Coco Cubana RV

Another sunny Sydney day and already I have gone to sales shopping to return to NZ with new clobber.

Peruvian Benjamin is on his way for the RV planned many months ago in Wellington. He sounds very pleasant with his heavy South American accent but with all such encounters there is absolutely no expectation. 

I read today's Herald with an excellent review of first night of Tosca at the Opera House so I am surely looking forward to a classic night at the Opera on Saturday. News from PK is that sis Helen is recovering in a drowsy state from her radical mastectomy and we all pray she will be well and recover soon. I hope to catch up and see her on Sunday.

On Taylor Square at Cubana...

Waiting for...Benjamin.

Well it was worth the wait as B turned out to be a charming and interesting man with a long story of emigrating to Australia in 1974 and creating such a good life here that his four sisters all followed him and he is living a very family life but still is alone, and for a Latino, that is a little sad. 

We share interestingly a few friends which was very satisfying especially as he knew, but not well, my good and passed friend Aldo Gennaro whom he cared for sometime in his role of clinical nurse at St Vincent's Hospice when Aldo was dying.

Benjamin, aka Kike, his family name, has had an interesting history of a poor beginning in a village south of Lima, with an alcoholic father who abused them quite a bit and finally abandoned them. His mother had already died when he was ten years old, and he has two older sisters and one younger, all with children and grandchildren. He is a doting and much beloved uncle. Perhaps we will catch up again on Sunday when he may be free. I certainly would like to get to know him better.

After a light lunch which he insisted on paying for, he showed me his tiny Sydney terrace on South Dowling Street where he lived for many years and where he still has many friends. He has certainly made a big success of his life here in Australia and hopefully we will meet again on Sunday.

Called in to help Annie hang some pictures and she was very appreciative. Her new couch had arrived and made a big difference to her little apartment so more changes had to happen.

So on to a movie before I go home and on at the Verona in Paddington is 'Unbroken', a film by Angelina Jolie, a true story which looks very interesting indeed. I'm in the foyer having a snack before the movie starts at 8.15