Joe and I took a walk to the Chocolate Boutique with my friend, Isabel.  Joe was happy to be on the move and out in the sunshine…

Joe in his sunnies

He didn’t want to wear his sunnies for too long, though.

Cheeky little bubby!

We met up with Isabel and headed to The Chocolate Boutique.  If you’re ever in New Zealand, you’ve got to stop here and just breathe in the cocoa.

I had the lactose-free, sugar-free berry frappe and Isabel had the cookies + cream. Mine was OK, but I’d guess that Isabel’s was even better!

I really love hanging out with Isabel.  She’s so sweet and fun, and she lets me practise my mangled Spanish on her, ha ha!  She’ll talk to me in Spanish and I try to limp along with what she’s saying.  Normally, I can understand her, but every now and then I have to say, “Hold up!  What the heck does ‘sembrar’ {or any other word that I can’t recall} mean?!”

In case you’re wondering, “sembrar” means, “to plant”.  We were talking about vegetarianism and organic foods, so you’d think that I could have figured it out.  Oh well!

I have started to put some Spanish children’s books on reserve at our local library.  My vocabulary is pretty good, but I’m terrible at articles and forming my verbs.  Hopefully I can read some Spanish to Joe and brush up on my own.  The last book that I read in Spanish was “Cien Anos de Soledad”… but that was about 10 years ago and I can guarantee that I don’t speak it or read it as well as I did then!