A field guide to snails and snail mail.

Talluah has had a break through with her Spanish.  She was in line for the checkout at the supermarket and the two ladies in front of her were talking about wanting to buy snail bait as the snails are particularly bad at the moment.  Talluah did a happy dance once she realised that she understood this conversation without any context – or was it just that the ladies were speaking a bit sluggish.

The much awaited text books from Australia have arrived and Argentine bureaucracy ensured that it was not just a matter of having them delivered to our door.  Talluah received a telegram saying that the package was in aduana (customs) at La Plata and she had 72 hours to organise their pickup or else they would be returned to Australia.  This involved a signed photocopy of her passport and a letter of authority for someone else to pick up the parcel. Fortunately, a friend of a friend from school was bussing to La Plata, some 400km away.  The package was then put on the return bus and we picked it up from the local office for the princely sum of 300 pesos.  Next term, Talluah is going to choose subjects with electronic text books.

Up until now, we have been mowing the lawn by hand using a kitchen knife.  In an effort to curb the amount of mosquitoes around our house we bought an electric whipper snipper and a 15 metre extension lead to go with it.  The shopkeeper asked if I wanted the plugs too.  Was this some sort of trick question?  Would you buy a hotdog without the bun?  In a few minutes the whipper snipper, electric cord and two plugs were sitting on the bench.  Electric cords are sold buy the metre and you have to attach the plugs yourself.  A quick check on the internet to see what colour goes where in Argentina and in a record time of 45 minutes the cord had its plugs attached and the lawn was being mown.

The cold snap has seen foggy mornings at the school and the leaves on the trees in town are starting to change colour preparing for winter.  This is the first time we have experienced autumn where the leaves change colours and the trees become bare.