Always eager to sniff out a story for BA live’s Point of View slot, it was great to give a warm welcome to an old school mate, Dirk, who was literally in town for 72 hours. Requesting a space on my sofa several months ago, I‘d totally forgotten that Dirk, also from my neck of the woods of deepest, darkest Chichester in West Sussex, was coming to stay until he emailed a few weeks go to ask me whether I needed anything bringing in. What could he mean? Coming from the British Virgin Islands via Panama City and Medellín, the standard ‘tea’ and ‘Maltesers’ requests probably weren’t going to be satisfied, however, Dirk did a fine job of shipping in a load of curry paste, four jars in fact.
I was fascinated to find out what his impression of Buenos Aires would be in such a short space of time so I sent him off with BA live’s very own Chance Miller Tourist Guide Guy, as I am on 12-hour days at the moment working at the Herald and a book publisher, sometimes simultaneously, plus I’ve done the tourist trail before. Several times.
They whizzed around La Boca, San Telmo, Plaza de Mayo, Recoleta cemetary, you name it, Dirk saw it. And Chance was extremely thorough, too. So what were Dirk’s burning questions about BA? “Why are there so many tractor shops?” and “why is there so much dog crap on the streets?” I endeavoured to answer both on the spot, not very well, but I did the best I could.
Dirk was a great house guest and seemed to enjoy whatever I had up my sleeve. We ate a kilo of baby beef between us at La Brigada one night, fat bastards that we are, checked out a one-off electro tango show being filmed for DVD courtesy of Tranxgo, went to an appalling house party at which partner-in-crime Hugo blocked the loo then flooded the bathroom and the cops were called (but not because of Loogate), and went to the closing of trash art gallery Appetite in San Telmo, where manager Maria kindly donated some 3D glasses to our intrepid traveller. And it is those very spectacles he is sporting in this photo of The Adventures of Dirk, Hugo and Sorrel.
Sorrel Moseley-Williams
Presenter
(Buenos Aires Herald, Time Out)
BA live airs on Thursdays at 9pm on Urbana 89.5 FM. You can also subscribe to the Podcast or listen to the show online by clicking here. First published on August 16.