Bingology - BingoBoingo's Blog

So the "Poder Ejecutivo" Tabaré Vázquez ordered the Army "Comandante en Jefe" Guido Manini Ríos to be arrested with intensity for 30 days because he made a comment criticizing the nominally ruling Fat Forehead coalition's changes to military pensions. Because "How dare the Army Commander" criticize the government run by the a shitshow of lefty rebels whose terrorism triggered a period of protective dictatorship in the 1970's during which many current Uruguayo politicians were arrested for the usually commie terrorist crimes like armed robbery.((Eventually during the 1980's they did their own sort of `Truth and Reconcilliation` deal where they became an `Our Democracy` state again either pardoning or immunizing everybody depending on which side they were on. The commie rebels got involved in Politics, took over in the 00's, and now they have gone full circle and become `The Man` keeping everybody down. )) Ok, so on the surface the driving narrative appears to be commies ruthlessly enforcing restrictions on political speech because "our democracy" and fear of "muh dictatorship" lingering around.

But while the Uruguayos are not a happy people, a lot of them remember the not quite so bad times of the 90's and the 00's. Uruguay is an expensive country full of poor people. Wages are incredibly flat across professions for the Uruguayos who are employed. Gainfully employed people engage in habits like hoarding plastic grocery bags. Sure a good number of Uruguayos mine dumpsters to find items of value to flip while in Venezuela people are mining dumpsters for potential dinner. Meanwhile the value of the Peso Uruguayo is slipping, but it isn't outright cratering like the Peso Argentino. The Chinese buy increasing amounts of Uruguay's agricultural output while farmers make less. Grocery prices aren't that far out of line with North American standards. Unlike the Argentards, the Uruguayos tend to be aware they are poor and they usually resign themselves to that. Their attitude to the fact that they are getting poorer seems more complicated than the simple resignation to their poverty in general, but it is hard for me to suss out a general sentiment.

In this environment the Fat Forehead coalition keeps on pushing unpopular things as is the way of the eternal pantsuit. In this Uruguay where the fact free plastic grocery bags included with grocery purchase has spawned numerous cultural norms around bags and their uses, a ban on stores giving the bags away is about to come into effect. I have not met anyone in this country who wants this ban, and and the reaction it induces seems to be viscerally negative. Yet Frente Amplio is trumpeting this incredibly unpopular measure. Now Uruguayos are very good at bottling up and hiding their anger till they snap, so it is very possible they think they did something popular. Similarly the Frente Amplio sitting at the Intendencia of Montevideo gender neutered the Queen of Carnaval in a very unpopular move.

Meanwhile the opposition National Party¹ is pushing something they call "Vivir sin Miedo" which is a plan to let the police do night raids and give the Army a law enforment role.² I am disappointed they aren't pushing to go back to the "no rules" attitude towards guns they had until 2002, but this is a culture of low expectations outside of football and even then they over-moderate their enthusiasm.

In this environment the Comandante en Jefe Guido is trying to quietly return from his current mission in Mexico to quietly serve his 30 days while the opposition parties are stoked on rallying at Carrasco International Airport. Rallying that Guido is trying to discourage with an indeterminate amount of sincerity.³ While it is too early to predict Frente Amplio beated at the ballot box, Military Coup, Bolivarian Revolition, or "Make Uruguay Great-ish Again" happening there's enough here for local politics to get interesting. I have doubts⁴ that there's enough capacity for action in the population here for anything too dramatic, but there is a non-zero chance⁵this country gets interesting.

1. Formerly known as the White Party though the papers occasionally still refer to them as the Blancos. [↩]
2. The Navy already does Coast Guard style water and shoreline law enforcement while the Airforce does airport security. [↩]
3. Uruguayos aren't the easiest people to read. [↩]
4. This is still some distance for meeting the Qntra bar. [↩]
5. In which case this piece will surely be linked from Qntra. [↩]

Below are prices of some groceries in found at retail in the wild in Montevideo. At any given moment prices tend to be flat with adjustments happening in lockstep. These prices reflect retail grocery stores. Sunday ferias tend to run under grocery store prices.

