Londoners and some news from Brazil

Me looking at the map on the bus stop while waiting for the bus (dã) and this guy approaches (this guy = a souf east rapper looking guy, around 35+ maybe, wearing a hat and silver rings and collars, and that mustache-beard thingy):
- Are you lost?
- Huh?
- Do you know where you wanna go?
- Yeah, yeah, just having a look at the map.
- Very nice accent.
- Thanks
- Where are you from?
- Brazil
- Great country. Do you want to have a nice meal sometime?
- My bus, excuse me.

Two stops later, I've noticed that the guy was in the same bus. What do I do? Leave the bus, one stop before where I should leave.

- Hey lady, (oh no, the guy again!!!), I forgot to ask you if I can call you sometime.
- I'm married, have two kids and the third is already here in my tummy. Are you sure?
- Ah, ok, sorry. (and he gets into another bus)

Of course, thanks to that intervention, I arrived at the station right on time to see my train departing.

The lesson I've learned? Two, in fact: 1) If the distant is short, walk! 2) If you are late, run!

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When you are away from home, the news seem so much more interesting...

* Google might close Orkut in Brazil. Yeah, our sweet people represent 90% of the users of Orkut and some of them (hey, don't look at me!) are using it for illegal activities. These Brazilians, only embarassing us!! tsc tsc tsc

=> Check the message on Orkut: A friendly reminder: We all love orkut.com so help us keep it clean. Please use the service responsibly and be proactive in reporting abusive profiles and communities. Illegal content will not be tolerated and will be removed.View our Terms of Service.Stay beautiful- orkut team

* João Pereira da Silva, 34, arrested for stealing R$ 10,00 and condemned to 1 year in prison, is serving for over 2 years, in the place of João Pereira da Silva, 28, condemned to 3 years for stealing R$ 162,00. As if the coincidence of names wasn't enough, their parents have the same names too: Pedro Pereira da Silva and Maria Pereira da Silva. Here is a lesson: common and simple names are nice, but look what they can do to you!

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By the way, I have a visa to the USA valid until 2008. I hope I can go before it expires or before the world ends, whichever comes first.

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By the way 2, I'm going to visit my friend Mariana, who lives in London, in Rio. How cool is that? Last year the international meeting was between USA and UK, when I met Eriquinha and Mauricio, again in Rio. This city only brings me joy, isn't it? :-D

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Soundtrack of the evening, night, dawn:
Terence Trent D'Arby (remember him? "Wish me love a wishing well to kiss and tell"). I love the opening track: "If you all get to heaven, say a prayer for my mother, say a prayer for my father, say a prayer for my brother... but most of all, please, say a prayer for me".

Decadence avec elegance

Yesterday I tested the house's structure by dancing some of the newest international hits. Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie", the nhem, nhem, nhem Gwen Stefani and her Hollaback Girl and the Black Eyed Peas and the brazilian inspired funk My Humps. To listen to these two (1st and 2nd tracks) go to Radio UOL's International Hits playlist. Watch out, the third track is the i-wanna-cut-my-wrist-hit You're Beautiful. Gotta tell you, two hours dancing here might make the floor fall apart.

*****

I was reading that Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter's actor, had to shoot the a kiss scene 30 times because "he was too nervous". Aham, I bet that Keira Knightley had to repeat the kiss scene with Johnny Depp, in The Pirates of the Caribbean, 158 times until get it right. Bitch.

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Brazilian basquetball team has performed the worse campaign ever in world championships. Yeah, we are the country of the future, one day we will get there. The only problem is that the future never arrives, it will always be tomorrow. Good excuse not to do things right now.

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200 words out of 6.000. Not TOO bad.

Going back home! :-D

The dream will come true. I have my e-ticket to Rio de Janeiro - the one and only - in my hands. I'm leaving on the 17th of september, arriving on a Monday, with a huge TODO list. My flight is via Washington. I hope this won't be a problem. I'm also hoping that my trip won't be in vain as I learned today that the document I am expecting has a good chance to be ready in four months...

Well, it is true that going to Rio de Janeiro is never a waste of time, but if I don't manage to do what I have to do there, I might have to go back home for good! I bet my mom don't think it is a bad idea. :-P

It's raining, man!

The world is definitely rotating on the wrong direction. I think the person in charge of controlling the seasons abandoned the post, or collapsed, or slept more than usual and winter is knocking at our doors. At least in London. No idea to whom I have to complain.

Damn, and it's raining like hell!

Last Tuesday we met Mariana and Barny to talk about our trip to Morocco. We are planning to leave on December 23rd and return either on the 28th or on Jan. 3rd. We are also thinking about renting a car and travelling around the country. Well, the idea is to visit some beaches and keep the tan (i'm talking about me here, as everybody else is a bit whitish).

Me also planning a trip to Brazil. Two options: one would be a business trip (hehehehe) this year and the other would be a holiday trip in February. Of course I mean is either one or the other, coz if I start going to all the trips I plan to, besides going bankrupt, I will never find a job.

I have to confess that I have no fresh news. I've started the research for my dissertation (yes, I am VERY late, as usual) and for the next days I will (try to) dedicate myself to it. Oh yes, Madonna concert was cool. Everybody should have a show like this on the CV. As I arrived early and was a bit bored, I bought tickets for Tool show, in the end of November. Nov. 18th we are also going to see Momix. Am I being repetitive here? And on Aug. 27th we are going to the Reading Festival. We are aiming Pearl Jam performance, but we will get some extra shows, like Placebo and... and... and... ok, my memory is not helping me at all.

