Everything Changes

This blog was going to be about cars in Argentina which in fact I could write a book since it’s such an interesting subject here but I changed my mind and will save it for another time.

 As the Buddhist say “” everything changes “. Nope nothing is forever and nothing stays the same for sure. When we learn that we learn a lot about life for most of us it’s difficult to accept this and I suspect even some Buddhist have a problem with it sometimes – I mean  will there always be a Mc Donald’s umm hope those Buddhists  are right!

The thing that has changed on La Margarita recently is that Jack our lovely English Pointer is no longer living on La Margarita. The problem was that Jack (who many of you had great fun with as did I) is an English Pointer and being so he is a hunting dog. Its funny when you see him with guest looking for some stokes or someone to run with it was easy to forget that he hunted since he was such a loveable dog.  However recently and unfortunately he had stated to hunt the chickens and their eggs and then turned his attention to the ostriches we have recently put on LM. I couldn’t bear to tie him up or muzzle him it just didn’t seem right. So last week Poppy’s (who works on La Margarita) boyfriend who has campo some way from LM but with no chickens or ostriches took him to live there. It was a sad sad day and I had to grit my teeth and remember what the Buddhist say – it helped as it always does. I am sad he is not with us and I will really miss him  now but then I am happy because he will be doing what he was born to do and loves doing. Fido is still with us who funnily is an English Pointer  too but for some reason chickens or their eggs or ostriches   were never on his shopping list – so if you come back to visit  us one day  you will find Fido happily begging you to go for  a run with him.

If you have any suggestions’ for a good farm dog don’t hesitate to put a comment on this blog

This David Cummings alias The English Gaucho feeling a bit sad but remembering what Buddha said

Hasta la Vista

Old Musicians Never Die they just disappear to Argentina to run an Estancia!!

Funny really when I came here I sold my trusty old telecaster guitar that had seen served me very well through many version of Money For Nothing ( which has just been banned today in Canada - my god what’s the world coming to ). I knew that here in Argentina I would be leading a totally different life style to the one I lived when I earned a living with my trusty tele pretending I was a rock star at Butlins gigs ( I loved those gigs hard to believe but true) – yep that life was well and truly over . I wasn’t sad I really wanted to change my life style and Argentina gave me the chance to do just that. I did have another guitar so at least I knew if I got the calling to tread the boards again I would be prepared (well the guitar would but not sure my fingers would be). After a year or so here I found La Margarita and with Maria we set about doing the place up which took all of two years. In between the doing up I would get the guitar out and with a glasses of wine in hand I would serenade Maria with my versions of Eric Clapton songs - poor her! As more and more guest came to La Margarita I got request to strum a few songs and I did so with pleasure. This Christmas was no different – our lovely group of guests from Norway asked me to play a few songs and I don’t need to be asked twice these days – so out came my guitar and soon I was kicking into those old Status Quo songs – can’t beat a good old twelve bar blues .

The really great thing is that last year my son asked his girlfriend to marry him I (see my blog about it) and she luckily said yes! Imagine my absolute delight when Dale asked me if I would agree to play some music at his wedding with his future father in law who is a jazz guitarist An old rock and roller never says no and I can’t think of a nicer thing to do than play at my son’s wedding – how cool is that . The lucky thing is that I have just over a year to practice and get those fingers oiled and the voice tamed. In my bid to get it right I may even head off to Spain for a month in August to meet up with Johnny Hollywood who is still treading the boards to bash out a few gigs with him – can’t wait.

In the meantime if you are on La Margarita and you fancy a jam session and I am there you only have to ask me – rock on

This is David Cumming alias the English Gaucho of to practice that a twelve bar blues in A!

What a Lovely Surprise to the Start of the New Year

After all the celebrating on the La Margarita over Christmas with our guests from Norway and then a full house of guest over New Year from Argentina, England and Brazil I thought that the champagne bottle opener would be put away for a little while . Just shows you how wrong you can be.

A day or two into the new year we had Louise and Jignesh on La Margarita from Ealing London (just a few kilometers or so from where my parents live) This lovely young couple came here because Jignesh wanted to have a gaucho experience and luckily choose La Margarita to do just that . On their first ride out there was no doubt that they were nervous however, Lalo had chosen a couple of very calm horses for them and off they went excited but nervous on their first ever ride on la pampas. That night I spoke to them and asked how it was and they both enthusiastically decided to have another go the next day. This time with fewer nerves they started to enjoy what the estancia offers best - great riding across the famous pampas.

At the same time as they were with us we had Anna and her husband Mikhail arrive all the way from Moscow (our first visitors from that exotic country). That night I dinned with them all and we had a great time drinking lots of malbec wine and eating steak from La Margarita – a classic for sure. The next day our new friends from Russia left La Margarita and headed off to Mar de Plata for the last few days in Argentine. They did write some words in our commentary book but to be truthful my Russian is not what it was and who knows what it says – let’s hope its nice things!

That night Louise and Jignesh had La Margarita to themselves (apart from the staff of course) since our next guests weren’t arriving till the weekend. When they were eating (well this is what Jignesh told me) he asked Louise if she thought their stay on La Margarita was and would be the highlight of their stay in Argentina – apparently Louise said yes and with this perfect setting Jignesh went down on his knees in the living room and asked Louise to marry him . When Raquel came into the living, even though she can’t speak English she knows a wedding proposal when she sees one and promptly called me and Daniela, Rachael assistant to crack open a bottle of champers and toast the really happy occasion. It was so great for me that Jignesh chose to ask Louise to marry him on La Margarita – it’s such an honour for us when this happens– even though I think the estancia has something magical it so lovely when guests confirm it to me. After toasting the happy couple we left them to make their plans for the future – needless to say they didn’t make it up in time for horse riding the next morning - they had other things on their mind no doubt

This a bloggy I wish you Louise and Jignesh all the very best for the future - you are such a nice couple and who knows if the church you want to marry in in the UK isn’t available why not consider La Margarita!

This is David Cummings alias the English Gaucho of to count how many bottle of champagne we have left – you never know what’s around the corner