The McDonalds 5k Run

I head down to the Bosques at 9am for the McDonalds 5k run. The atmosphere is fantastic - a sea of pink-clad women raring to go, with a backdrop of perfect blue sky and hot morning sunshine. 

The run is great fun and I complete it in 25 minutes. It would've been much more fun if I'd had a friend, but hey ho, I enjoy the atmosphere and relax with a few stretches in the park afterwards.

After the run. Note, none of these lovely pink ladies is me.

Snapped on the grass - my medal

Coca Cola truck in the park

The lake - an urban paradise

After the run, I meet my neighbour and her English friend for lunch at an organic café called Artemisia near our place on Gorriti with Cabrera. We go for a salmon wok and share this dessert:

Dessert at Artemisia

As the sun goes down, we walk my neighbour's dog around Dorrego and I snap a load more graffiti:

Scary

Freaky...

Cool

Lula Has Cancer

Today is my second weekend shift. It starts off quiet and then suddenly we get a press release from one of the hospitals in São Paulo saying that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been diagnosed with cancer. Jeez, what is it with Latin American presidents and cancer? Brazil's Dilma, Paraguay's Lugo, Venezuela's Chavez, and now Lula? Of course, Chavez comes straight out and accuses the U.S. of a conspiracy to cause cancer in LatAm's leaders, however they might manage to do that...

So I spend the day frantically editing copy and getting behind on other stuff. At lunch, though, I decide to go to McDonalds because the 5k run pack came with a couple of vouchers for a free McDonalds salad, so who am I to dismiss it?! The McDonalds free chicken salad is pretty average but I'm a sucker for a freebie so I'm quietly content.

I had planned on running home from work but the day has been so busy that I'm exhausted by the end of it and I idle off to the subte once again. At least it's quiet on a Saturday.

The 5k Debacle

I'm running the McDonalds 5k run in the Bosques de Palermo on Sunday - crazy, I know, for McDonalds to sponsor a run, but hey, I guess they have to do something good to offset all the burgers. Anyway, as usual, they can't just send out t-shirts and race packs in the post so I received an email explaining I must go to Alto Palermo shopping centre between certain hours of the evening to pick up the pack.

I head there straight after work as it's on my way home (sort of) and I go straight to the kiosk on the ground floor that says McDonalds 5k Run in big letters. After I've queued for ten minutes, a lady comes around with a clipboard, I find my name and she tells me I need to go to the first floor to collect my t-shirt. I head up to the first floor and queue for another five minutes before finding my name on the list and being told I need to go back to the ground floor to pick up my t-shirt. I refuse to do so, since I don't want to spend my entire Friday evening on this wild goose chase, so the heavily pierced young lady walkie-talkies down to try and sort it out for me. I wait and I wait and I wait.

Fifteen minutes later, I finally get my bright pink race pack. Nothing's easy in this place...

I spend the next half hour or so wandering around Alto Palermo. This is a hugely upmarket shopping centre - much more so than, say, The Trafford Centre or any UK shopping centre and I wonder where the rich Argentines get their money from. There are shops that are way more expensive than any high-street store in the UK and a leather jacket made in Argentina can easily set you back £500.

I buy a couple of pairs of earrings from a nice little kiosk and head home.