June 20-25

I know that Jayne won't like this picture, but it's a good one of her mother (Lil)! Taken at the hotel in Cyprus.

Note:
Since you know that I had problems with my computer, plus Jayne and I were very busy, I just now had time to post this on the interent. So, here are a bunch of days on one post. Later I'll be posting closer to a daily bases.

I'll also get more pictures up so this wouldn't be so boring for you to read.
Cheers, Chao, etc.

Friday June 20
I went to the internet café and was told in an email that I got that my computer is ready. Am I glad! That means that everything was recovered. It’ll cost me $60. I don’t plan to use it on my internet at home as it might happen again. I’ll have to look for another internet provider. I’ll have to wait until Monday to pick it up.

Saturday June 21
Jayne asked me if I have vest with my suit and I said no. we didn’t think about a vest until today. Having a suit is one thing but a vest is more formal. With the time being so late, it’s too late to have a suit made. Living in a country with small people they don’t have my size on the rack. Even if the store it good where you can buy pants of any size, the chances of the jacket part fitting is small.

So, the only thing that we can do is hope that the fabric store has a color that matches and in a good quality.

Monday June 23
We went to Quito to buy material for a vest that I need for my suit and to pick up my computer at Matt’s office. The first stop was at Matt’s office. My computer was already plugged in but I checked it anyhow. It looked ok and was thankful for it. I was told that the worker bought added memory so my RAM is now 1GB. He left the old one with me. The total cost was $70.

The vest will make it look more formal. We could not find an exact match so we got the closest color but I did get it in the best material – from England at a cost of $58/meter. I also bought lining for it.

Then we went to the tailor to drop it off. I was told that it would be $20 to make it.
I was at the internet café while Jayne went shoe shopping. At this time I got a call from our wedding planner and was told that we have to bring in our paperwork to show the judge tomorrow. I told her that we don’t have everything as Jayne is waiting for the British Embassy to give her one more paper which will be on July 1. I was told to bring in what we have and that to be at her restaurant tomorrow at 10am. She also told me that the judge will have to give the ceremony at 4pm sharp as he has another place to go to.

That’s real great! Now we have to notify everyone that it will not be at 4.30 but at 4.00 and to be sure to be there.

I told Jayne when she got back, of course, she didn’t like the news either. She did buy a pair of shoes, but she still has to buy a purse and I have to get a tie that will come close to the color of her dress.

Tuesday June 24
I plug in my computer this morning and found out that it still froze up – I couldn’t open any program or even turn it off. I had to turn it off by the button. When I started it again I couldn’t get it out of hibernation or click it off on the desktop, so I had to close it by pushing the button.
This is typical of Ecuador – you can’t get anything done right! I’ll have to take it back to Matt’s office. I’m sure this computer repair guy he uses for his web page will guarantee it, but that doesn’t mean that he can fix it. What he did already was wrong for my computer was not slow because it had little memory as it’s only 1 year 6 months old and it’s a HP and I bought it new. So it had plenty of memory to do all the programs out there now. In fact when I had the trouble a couple of times there was only out 2-3 programs opened and it never froze up when I had it at the internet café – only sometimes when I was at home. By indication, this guy doesn’t know what he was doing.

Anyhow, I’ll have to take it back to Matt’s office another day, as when this happened it was right before we left for the city. A good repairman should ask the client what went wrong and the details of it. This will give him a better idea of what to look for.

If the Ecuadorian used logic he would not have put the additional RAM inside it. Using logic he would see that the computer was only 2 years old, that it is a big model made by HP, see how much RAM it already has and would know that it is more than enough to handle program or several big programs out there. But what did he do? The easies thing and just stick in a RAM memory card!?

We got to Giovanna’s restaurant and she called the judge. He came over, though he would have liked us to go to his office, but because we don’t speak Spanish and Giovanna could leave the restaurant, he came there. He seemed like a nice guy.

We showed him all the papers and he said it looked good and in order, but told us that we need the other paper from the embassy (Jayne only). Since I have local ID he said that he needs a photocopy of the front and back and preferably in color. Since Jayne doesn’t have local ID. Actually, there are two different IDs that you get here and the judge wants copies of both and both sides. If you are an Ecuadorian, you just need one ID, which is called a ‘cedular’. For those without an ID, like Jayne, he wants a color copy of her passport and a copy of the entry stamp.
Then the judge said that the witnesses will have to have a copy of their IDs, too.

All of this has to be given Thursday morning when we meet.

Jayne and I told him that we understand the cost of $60 to come out to give the ceremony ($6 if it’s done in his office). He said that is the State’s fee and his fee is an additional $60. This is not was told by either Jayne or my embassy. So, I don’t know if he is trying to charge more or not. This Thursday we have to pay $120.

Jayne said later in the day that she will tell the embassy that and see if this is right or not and if it is right, that should update the info for the people who inquire. She also told me that she will want the judge to give us a receipt and a breakdown of his cost, too.
We were told that the judge will help us with filing the paperwork after the wedding. (We know that this will have to be done and if he helps that’ll be good. At least we’ll be getting something for our money.)

This morning I found that the neighbor threw more trash into our yard – including a baby diaper. These people act like niggers! It’s not children doing it but the adults. I had thrown a bad of trash back a few days ago. However, maybe it went past their patio and landed on the other side of their house, but still, adults should not be throwing trash into their neighbor’s yard. Heck, we wouldn’t even do that if there was a street next to our property. Europeans and Americans are brought up differently – at least they were!

When we got back from the city, Jayne gathered up the trash and threw the bag over the wall to the neighbor’s patio. Now, we’ll see if they learn not to litter!

Wednesday June 25
Jayne and I went to the mall nearby today. First I had to get more money out of the bank to pay for the coming expenses.

At a store we went to Jayne spotted a tie right away that matches up with the color dress she’ll be wearing on our wedding day. I wish that all shopping was that easy. Then we had breakfast.
We wanted to go on the internet at the mall but were told that they have no connection. I wanted to send an email to my friend to see if he’ll have the copies of his and his wife’s ID – we need this for the judge tomorrow.

Then we did some food shopping. At the supermarket they have a travel agency where we stopped in to see what kind of trips they have. The woman spoke English, so that was good. She told us that it’s the high season now – which we knew. She said that Columbia is the cheapest place to go (yes, they do have tourist areas and foreigners do go there). I gave my phone number so she can give us a call when some special comes up.

I planed to go to the interne when we got home (internet café), but it started to rain.
It looks like that Jayne and I will have to wait from 1-2 months after our wedding to go on our honeymoon – but a honeymoon we’ll take! We would like to spend two weeks in some other country – preferably an island. Looking at the brochures were given it would be about $2,000 each – including the airfare – plus anything that we buy there. The total looks like it’ll be about $5,000. We were told that the prices in Columbia is all-inclusive – which means three meals a day.