The farmer's strike has been called off, for now, so food is reported to be flooding back into the stores of Buenos Aires. Don't worry if you have already sent, or are planning to send, chocolate - it will find a very good home.

When not hoarding tins of preserved goods and dried fruit, we've had a busy week. We went to the Peking Opera to have our eardrums stretched. Not by the singing, of which I happen to be rather fond, but by the inconsiderate Argentineans around us who imagined that the loudness of the singing on stage would drown out the sound of their constant chattering to their neighbours. Quite why they felt the need to have a spirited discussion about the price of vegetables, or whatever, during the performance without waiting until the interval is a mystery. Even my sternest glares and admonishing shoulder twitches could not quieten them. Pah.

I have been helping Dave with some marketing for his rather wonderful estancia - www.estancialamargarita.com and advised him to update his details on Tripadvisor; as a result of which he has become a man possessed and obsessed with his reviews. Although he has now gathered some great reviews with which he is very pleased, as is the way with all these things, he's keeps wanting more. Our latest venture is setting up an Amazon shop and he is about to commence writing a blog, which I am hoping will be called 'Confessions of an English Gaucho', or 'Carry on up The Pampas'. I proposed getting Robin Askwith to star in the eventual film, but Dave said I was being rather cheeky and seems to imagine he bears a closer resemblance to George Clooney. Ha.

A couple of years ago we speculatively bought an old property in San Telmo, with, and on the advice of, Robin, I mean Dave. It was classified as a hotel, in the very loosest sense of the word, and inhabited by a selection of transitory immigrants and long term residents. The cooking and sanitary facilities were beyond basic, and in some instances contained within the same space. Even Brian would have hesitated to stay overnight there. We nicknamed it 'The Fleapit Hotel' and, as none of the tenants were paying any rent, waited for the bureaucratic wheels of officialdom to creak into action and ease them on their way. We finally took a tour of our newly vacated property last week and discovered that far from being as empty as we had been led to believe it was now inhabited by an army of cockroaches, so we have swiftly re-named it Hotel Cucaracha, and are wondering how to market it effectively on Tripadvisor to recoup some of our expenses.

A few days ago we went to visit a new hotel/bar in Palermo, called Miravida. It's being managed by a friend of ours, Nigel, who Dave and Brian first met when they came to Buenos Aires in 2003 as part of Dave's 'Year of Discovery*' when they were all struggling language students living it up with cheap wine and taxis. It's an old house that has been lavishly remodelled and refurbished, with an extensive wine cellar that is way beyond our travelling budget. Luckily they sold wines by the glass and we sampled some of their selection together with a plate or two of tapas. www.miravidasoho.com

*What did Dave find out during his 'Year of Discovery?' - it took him more than a year to discover, surprisingly, that he didn't like working. Unfortunately he forgot to be born into a life of indolent luxury and public schools. Too bad.