Pics to illustrate previous chapters

Some other picutures for the Rio de Janeiro Tour 2006.

Chris, Cris and Lili - Manuel & Joaquim, Copacabana. 23/09/2006 - a very tiring day!! Egotist moment: I love my tan! :-D

Nathalia, Lili and Laine - Manuel & Joaquim, Copacabana. 23/09/2006 - Nath and Lalá less tired after a quick nap.

Sunday picture. We (Nath, Lalá, Maggie, Lili and I) having lunch at Little Italy, Barra da Tijuca. 24/09/2006 - a stormy day!

Going to São Paulo. Joaninha (lady bug), Lalá's car, went back packed with boxes. look how comfortable I was! :-) Hey, no, I didn't go to SP with the girls, they just gave me a ride.

Chapter 4

I'm home alone with the dog, who, by the way, is barking like crazy to some enemy that only she can see.

I've spend the day reading all the articles about the plane crash in the North of the country. Gol is one of the Brazilian budget airlines and it was flying from Manaus (Amazonas) to Rio de Janeiro, with a stop in Brasília. The aircraft fell somewhere in Mato Grosso with 155 people on board. I didn't know anybody in that flight, but it is impossible not to be touched by a tragedy like that.

Another tragedy will be our elections. This period is very tough for me, coz I hardly follow the political life of my own country. I barely know the candidates, I don't support any specific party, I believe more in Santa Claus than I believe in politians' good intentions.

Good news: I manage to download my pictures here! :-D I'm still trying to reduce the size of some of them, but I here are some! If you read all the posts, you will know the stories behind each photo.

Cris, Madá, Tatá and I, at Manuel & Joaquim - Largo do Machado, RJ, 20/09/2006 (Zilma was there, but she left earlier)

Me and Leo, at Bibi Sucos - Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, 19/09/2006


Amanda, Chris and Miguel, after 5 hours of dancing, running, shouting, playing and destroying the house. My place, Laranjeiras, RJ, 21/09/2006.

Vivi and I, between two of her friends. Informal, Barra da Tijuca, RJ, 22/09/2006.

Chapter 3

As you might have guessed, the weekend was extremely funny and nice. It is so good to be able to speak and swear in Portuguese. Jokes make sense and are really funny. I had a great time listening to Lili's, Lalá's and Maggie's stories in São Paulo. Listening to the funny stories of your friends makes you feel like life is so good and there are no problems in the world. Quite comforting.

*****************

I spent the day with my dad today. Just come back home, almost 11 pm. It was good. I prepared a DVD with images of London for him, and before meeting him, I told his wife on the phone that I had something to show them that they would like (I was talking about the DVD). She decided to think that I was pregnant and I wanted to make a surprise. My dad believed her and mentioned to his friends that he was going to be a grandpa. It is not the first time they mention this issue. A long time ago my dad's wife told me "why don't you have a child?"; I replied "coz I don't have a boyfriend to be my husband to be the father of my child"; and she said "ah, you can ask a friend, and then you can give me the baby to raise for you". Huh? Yeah, this is part of my family. The other part (my mom and her sis) are more like "children?!?!!?! Are you crazy???? This world is doomed, There are wars, people killing each other, Bush, Lula, unemployment, hunger... Besides, you will never sleep again, you will be fat, old, your hair will fall". When all I care about is the weather in London when I go back...

*****************

This week I met the folks at my ex-work. Everybody looks fine there. Maybe not that fine. I was also involved with the citizenship process, which didn't work like I wanted. I came to my mom's place last Wednesday, St. Cosme & Damião's Day. I got a bag of candies. :-) I went shopping, nice clothes for the near future. :-) I was very frustrated, but now I am ok. By "now" I mean this exact moment, while writing this post. I feel fine. My left knee is painful, but I feel good. I saw on TV that sleep helps you lose weight. Sleeping increases the production of one or two hormones that helps burning calories (not very sure about that) and not feeling hungry. Great news, huh?!

*****************

Have a great weekend! :-)

Chapter 2

Thursday was family day. Cousin-Godmother visited me with her two kids (my Godchildren; she is 10, he is 6 yrs old). Quite noisy and tiring, but fun. The neighbour downstairs complained about the noise (dancing, running, shouting, singing), but in the end everything was fine. I wish I had that energy, but I'm having second (third, forth...) thoughts if I really want to have my own kids. Gee, you cannot return them if they are defective or if they are not what you've dreamt of!

