Finances and Food

This morning we went and paid our property taxes. All 237 pesos (20.00 CDN) worth. The low cost never ceases to amaze us! After we paid, the cashier gave us a small form to fill out but we had no idea what we were supposed to do with it. So I handed it back to her and said, "Por favor?" She filled it in and handed it back to us, telling us to go put it in a box at the back of the room. We only figured that out because she was pointing to it...lol. So we went to put the form in the box but there was no opening. An elderly gentleman showed us how to slide the small cover back. Ah ha! As far as we can tell, the form seems to be for some sort of draw, though we haven't a clue for what. The cashier probably told us but my Spanish still isn't strong enough to understand a lot. We don't have a phone so we couldn't fill in our phone number and the form didn't ask for an email address so, even if we win, I'm not expecting to hear about it.


Then it was off to the bank to replenish funds. The ATM usually spits out 500 peso bills so it's always been a challenge coming up with small money for shopping, bus fare and tips. I finally got smart this trip. After hitting up the ATM, I go to the teller and exchange some of the big bills for a bunch of smaller ones. I've also started using 20 peso bills to pay for bus fare on occasion, instead of always trying to scrounge up enough coins. These two changes have made life so much easier.


Groceries was next on the agenda. As we were leaving the store, one of the baggers came up to us and wanted to check our bags. I use a couple of large, insulated zippered bags from Sobey's. I had to unzip them so she could look. She wanted to see if we had Coke bottles, which we didn't. And then she checked our bags again after we were outside the store. We have no idea what the issue was but I couldn't help but be glad we didn't have any Coke in the bags. After we got home, I realized I had forgotten to tip the person who bagged our groceries. Jeepers!


El Faro has all-you-can-eat-ribs on Tuesdays so a bunch of us from the complex went tonight. I'm not really big on ribs but these were good. I quite liked the potato salad, too.


I forgot to post that we went to their all-you-can-eat fish and chips on Friday. I never order fish and chips back home because there's always twice as much batter as there is fish but the batter the other night was thin. There was more fish than batter. And their fries are really, really good.


After supper tonight, we stopped for tea and lime pie at the home of one of the couples. As we were getting back to our unit, our neighbours invited us in for a drink, so we enjoyed a lovely evening visiting with several very nice people.