Category: Salesmen

This evening we took the kids to the house of some missionary friends to play while we went to eat.

After dropping them off we went to get my license back from the restaurant in the morning. They had said I could pick it up at noon or so. When I got there, they had not made the copy of the license. The lady told me to come back tomorrow. The place is not terribly far from where we live, but the principle of the thing is that they said they would have a copy of it by then and I did not want to come back later (because I doubt they would have made the copy by the next day anyway).

This restaurant is in a mall. The manager sent one of the workers to make a copy, after I had given them the money to cover the copy of course. The worker returned in about 4 minutes with the news that the copy machine was not working. I was told to come back tomorrow. I then, somewhat animatedly, explained to the manager that I was not going to come back and that I wanted my license back. I told her that I found it hard to believe that in the 3rd largest mall in the whole country that there was not a single working copy place. I further explained to her my frustration at the fact that they nowhere post that I have to have a copy of the document to get my free meal, they just say I have to show proof of birth date. I would not return. And to think, they wanted me to leave my passport for them to copy.

This went on for quite some time. Finally she said that she would see what she could do. She left and returned in less than a minute with the copy. What did she do then that she could not have done 15 minutes before? I have no idea, but she just added to my belief that some people will only do what they feel they absolutely have to do.

We then headed south towards downtown. Along the way at the largest intersection in town the traffic stopped. It took quite some time to get through the intersection. The reason was that someone had hit a pedestrian. We did not see the car that hit her (at least it was not obvious), but she was bleeding from the head and had bystanders watching over her and directing traffic. After we made it through the intersection we saw police cars headed that direction.

We then got to the restaurant of choice. The reason it was chosen was because they typically have live music (of the classical variety) that is not too loud, but enjoyable. We have only ever been there on Sunday afternoons. Tonight they did not have any music. Presumably because it was too early. It was about 6:30 at this time. The custom in this area is that most restaurants don’t even open until 8:00 (or later) because supper is not consumed until 10:00 at night. Way too late for me.

We skimmed through the menu and the thing that jumped out at both of us was Queso Relleno con Camarones [Cheese stuffed with shrimp]. It is a Yucatecan dish and was also the daily special. We both ordered that. The waiter returned in a moment to tell us that they did not have any more. How do you not have the daily special when you still have 6 hours of meal time left in the day?

No daily special? No music? To make a statement of our disgust, we left.

We then decided to check out an Italian restaurant in the Hyatt Hotel. We got there and seated a bit after 7:00. Only 1-1/2 hours later than we first had planned. It was good. My wife had fettuccine with a great sauce. It topped a chicken breast. There was also some very good ham and grilled onions in the sauce. Bursting with flavor.

I paid $10 for 6 raviolis. My wife’s description of the taste was something like: spinach raviolis stuffed with grilled salmon and topped with lemon pledge. I think that was pretty accurate. It was not very warm either. A bit disappointing. But her’s was so good.

We went and got the kids and brought them home. Then we had planned to brew some coffee and enjoy some cheesecake that we picked up at Sam’s today. Well, we were too stuffed for that. So they all went to bed and I am still here banging on the keyboard. The cheesecake by the way is from The Cheesecake Factory. It is one of the small pleasures we treat ourselves to on occasion. You can buy one of those for the same price as you can buy 2 desserts in a restaurant. And it is far better than any cheesecake we have had here with the exception of Boston’s, which is pretty good.

Last week I was walking downtown during a big tourist time. I was walking with another “gringo” when we were approached by a salesman. He asked where we were from and I responded with the name of the area of town where we live.

He said (in his perfectly broken English), “No, you from Canada porque you wear Tilley hat. Tilley are originado de Canada.” I was instantly impressed. If you don’t know what a Tilley is, it is because you have never met a person wearing one. You can’t spend much more than just a couple of minutes with a Tilly hat wearer before he will tell you all about it.

They are pretty distinctive. I would say that I could pick out a Tilley in a lineup of fine hats. I was really impressed that this Mexican fellow would recognize a Tilley. They are not cheap and therefore I am sure that he has never owned one.

I won’t go into all the details of why a Tilley is such a wonderful hat, you can read that at their website. I will say that I love mine. I have the LTM6 model, which is the one in the picture (click for a bigger pic). It is comfortable, does not look bad after being sat on and really looks sharp in general. I could go on and on. They really are all they are advertised to be.

There is a chain of discount stores here in Mexico that Wal-Mart bought out some time back called Bodega Aurrera. As we were in need of a new VCR and my wife was headed to Aurrera to do some shopping, she picked up a combo DVD-VCR player today. I mention Wal-Mart because, regardless of some people’s opinions, it is still one of the easiest places to exchange or return merchandise in my opinion. Most stores here will require that you fill out the warranty card in the store each time you purchase an electronic item. This causes you to have to return the item to a certified repair center or directly to the company. The store will not take the item back even if it was dead right out of the box.

We went back to Bodega Aurrera (Wal-Mart) this evening to return the unit. They switched it out without any problems. When we got it home, we found that it worked perfectly.

While there I needed to purchase a new belt. We did not see any right off in the men’s section. I thought it was odd and teased to my wife that it probably was not the season for belts so there were none on the racks. After a fruitless hunt all through the section I went and asked one of the workers in the men’s department about them.

I laughed with the answer all the way back to where my wife was standing. It seems that they have not received their shipment of belts yet for the upcoming season. So, yes, there is a season to buy belts.

It is funny that they sell pants year around.

Some of you may remember that I lamented about my watch being in the shop for two and a half months. You probably also thought that I forgot to update this space on the outcome when I finally did get my watch. Well, I did not forget. I just got my watch back today, one week short of four months in the shop.

No excuse was given when I went to get my watch. None was needed. They said they could not get the part previously. I think it was a matter of them not trying very hard. How hard can it be to find a watch part? Even if you have to order the part from Japan and it has to come on a slow boat from China it should be here in less than 4 months. The last time I was in the shop to beg for my watch back, they said that if they could not get the part from México City that they would have it manufactured. I did not like the sound of that, but I would prefer that to not having my watch back.

So I finally got my watch back today. True to their word, they did not charge me for the repair even though initially I was to pay for the part. They had agreed part way through this drama that I would not pay.

Unfortunately, it is not working fully. I can’t change the day or date. Do I take it back to them? The problem was with the gear that adjusts the date. This tells me that whatever they did to fix the watch was a hack job.

I am currently in email contact with Citizen to see what kind of proof this “Authorized Repair Shop” needs to provide me.

Sigh