Porteño Cumpleaños

Hola Chicos!

O here,

My Porteño Cumpleaños and our Porteño Navidad.

Firstly, it has been insanely hot. Temperatures are over 35 and up to 40 every day, it is super humid and there has been very little or zero wind. The BA government has declared a red alert citing that all groups of people (not just infants, elderly or sick) are at risk of heat related health threats.

Cat snoozing under a frozen tea towel

We are housing/cat sitting for some friends of ours in their apartment in Recoleta. It's a great place in an excellent location and, best of all, there is a beautiful view of the Recoleta Cemetery and you can even see the Rio de la Plata and Uruguay in the distance, but no air conditioning.

Neither of us have ever been cat people but these little guys with their amazing personalities have really started to grow on us, I think we are going to miss them. Cosmo is the skinny Ginger cat (I like to call him Kramer because he's a bit of a nut). Pepper is the little gordita cat and she is very affectionate and loving, but has enough brute strength to put Cosmo in order when he is going wacky.

Cosmo and Pepper

So I was lucky enough that Heather celebrated my Birth Month this year! As far as I know, this is completely her invention, I really liked it, but it took a bit of effort on her part. So the way it works is on the first day of the month of your Birthday you get your first present, and you get a new present every day. Luckily I was born on the 19th so I get 19 presents. Heather was born on the 31st... now I see why she invented this. If you're unlucky enough to be born on the 1st..well sucks to be you, because you only get one present.

There is one very important rule to follow when delivering a Birth Month to your loved one, the present of the following day each day MUST be better than the one of the previous day. So anyway, Heather took a photo each day of me with my new present, I admit, at first I wasn't very motivated, but seriously, as the presents got better, I really started to enjoy this whole Birth Month thing.

Day 1 - Manky Clove of Garlic

Day 2 - A very hard pear

Day 3 - Sticky pen

Day 4 - Spoon of Dulce de Leche

Day 5 - Voucher for one Bear Hug

Day 6 - Toothpaste

Day 7 - Pepito Alfajor

Day 8 - Snickers!

Day 9 - Flowers

Day 10 - Three types of chips in one packet!

Day 11 - Pepas!!!! My fav

Day 12 - Asado poster

Day 13 - Guide of the good Asador (BBQ Chef)

Day 14 - Helado, had to pick three new flavours, Maracuya, Creme Brûlée and Mascapone

Day 15 - New Palo Santo Mate

Day 16 - 1.5kg of Premium Bife de Lomo (fillet steak) 

Day 17 - Clipper

Day 18 - Matera (for carrying all your Mate goods, Thermos, Mate, Bombilla y Mate.

Then came my actual birthday which is documented below by a series of photos.

Started with my 19th Birth Month present, front row tickets to see Luis Salinas, a famous Argentinian Guitarist

Then Cafe con Leche y Mediualunas in La Biela

Then to an amazing french Bakery to pick up a couple of Mini Smeterling cakes

Then we had lunch at our favourite Parrilla, Rodi Bar!

Then unfortunately, we both had work to do so we settled in for a few hours in the apartment, well... on the balcony

Then that night we went to see the second Hobbit movie over a week before it was released in Australia :D

And went to see Luis Salinas on Saturday night (until 3am Sunday Morning!)

Then the following weekend we went to this amazing Restaurant called Siga La Vaca (Follow the Cow) - all you can eat Asado, so good!

Then Christmas. This year we omitted buying gifts for one another and decided to just have a feast on Christmas Eve, as they do in Argentina, where Christmas day is more like Boxing day in Australia. We had already gifted each other by purchasing a lot of flights and hotels for all over Argentina in January/February, such a huge holiday is present enough for us.

The closest we got to having a christmas tree - Lepi's Arbol de Navidad

Roasted Veggies, Morron, Papa, Cebolla y Verdura Entraña

Pan from Lepi, delish

Asado, Bondiola y Chorizos

Delicious Trifle for Dessert

Pan Dulce from Plaza Mayor the next day for breakfast with Freddo Helado

After a giant feast and champagne on Christmas eve we watched a little tv and feel asleep only to be woken at 12 by about 6 hours of constant fireworks. Not the official city type, just from everywhere all around us. On Christmas Eve and New years the Porteños take to their terraces and let loose. Not as pretty as proper fireworks but it certainly made a very cool sound.

Finally some (slightly) cooler weather rolled through

And of course it wouldn't be BA without a dose of daily excitement. At 2 am this morning we were awoken by several very loud explosions. When we peered down off the balcony we could see large crowds of people staring at our building and a very bright glow of flames and lots of smoke coming up from below us. A few minutes later we arrived in the street with nothing but 2 cats in a box to find out that it was just an exploded car...

And that was my Porteño Cumpleaños and our Porteño Navidad,

Merry Christmas to all and happy new year!