Hmmm, I'm out of news and things to talk about. So, yeah, I'm leaving you now. Kisses!

News & Pics

Some quickies before posting pics from Greece:

* Today I'm going to pick my ticket to Madonna's concern. The show is tomorrow, at the Wembley Arena.

* Yesterday I went to the gym. 10 minutes of cross training (or whatever), 40 minutes of walking (medium speed, 50% elevation), few exercises for the tummy, and 4 exercises for the legs. I wasn't feeling very comfortable to exercise without having a program (which I will define with the instructor next Monday, 10.30 am), but here is normal to go to the gym and start working out without supervision. I'm just not used to it.

* Did I mention that I cut my hair before going to Greece? A £ 5.00 haircut at Toni&Guy, but the result is almost imperceptible. I wanted to cut short, but the lady (a student practicing what she learned) asked to many why's and I got insecure and I went for a "traditional" layers haircut. Traditional here, as everybody in London has the same haircut, that one that you look like a mushroom (volume on top, few hair on the bottom). I'm getting used to it, gonna take some pics to post here.

* Finally my credit card arrived!! :-D Don't panic, I'm not a heavy consumer. It's just annoying not to have one to buy certain things (air tickets and show tickets, for example) and only in July HSBC authorized me to have one. It wasn't very easy, though. First they sent the card to my address in Brazil. And then, when the second card arrived here, I was charged a £ 20.00 fee for insurance, which I haven't requested (I mean, I was very clear that I DIDN'T want it). And, last but not least, when I called then to cancel the insurance, the lady tried to convince me no matter how to keep the damn thing. No means no. And she kept insisting "but why? If you lose, if you don't pay, if you...” I almost had to say "look, I want to portrait the card, I'm not gonna use it" to make her stop. And this phone call cost me £ 3.00.

Ok, now the photos:

1) Cipri & I at the Parthenon - Acropolis :

2) Partial view from the Acropolis:

3) Herodio Theatre. The black stage was for that evening's concert. I was told that the accoustic of the place is perfect. We couldn't check because it was closed to the public.


4) Like Rome, they found out a city under Athens when they were digging the wholes for the tube station. Great idea to make a window of it, huh? This is part of the walls of a grave yard (it's not a yard... but those are tombs). P.S.: This is inside the tube station.

5) Detail of one of the tombs (open, as you can see). The quality is not so good, but you can see a "BC" skeleton there if you look VERY carefully.

On traveling, returning and laziness

Hello folks, here I am again! For those who didn't know, I was in Greece for 10 days. If London had a nice beach, I would be so much happier living here... :-P

Ok, two photos for you. The first one was taken during our visit to the Acropolis, in our first day in Athens.

This second one was taken in our 7th or 8th day, now in an island called Sifnos. Noticed the difference?

Once Brazilian, always Brazilian. Since January keeping the tan and healthy face. Greece is as hot as Brazil, even with sun lotion 45, 20 and then 6 I manage to get as brown as I get in Brazil.

Ok, more pics from Greece on the following posts/days. Resuming the trip: we arrived in Athens on the 29th of July, at 1 am. We visited Athens on Saturday and on Sunday we went to Sunio (gotta check the spelling), where we visited the Temple of Poseidon and went to the beach. Monday morning we got a 6 hour ship (the biggest I've ever been) to Sifnos, one of the Cyclades islands. The Cyclades are a group of island where you can find those famous white houses on top of the rocks. The most famous islands there are Mikonos (the jet set island, very very expensive and trandy), Santorini (the nicest houses and villages on cliffs, but the worse beaches) and Milos (couple's favorite spot). Greece has a bit less than 200 inhabited islands and 4,000 overall, Crete being the biggest one (6 hours speed boat from Athens, or 12 hours in a common one - go by plane if you're planning to visit it).

Personally, I found Greece, especially Athens, a very modern place. Of course you have the ancient monuments and so on, but the houses and buildings are modern, the pubs, the people. Sometimes I felt I was in Brazil, in one of the newest neighbourhood of Rio. I think I need to go back to Rome soon, as my impression is that Rome was frozen on time, with a lot of old churches, buildings, houses. Don't get me wrong, I like this idea of living in modernity, but surrounded with History. I come from a country where you find a 20 million year old crocodile fossil, where the indigenous were living there since I cannot tell, but the first church is dated from 1500 something. So, facing a BC object is quite impressive.

Changing subject. I am the member # 1000363 at Pulse Club gym! Oh yes, my dears, I finally applied for gym classes. Ok, I haven't been there yet, not to work out. But I will! Mark my words. I don't want to set my goals now, as not achieving them can be very depressing, but anyways, I will talk about it again in December, if I have any positive results.

After coming back of 10 days laying on the beach, sleeping and eating, it is a torture to think about going back to the books. I have a month to finish my dissertation and it is barely started. I have a rough idea about what I want to write about, but I am still lost in my thoughts. Gotta read more, to get some inspiration. Meanwhile, my head is on the future, thinking about what I will do and want to do after I hand in the paper. So many plans, as usual.

One of them is to start planning the trip to Morocco in the end of the year. Finally I will be able to say "eu fui pra lá de Marrakech".