• Parboiled Rice 1 kilogram - 40 pesos
• Milk 1 liter Tetrapack - 34 pesos
• Blackberry Jelly glass jar 370 grams - 149 pesos
• Frozen Salmon 1 kilogram¹
  - 699 pesos
• Pancetta/Bacon 1 kilogram - 530 pesos
• Box of mixed Chocolates 400 grams - 149 pesos
• Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast 1 kilogram²
  - 255 pesos
• » "Ensalada Rusa" 1 kilogram - 348 pesos
• » "Tienda Inglesa Cafe Glaseado" 500 gram bag - 159 pesos
• » "Medallones Entrecot" Beef Steaks 1 kilogram - 325 pesos
• » Dulce De Leche 500 grams - 95 pesos
• » Tea "Presidente" 25 bags - 80 pesos
• » "Ensalada Alemania" 1 kilogram - 329 pesos

1. Origen de Chile [↩]
2. "Suprema" in the local parlance, typically sold as the hole apron of meat [↩]

After spending this weekend and this Monday getting burned by the midnight oil, I have managed to migrate Ye Olde Blog to MP-WP running on a Pizarro ISP Rockchip. The
database wankage inflicted on the non MP-WP wordpress fork by the "devs" was incredible. Yet after much headbanging the content made it out and into its new home.

Text selection and the legendary MP-WP comment spam filter at last!

Further lighttpd has been set up to 301 redirect thedrinkingrecord.com to this new, more culty and branded domain with url paths preserved. If anything is missing let me know to throw looking for it into the hopper. For some reason Mysql is consuming an incredible amount of memory so I will be looking for a way to squeeze that down a bit. But the ordeal is over. Instructions for tasks carried out along the way will be coming when the ordeal feels a bit less raw and after the text scrawl and incantations which lead here have been digested.

After spending my first months here considering the Sun an enemy, its return is a most welcome event. Short day light cycles appear to be hell on the local population, and still more pronounced on baseball latinos. For months the Rio de la Plata was an open air seasonal affective disorder asylum. Thusly when warm days started to return and my brain woke up, I discovered that I had myself become stuck in the process of becoming a fat sad sack. My street food diet and ample walking during the hostel days while depleting fat didn't exactly spare lean upper body mass either. The body by Home Depot I brought to Uruguay... se fue. También experimenting with the local grocery stores and having a kitchen was burying my chances to be a cosmonaut candidate in an adipose assault.

Who could possibly come to the rescue? The Peruana! And the healthy Latin culture of fatshaming packaged as compliments. At somepoint escalating incidents of being called her adorable hog while getting my belly lovingly jiggled flipped a bit and got turned into a call to action. But where to find upper body exercise without wet bagged mulch to toss around?

Buying a bunch of weight and a bench didn't seem like a very prudent move considering the space it would take in the apartment along with the possibility of leaving Uruguay for another adventure in the medium term, even if the medium term is measured in years. Might as well put the recent weight gain to work. Thusly the gymnasium of floor was inaugurated, accompanied by a knotted blanket for incline rows in the bathroom door frame until I get around to finding a pull up bar.

The Peruana has been an increasingly good influence.¹ Trying to get me to run, pushing me to consume vegetables beyond the obligatory fistfull of frozen stuff tossed into rice while it cooks. She also tries to get me to give running a try when we pasear por la rambla, but one thing at a time. I've also learned that as opposed to back home where the distinction between soups and stews was flexible, here the difference is enforced more rigidly. At least by her.

Anyways, nights are still chilly, weather that allows getting shirtless sun on the balcony is a nice change of pace, and structured Spanish lessons resume next week.

1. Her concern for my well being has increased noticably in the post "shore leave" era as her once firm conviction that a gringa must be involved somewhere has faded. [↩]

In working towards a higher quality of living and working to implement the good old strictures of european, civilized living in Casa Boingo I decided to finally attack the bread problem after spending far too much time contemplating a rice cooker for my limited countertop space.

Spoiler Alert: This waiting appears to be the least important

We have day three's loaf, the golden boy, the Day 2's giant biscuit, and the first batch with extreme "home made flavor".

For day three I stopped trying to use a whole kilogram of flour at one:

• 250 grams 00 flour ((apparently this is some sort of pasta flour, but 000 wasn't in stock and after the biscuit I needed a correction from the 0000.
• Two Spoons Full of Sugar
• One Spoon Of Salt
• One Whole Egg
• One Cup of water
• 10 grams yeast

It was good. A bit short in the sandwiching direction, but closer to something that could be a staple.

For the curious here are prices associated with furnishing and maintaining Casa Boingo, the closest thing to a current TMSR embassy on the Rio de la Plata. Many of the items featured here can be seen in the photo tour. For the record in July 1 USD has been 31 pesos give or take half a peso depending on whether you are buying or selling.

