhood…

Buenos Aires, 11th June 2008

Before leaving London a friend gave me a travel journal. It’s really just a notebook that says “travel journal” on the front… (oh, bless… but she says she doesn’t have time to read my blog anyway), so I present to you, my dear readers, a slightly edited entry made in BA on 11/06/08…

Going to Uruguay today, to get an extra stamp on my passport. Not really. Don’t give a fuck about the stamp, but will be able to say I’ve been to Uruguay, también. Should send my Hungarian friend who lived in Uruguay for about a year when she was a teenager, and her Spanish husband a postcard… Manteca is butter, but apparently it’s lard in Spain. Mantequilla is butter in Spain. A helpful waitress said she spoke English, but when we asked her “what is manteca?”, fearing that we would get a pasta with lard, she said that manteca = bacon. She meant butter. They both start with a ‘b’. She’s a Boca Juniors fan. Walked down Rua Borges yesterday in Palermo, the most european looking part of BA yet. I find Borges books too difficult for me. Too much hard work. Maybe would be better in Spanish. You need to know too much about … stuff he talks about… to really understand him. One thing I’ve noticed and which further fuels my obssesion with toilet brushes, is the lack of them in BA. Not very pleasant. Another noticeable aspect of Buenos Aires is the amount of crazy people. Oh yeah, and the most beautiful eyes per capita… Could they be linked in any way? Crazy people have beautiful eyes?

… in this travel journal entry I also talk about the milonga’s we went to, which I’ve already written about, but I embarssingly mispelled as Milango’s… here… I should edit that page. I’ve got more to say on toilet brushes. In one place, I think a cafe, there was a toilet brush, but the handle was a stub, so tiny, that you were almost touching the hairs of the brush… and it looked wet and yellowish… I used it nonetheless… only kidding…

Bubba Tribunales makes his first appearance in this journal entry, with one line: “Bubba Tribunales, el viejo malo”. Never made it to Uruguay though. It was ridiculously expensive and apparently not really worth it. It cost around 200 pesos, just for the return boat trip to the town of Colonial, across the river Uruguay. With the same amount of pesos, you can go on a paragliding adventure day trip from Mendoza.

Buenos Aires

I´ve got a new reason to go back to London. A couple of years ago, after my trip to Crete, I went back “home” and started going to the pool. This time I´m gonna finally learn how to dance. Probably start with Salsa, but in a few years I want to progress to Tango. In 2012, on the 12th of December, I´m meeting Mitso in Buenos Aires, in front of the Town Hall, at 12 midday. I want to know how to do the national dance well, by then.

Went to two Tango Milango´s the other night. The first one was amazing. Brilliant dancers, young and old, tall and short. The second one was sad. The mainly older guys were walking around in circles groping the lady stuck to there foreheads.

Going to Uruguay today for a day trip. That´ll be another tick off the list of countries visited.

Argentina

60 mins Portugal-Turkey 0-0 Off to Buenos Aires with a friend tomorrow. Probably a week there and a week travelling towards Patagonia. Will see how far into Patagonia, hopefully until Bariloche at least. Then off to São Paulo on the 26th of June. Not sure after that where, but maybe Rio, maybe Parati or Ubatuba, almost definitely Floripa, and then back to Porto Alegre.

67 mins Portugal-Turkey 1-0 Didn’t have any alcohol for 106 days but had a glass of champagne yesterday and then some white wine sangria. Couldn’t refuse, would be too rude. Was at the home of one of my new friends parents house. A great older couple. They were drinking & smoking intellectuals & artists. I said no thank you to the red wine, but had to have some of the champagne when it was put in front of me. How could I refuse? Teatotal day count: 1.

86 mins Portugal-Turkey 1-0 Maybe I go to Salta. That sounds nice and a friend who went travelling to Argentina recently said she liked it there, if I remember correctly. The Brazilian commentators are great. Very passionate. “Grita Filipão”, “keep on shouting, big Phil”…

93 mins Portugal-Turkey 2-0 It’s all over.