Quote: "if I wanted to know how a friend of my friend was doing (like: "How is he doing?")" You asked for "was", so, you want to know how she was on the past—e.g., How was he doing? When you want to ask a previous "doing" of a person you say: # Bracketed words are optional. Normal ones: Polite and informal. ¿Cómo ha estado [usted], [él], [ella]? (formal/polite/third person) *w/o the option, you need to make a context to imply the 3rd person or the listener will assume you are asking for himself. ¿Cómo has estado [tú]? (informal/common) ¿Cómo estuviste? (informal/common/close person) ¿Cómo estuvo él/ella? (polite/third person) ¿Cómo te ha ido? (polite/common) ¿Cómo le ha ido [a él], [a ella], [a usted]? (polite/formal/third person) *w/o the option, you need to make a context to imply the 3rd person or the listener will assume you are asking very politely for himself. if you ask this way a friend of yours, he or she might reply like —huh? me?. This is because you are breaking the familiarity line of the conversation. When there is some friendship you can use this ones first and then use the previous ones. 1. ¿Qué hubo? (informal/trusted persons/slang) *When you friendly ask about a mate's general mood & history 2. ¿Qué pasó? (informal/common/trusted persons) *When you friendly ask about a mate's general mood & history If there is a trusted friendship or close friendship you can use them without the normal ones. When the things become familiar. 1. ¿Cómo andaste? (Friendly/Familiar/trustd persons/informal) *When you friendly ask about a mate's general status & history 2. ¿Cómo anduviste? (Friendly/Familiar/trustd persons/informal) *When you friendly ask about a mate's general status & history. Finally, a very common one between friends of any kind to ask about another friend is: ¿Cómo le fue? example: oye hermano, y... ¿Cómo le fue a Nancy? ¿sabes? ¿Cómo está? example: ...pues sí, ¿y tú sabes cómo está Óscar? La ultima vez se enojó... I hope this helps!

I'm not the expert, but I want to help too :) Q1. Equals "it is true that the disadvantages we all know are present in crowded area are nowhere to be seen around here, even if you want to realize them in your mind or in a wildest dream, you might utterly fail on your attempt." Q2. "Truly! well, indeed!" is a pleonasm, it wants to be redundant about the truth value of a statement, it is used as an affirmation enhancer. "who would have thought it!" (*T from now on) is a rhetorical question, this means *T wants to enhance the whole affirmation by giving emphasis to the last true value. "it" is used because the subject is present and recent, otherwise "who would have thought that!" is used. Q3. This one is tricky... Because, all we know, time worths like gold, so, in this sentence I can undertand the following: Is the whole bunch of time spent by the aged woman by cleaning her body and putting on her make up to look pretty, really worths it? But the author preferred to write this in a more artistic way. Author --> "(*˘︶˘*)hehee.." I personally think it worths it, that means she loves herself and that is something important, no matter how much time she needs to invest for it to be done. I hope this helps! I really Hope so! I love this kind of readings. Please take care and keep it up and have fun!