Friday I met a friend that attended a post graduation course with me. It was supposed to be a meting of the classmates, but this friend forgot to tell everybody that she changed her mobile number, so nobody could find her to tell that the event was cancelled. We went - Vivi (my friend), Junior (her friend), another girl I forgot the nam (her friend) and me - to the Outback in New York City Center (yeah, far away) and after 20 minutes we found out that nobody would show up! we decided to go to Informal, a pub at Downtown, then, where the food is good. It was a (nice) surprise to see that the manager recognized me! He even got us a nice table (there was a huge queue). I used to go there every Friday, for one year and a half, when I worked in Downtown. I took a picture with him, which I will post later.

Saturday Lili, Lalá and Maggie arrived in Rio! :-D I went with Leo to Bara da Tijuca, where Lalá's mom lives and we had a nice lunch together. I gave Lili her late birthday present and she cried like a baby. hehe Ok, it was tough! We gave her a many things that would remind her of London and/or her friends there, like chocolate, books, tea. And I prepared a DVD with images of London, so she can watch everytime she misses the place. after eating and crying a river, we went to Niterói (for those who don't know, Niterói is another city, so going from Barra to Niterói is a journey) to visit Mariana. Our friend Mari, from London, was also in Brazil. For a good cause. I'm inspired and making plans now. Not gonna tell more, coz I don't know if it is supposed to be a secret. hehehe In the evening, we went to Copacabana to meet up some friends (Cris, Indaiá, some of Indaiá's and Leo's friends). Lalá, Maggie and Nathalia, who didn't go to Niterói with us because they were too tired, joined us as well. I have loads of pictures from that day, but as I told before, I forgot the damn cable.

Sunday I went to Barra to meet up Lili and Maggie and to shoot some images of the beach. The problem was that it was horribly raining, we barely could see ourselves. The weather in Rio was worse than in London, I must say. White sky, cold, rainy. depressing. The food is still good though, and this is more important. We had lunch together (with Lalá and Nath), and the girls went back to São Paulo. A very short visit, but it was GREAT to see them!

Holly shit!

I'm not a test-taker person, but I decided to try one I saw at Mari's website: How normal you are. And the result is:

You Are 55% Normal

While some of your behavior is quite normal... Other things you do are downright strange You've got a little of your freak going on But you mostly keep your weirdness to yourself

How Normal Are You?

well... at least I've passed! (but I am positive that I am more normal than Mari hehehe).

Chapter 1

Tuesday I went to the doctor. The dentist complained that I haven't been using the braces for over 8 months. The teeth moved and now I'm feeling a horrible pain when I use the braces. Anyway, it is necessary, right? I also did a blood test and everything is fine with me.

I met my friend Leo in the evening, as he was going to São Paulo on Wednesday. We went for a chat at a place called Bibi Sucos, where you can have almost all kind of juices and sandwiches and crepes. I had a tangerine juice, with a cheeseburguer and we shared a chocolate-banana crepe.

I can't remember what I did on Wednesday during the day, but I met Cris, Tânia and Zilma at Manuel & Joaquim at night. It raining like crazy, but it was a very nice evening. It was a long time since I've last met Zilma... 2, 3 4 years? She didn't change at all. looking at my old pictures (when I was a teenager or on my early 20's), I realized that I got a bit better. I'm not saying that I was good and got better, on the contrary. That I was weird (huge eyebrows, chubby, careless hair) and now I am improving. I still have a long way to go if I want to be nice, but, well, Brazil is 500 years old and it's still that mess!

During the whole week, I was struggling with the citizenship process. Everything was fine, except for my birth certificate, that wasn't ready. It is still not ready. Lazy people. So, once I couldn't work much on that, I went for lunch with friends. I met Chris on Wednesday, we went for lunch at Delírio Tropical. Yummy, the food there is quite healthy and good. I had a caesar salad and grilled chicken breast.

Time went by soooooooooooooooo fast.

Once Upon a Time...