Furnishings:

• 30 Liter Hot Water Heater, vitirfied steel tank: 5550 pesos¹
• Sofa Cama: 14394 pesos
• Refrigerator Panavox: 4395 pesos
• "Eames" Style chairs: 1950 pesos for 3²
• Electric Kettle: 610 pesos
• Television: 7990 pesos
• TV Wall mount: 933 pesos
• Antenna: 448 pesos
• Broom: 177 pesos
• Shower Curtain: 345 pesos
• Shower Curtain Liner: 135 pesos
• Shower Curtain Rod: 296 pesos
• Pan: 630 pesos
• Pot: 685 pesos
• Harry: 600 pesos
• 10 liter bucket: 95 pesos

Utilities:

• Electricity: 2117 pesos for 208 kw/h, seperate 1347 peso one time connection fee
• Internet: 1347 pesos monthly with 1054 peso one time connection fee
• Building Common Expenses: 1757 pesos³

Select Consumables:

• Condoms: 286 pesos for a 12 pack
• Toilet paper: 74 pesos for 4 50 meter rolls, 86 pesos for 4 50 meter rolls with a smaller roll stuck in the middle
• Melamine Sponge: 65 pesos
• Morcillon: 220 pesos/kg⁴
• Mortadella: 290 pesos/kg
• Tuna, frozen (Origen Vietnam): 378 pesos/kg
• Sandwich Bread: 131 pesos/loaf
• Peanut Butter: 148 pesos/jar, 225 grams
• Dulce de Leche: 85 pesos/tub, 500 grams
• Dish Detergent: 58 pesos/bottle, 300 ml
• A deeper grocery exploration may happen in the near future

Items yet to be acquired:

• Second sleepable surface for non-intimate guests
• Actual kitchen knife, This limits of using a box cutter in the kitchen are making themselves apparent
• Whiteboard, The search continues

Under consideration:

• Rice Cooker - Simplifies prepping cheap calories
• Bread knife - In the event baking is solved
• More oxygen generators

1. Installation and hoses came to another 1200 pesos. [↩]
2. The hostel has several of these and their survival in that environment was the sales pitch. [↩]
3. Was advertised as 2500 pesos monthly, came with a detailed statement of what the building spent [↩]
4. Not to be confused with Morcilla, Mocillon is a peppery cold cut that appears to be the love child of head cheese and morcilla [↩]

It's been more than a month since I picked up the keys and nearly a month since I started sleeping here exclusively. Lets see how far this place has come since it was last photographed.

The sofa cama as it was delivered one month ago. I was very surprised the delivery folk did not stick around to unwrap it and keep the protective sheet pictured here.

The kitchen with all of its glossy hard surfaces is clean. The stove top has seen frequent use with the pot and the pan, but the oven has yet to see much use. I have been trying to maintain a hostel style beakfast spead near the Jarra Electrica, but at the moment it is lacking fruit and a tub of dulce de leche.

Where the fiber comes in. It was all rolled up inside the wall for the installer who replaced the boring wall plate that covered it with the current one that cautions against live lasers. The device catching the laser is intentionally not pictured.

From Harry going clockwise: The balcony with 1 of 3 red chairs of an ubiquitous local style the Chicoms shipping here describe as "Eames", The Aire Acondicionado, The sofa cama¹ with blankets, we skip some empty floor and built in dining table/desk, we return to the bags I continue to live out of, and finally we see mounted to the wall the girl distraction and intercultural dialogue device.

More of the bags, boots, wall screen, Harry, and the broom.

Building a civilized kitchen and building up the office are the biggest areas for ongoing improvement. It was only yesterday that doubled sided wall mounting tape capable of supporting a whiteboard returned to store shelves which means it is time to find a giant whiteboard. A second sleepable surface is also on the list when a non-intimate overnight guest books.

1. Initially it was taller, but the factory legs were unsuited to supporting enthusiasm. Replacement of the legs with a superior design is on the list of things to do. As is typical of local products hit and miss happen with in the same item. Otherwise solidly constructed this piece of furniture came with legs of a yet to be unidentified wood that failed to hold onto the retaining threads when lateral force was introduced. [↩]

This is Harry. He lives in a bucket inside of a bucket. Deep Dive into Casa Boingo coming soon.

Uruguay is home to a number of delicious foods. There's the beef, the cheese, the icecream, and the dulce de leche. There are other very Uruguayo foods that get less attention, usually due the the lack of local creativity in using them. In spite of normally being relegated to an afterthought as part of the picada preceeding the main course of the asado, the local morcilla has a lot to offer.

Typically the local morcilla, salado and dulce alike, are cooked in their thick skins and sliced into rounds for serving. This leaves a problem, the casing on these guys isn't very edible. It further leaves all of the various flavors trapped in the pudding.

In addition to the bloody base the morcilla sulce has delicious pine nuts, orange, and raisins. All of these flavors are readily amplified by opening up the casing, or stripping the casing off completely. That's it. One simple trick; except this one works.

Now, completely removing the casing makes the popular Uruguayo preparation of grilling the morcilla on the parilla unfeasible, but it opens up all kinds of other possibilities. Fry it up with rice, with potatoes, with eggs...