Monday night I have more British friends visiting - a guy I worked with in Brazil back in 2004 and his friend, so I rope in Steel Drama Queen and a couple of her other friends (English and American) and we head to Miranda, which never fails to impress.
We start with a provoleta - my new favourite thing - and it goes down very well with my friends. I've had enough steaks in the last week to last me a lifetime so I go for my usual mouthwatering chicken Ensalada Jacinta, while my pals go for steak, lamb and one lot of pasta. We're all suitably stuffed and my buddies head down the street for an ice-cream (how many other countries do you know that have ice-cream parlours open at midnight?) while I head to bed for a very early morning the next day.
Tuesday night it's a business dinner with an economist visiting from the U.S., and we go to Happening, an upmarket parrilla in Puerto Madero that's very popular for business lunches and dinners. The steak is absolutely perfect and I even struggle to eat mine, but the service is unbelievably bad. Our waiter keeps abandoning us for up to an hour at a time and our water and wine glasses are left empty for long periods. I try several times to catch a waiter's attention and fail. I realise they are understaffed but, unfortunately, there's little in the way of apology and it becomes a three-hour dinner - not what I was hoping for by 1am when I'm shattered from the previous night.
Fortunately, I've been to Happening before for a business lunch and the service was a million times better, so I won't judge it permanently based on Tuesday evening's performance.
The economist has some very interesting chat and tells us he has a Havanna index - i.e. Argentine inflation based on the price of a box of alfajores each year. He says it's risen something like than 120% (I don't remember the exact figures) since a year ago. Insane.
Wednesday I walk around to my colleague's house nearby in Palermo for a quiet evening of wine, cheese and ham. And champagne to celebrate the end of 2011, of course! I notice an interesting-looking Evita museum in his neighbourhood and vow to visit in the new year.
Now it's off back to England and Ireland for three weeks. I'll miss you and your scorching heat, Buenos Aires!
I'll leave you with this shot of a Christmas tree near the Bosques de Palermo taken on my final 8.5k-run home from work of 2011:
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