Finally a good internet connection! Good wouldn't be fair, a great connection! Yesterday I arrived at my mom's place. I have some duties but I am trying to postpone them. :-P

Bad news: I've forgotten the USB cable of the camera and without it, I cannot download the photos here. I brought the AC cable though. Just in case the battery dies. :-) I'm gonna ask my mom if she has a spare cabel that I can borrow, coz I need new photos to update blogs and fotologs. and Lalá & Lili will kill me if I don't send these pics soon! :-P

I arrived in Brazil on September 18th. It was the worst flight ever! Because this trip wasn't in my plans, I had to look for the cheapest flight possible and this was via Washington. I left London at 4.20 pm (London time) and arrived in Rio at 4 pm (London time). Yeap, almost 24 hours after departing. Not to mention the stress during the flights.

The security procedures in London are more strict, with people having to take off their shoes, throwing away lipsticks, toothpaste and creams. Oh yes, no toothpaste, not even in the airline kit, which, by the way, inexists. So, I was sitting between two musslim ladies (not a problem at all if one of them didn't steal my seat) and a british couple (nothing against, if the guy didn't have such long legs). In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, we went through one of the strongest turbulance I've ever been into, right in the middle of dinner! The lady by my side was holding this hot cup of coffee in her hands and she simply turn it to me when the plane started shaking. I hope she will burn in the marble of hell for that! Hunf!

After almost 8 hours of flight, we finally landed in Washington. I had to get my luggage and sent them again. When I got my luggage, one of them had been opened! I checked very quickly if anything was missing, closed and dispatched it again. when I was inside the plane I remembered that THAT one was where my cameras were. Panic! I didn't see my cameras there, coz they were hidden between some towels. What if they have disappeared???? I spent half of the flight thinking about that. It was hard to relax, but in the end I thought "at least the plane didn't fall" and I manage to stay calm the rest of the trip. I won't mention the huge guy by my side, that stick his elbow in my ribs the whole flight.

I arrived in Sao Paulo around 8 am (local time) but had to wait at the airport until 10.45 am. I tried to have a look at Duty Free, but the prices are a bit expensive there. Arriving in Rio I've learned that my luggage was opened by the US Government and that my cameras were there. Meno male.

I was so so tired that I couldn't do much that day, except check some papers, have lunch and talk to my mom on the phone. I tried to sleep early, but i couldn't sleep at all. Tuesday, around 6 am, I was already awake.

* Gone *

In 6 hours I will be in the plane. I'll be back on the 6th of October, very late at night. Not sure if I will be able to update this or the fotoblog these days, but keep coming, you might have a surprise! :)

Hallo!

I've just seen "Little Miss Sunshine". Higly recommended. A bitter-sweet history. Very fofolete.

I've spent this morning archiving school's stuff and throwing away papers and notes. The room is still a mess. Oh, boy, three days to go.

Very busy days, by the way. Hopefully tomorrow morning I will go to the gym. And to the supermaket. Don't tell anybody, but I even ran out of toilet paper. Not to mention that there's no food at home since I've started writing the dissertation.

There's so much I want to write, but I can't right now. It's 1.15 am and if I really want to go to the gym at 8.30 am, I need to sleep, right? Right!

Nighty-night!

Strange...

I don't know why, but my blog is a bit messed up. Don't want to fix it now, because I am freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee and so tired! :-)

The fastest solution was to change the layout. It will change again soon.

Donation

Oh, I almost forgot! Is anybody interested in the films below? I'm donating them, not selling. Expiring date: July/2008. The box says it is professional and it is for black and white prints. It is made in Germany. If you need more details, just ask. I don't understand much about that, but I can check on the box.

Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee as a bird

Today I will hand in my dissertation. Good, huh? Yeah, I think it's great too. I think the worst part of the course was to forget everything I have learned before and assume that everything new I was learning is considered the new revolutionary idea of Culture Studies. Nothing against using new ideas, but when you spend 6 years of your life studying Social Communication because you like it, and because you like linguistic and like to write and words are so important to you, it is very traumatic to substitute everything by philosophycal concepts. I am not a very abstract person, which also doesn't help. At least I was happy with my last two conclusions.

This Sunday I'm flying to Rio. Leaving at 4.20 pm and arriving on the next day at 11.45 am. Yes, I feel sorry for myself too.

Last weekend was so warm in London. It was great. Sunday we went to Greenwich for a walk. Greenwich is a lively. The park is nice. The best part is that we can go walking! It is around 20-30 minutes, not bad, huh? At least I am exercising somehow, as, so far, I've been paying the gym, but not attending. Shame on me. I haven't been to the cinemas either. We will tomorrow though, but I'm not sure about which film.

