Un Mes Mas

Although Teresa lived and worked in Southern California for several years her English is not very good.  That is understandable since parts of California are so Latinised that one can lead a pretty full life speaking Spanish only. 

So I communicate with Teresa via a web-based translator.  When Teresa came by to deliver four US quarters for the washing machine I asked "Tiene un momento?"  I sat her down next to me and entered in English: "I would like to stay in this apartment for another month."  I was then able to read out "Me gustaría estar en este apartamento por un mes más." She nodded and replied "Entiendo".  Then I entered: "I have much more work to do on the boat and it is better that I sleep here" and read out "Tengo mucho trabajo que hacer en el barco y es mejor que dormir aquí."  For me this works very well because my reading and pronunciation is surprisingly good after more than a half century since I spoke Spanish.  Anyway, Teresa told me that she also was happy that I was staying and on that felicitous note I went down and started the load of washing.


As I told Ib a few days ago, I have been getting more ambitious with the boat maintenance work and would like to do as much painting, varnishing, and polishing as possible in the next few months.  But this isn't practical if I try to cook and sleep on the boat because of both the lack of room and the need to avoid breathing paint fumes while I am sleeping.  


Besides, like I told Teresa, Me gusta vivir aquí.

The apartment is hardly an extravegance: furnished, serviced, electricity & gas supplied, for 3500 pesos per month which equates to $288.50 AUD at the current exchange rate, or about $9.60 AUD ($10.23 USD) per day.  Cripes, the air conditioner alone is worth that.