My Birthday Celebration (March 26)

For my birthday, I received lots of birthday phone calls, musical and animated e-cards, and multi-lingual emails from friends and family, which was great (technology is a wonderful thing). Thanks everyone!

To celebrate, we decided to actually “dress up” for dinner – what that really meant was no jeans, a nicer shirt for David, a sweater for me. David’s Spanish lessons are paying off – he made reservations (in Spanish) at a cozy French restaurant, Sirop Folie, where we ordered a bottle of TrumpeTer (a 2006 Malbec – our current vino of choice) and started with and fabulous tarte tartin and a wonderful ensalada with pate (perfecto!), and went on from there.





I should mention that, as we were leaving our apartment, a 2nd night of cacerolazo (the pot-banging protest we referenced in our 3/25 blog entry) was again erupting around the city, so we had some hesitations about heading over to the Confiteria Ideal (http://www.confiteriaideal.com/) , the milonga (tango dance hall) we had planned to go to – not because we felt like we were in any danger, but because we anticipated that major streets might be blocked off. And we were correct…thousands on the march, pots and soup ladles in hand, frustrated with a government that has raised tariffs and refused to engage in dialogue with farmers.

David, now proficient with “filming”, shot the following “video footage” so you have an understanding of what this feels like (see sidebar)

After walking for 20 minutes or so, we caught a cab to Ideal for our 1st tango experience –strictly as spectators. For the next 90 minutes, we watched the portenos come into the milonga with their tango shoe bags over their shoulders, change into their dancing shoes and join the dancers on the dance floor. Tango shoe stores are everywhere, especially those for women, and offer fancy little numbers with spiked heels and ankle straps.






We each singled out our favorites – a sensuous older couple that reminded us of Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronin, various sexy women in slinky outfits, and smoothly suave men (but none like Antonio Bandaras).

At 12:30am a live 5 piece orchestra assembled on a small stage and a show began, first with a couple of tango pieces and then with a female vocalist who joined them and added even more richness to the music. After a few songs she stepped aside and the dance floor cleared for a tango exhibition by 2 (we can only assume) professionals. They were wonderful to watch…. impressive footwork and more. (see sidebar)

At 1;30 a.m. we decided it was time to call it a night and caught a cab back to the apartment.