From the 22nd I'm no longer a student. My card won't have access to the facilities anymore, which means no more free DVDs.

he plans for the next days are: pack, buy little gifts for some people, go to the cinema tomorrow, meet up with some friends on Thursday, celebrate 11 months on Friday, get stressed on Saturday (I suffer of Pre-Trip Tension), and feel weird on Sunday (happy to go home, sad to leave home, etc). I have to confess that the happiest part of this trip is the food. I cannot stand the food here anymore. ANY food. Pasta, indian, british, water, milk... Most of the time I am hungry, but I don't feel like eating. Even though, I keep putting on weight! (yeah, replacing food with ice cream).

Drops

* For those who will be in London between Sept. 21 and 24, you should check "The 2nd Uk Brazilian Film Festival". The festival will screen loads of Brazilian (dã) films, some of which are "Ilha das Flores", an old but highly recommended documentary of Jorge Furtado, "Meu Tio Matou um Cara", and "O Bicho de Sete Cabeças". For more information, check: www.somethingfrombrasil.org.

* For those who seek for a 5-minute break from work, studies, or boredom, try to improve your photography's skills by taking the best shot of Superman. I played once and my score was 70.

* Do you like Ramones? Check what these people did to their songs. And tell me what you think!

* Now only for those privilege people that speak Portuguese: check this article on light food. Some hints to transform great - and caloric - foods into low-fat, almost healthy delicious.

* Great game Brazil vs Argentina, huh? If we only played like this against France...

Hey life more or less...

Resuming the weekend:

Friday we were supposed to see Paralamas do Sucesso for free in Trafalgar Square. For some obscure reason, the badn didn't show up. Some said it was Varig's fault, some said they they got stuck in a spanish airport. Whatever excuse they give, I don't believe. For me, it was unrespectful with the crowd that was there waiting for this moment. Man, you don't play with the feelings of people that are away from home, willing for a familiar moment like that. Anyway, screw them all, and we - Mariana, Carol, Cipri, Roberto and I - went to a pub nearby and we drowned our sorrows with alcohol.

Drunk people is fire ("bêbado é fogo", BAIXOU CENSURA! hehehehe). In the end, we were talking about relationship between men and women, men and men, women and women and setting a trip to Bahia. Yeah, carnival in Bahia! Three Brazilian manage to convince the two foreigners that Salvador is the best place to go ever. I have to confess that I've never enjoyed carnival (except for the holiday, which is a good opportunity to disappear), especially those in the Northeast, with too much noise, too many people, too many hands touching here and there. Anyway, it was just a plan, it depends on some issues to become true.

Saturday the weather was crap. I was supposed to study, and I think I did it, but not like I was supposed to. I can't remember exactly what I've done on Saturday, except getting two DVDs: Batman Begins and Bad Education. I've seen both, but I am a good friend, so I got them to Cipri and Roberto. We saw Batman Begins this day

Sunday I studied some more. More than Saturday, I'm sure. We watched Bad Education and Eyes Wide Open - Roberto wanted to exorcise the gay scenes of Bad Education from his mind by seeing Nicole Kidman naked, plus a couple of orgy scenes.

And that was it. Nothing really special, as my focus is write, read, think these days. Today I didn't even leave the house and the result was okay. I already have 2/3 of the dissertation ready, but still two (important) authors to read and write about. I think that in the end my dissertation will be longer than requested. The bad part is that I will have to submit a draft this Wednesday.

Many plans for the week(end). We'll see. Final countdown: 7 days to hand in the dissertation; 13 days to departure to Rio de Janeiro.

Yawn! |-O

01.40 am

:-(

Sleepy. Little progress with the dissertation. At least some progress. Tomorrow I'm going to see Paralamas do Sucesso, for free, in Trafalgar Square. Before that I will study at the library. Before that I will finish the parts I couldn't finish today. After awhile it is quite difficult to continue thinking clearly. Foucault, Deleuze and Massumi for tomorrow, and Baudrillard and Boggard for the weekend. It sounds like the dinner menu, huh?? Yes, I will have to eat them!

01.47
...

01.49
I can hear the foxes outside. Scary!

By the way, I've seen Volver. Quite good. Not Almodóvar's masterpiece, but recommended. I want to see The Wickerman, but nobody wants to come with me. I need some horror movies fan friends.

...

01.51
11 days to hand in the dissertation. Trying to finish it this weekend. Rá, you wish!

01.52
Gonna sleep. Nighty night!