From the series: "I hate Mondays"

Mondays are such horrible days, aren't they? Especially after such a nice weekend. As I said a couple of posts ago, we went to Warwick. Saturday visit the Warwick Castle and had one of the worst meals ever (inside the castle) and then went to Royal Leamington Spa for a birthday party. Sunday we walked around Warwick and when we realized that there's not much to do in Warwick except going to the church or watching TV, we hopped onto a bus and went to Leamington. Very cute little town, white and bright, still small but lively. And very important: stores are opened on Sunday!

In Leamington I had one of th most delightful experiences of my life: a squirrel came to eat on my hand!!!! :-D It's like heaven - they are sooooooo cute! Shame that I didn't have any food to offer, I literally cheated on him showing my empty hand and he trusted me! Oh, well, I hope he doesn't hold the grudge.

Also in Leamington we had the best meal of the year (so far). We went to Alfonso's, a Portuguese restaurant, and our waiters were Brazilians, of course. :-D Very lovely people. I had king prawns, Cipri had a very nice steak (bife a cavalo), Mari and Guilherme had the same cod fish. All delicious. Yummy, yummy. Sad to think that we are back to crappy meals. :-(

We do have very few photos, but we haven't download them yet. Same old, same old.

From the series "What I have been doing lately"

Besides wanting to sleep until the summer strikes back (if this happens), we are trying to take advantage of the winter sales and go to some musicals. Well, we went to Monty Python's Spamalot (King Arthur and the Holy Grail), which wasn't great but was fun and we recently bought tickets to see Avenue Q. Future plans include We Will Rock You and Mamma Mia. But even with the winter sales, spending £25 per ticket is a luxury, especially with so many plays going on.
On a more practical side, I've been trying to get back to the gym routine. I'm very proud of myself this week: I went four times to the gym! :-) I have to push myself to go, because if there's something I don't enjoy is the gym environment. Sweaty people, collective showers, horrible music... At least I really feel good about myself after working out. Oh, I guess it's worth mentioning that so far I haven't noticed any difference (except that I put on some extra couple of kilos) since I started the gym, last October.

Weekend

I think I've mentioned our lack of planning for 2008. While in 2007 we had our five bank holidays planned way in advance, this year we might not go for any international trip.
On the other hand, we have plans to visit England because since I arrived in this country in September 2005, the only place I've been to was Brighton. Once. Full stop.
Tomorrow we are catching the 9am train to Warwick (where the Warwick Castle -duh - and the Warwick Cathedral - duh - are. But, a-ha, the Warwick University is in Coventry!). We are spending the weekend there and Saturday evening we are heading to Leamington Spa (not sure why so many towns in England have "Spa" in the name;one day I will research about it, but now I'm too lazy) for a birthday party.
And the weekend after this we are renting a car and going... somewhere. As Zeca Pagodinho would say "let life carry me on". Or something like that.
Back to Warwick, I went there in 1998. I remember some bits and bobs, but the images are not that clear - especially because it was a 30 day trip full of castle and museum going. Anyway, Warwick Castle now belongs to Madame Tussaud's group, so we will have loads of wax dolls around, which is always fun when you are a tourist.
Hopefully we will bring some nice photos to share and we won't be lazy to upload them. :-)

From the series "Morocco"

Yeah, I know, the photos are old already. "Bu, woh-eva", a southeastern girl would say. Here are some pics.

Two artistic photos (above and below). In the room made of mud (mud as in sand + water + maybe camel shit).
Roberto and I in Essouira beach.

Cipri and Roberto in the desert.

Cipri and I in the desert.

From the series "I beg your pardon?"

Can somebody explain me why British people say indeed for everything? "Good morning" "Good morning indeed" "Ok, so I will call you later once I have the answer for you." "Thank you indeed"

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After 2 years and a half living in London, there are still so many things that annoy me regarding the British way of talking, like eating the letters of words. Glocester is Gloster, Leicester is Lester, Secretary is secretry, Yorkshire is Yokshur (oh yeah, they don't pronounce the "r" properly and for someone coming from Rio this is very annoying) and let's not go to advertisement because this is a word I cannot even pronounce in British English!

I also struggle to use new words I learn everyday, like pudin. Pudim in Brazil is a specific dessert that I don't like that much. I would never have pudim with a smile. I eat it for the sake of eating sugar, but I would gladly exchange it for ice cream, chocolate, condensed milk. Pudin here is any type of dessert. Basic English-Portuguese dictionaries (like Babylon) don't even have pudin/pudim as an English word. You can have chocolate mousse as pudin here and nobody will think it's weird.

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What is with these people that insist in saying Hage-Ass-Be-See (HSBC)? Hage, not Age. There are a couple of those here at work. And iciu instead of ishew (issue)? And jaguiuar instead of jaguar? Let's not talk about South East accept, yeah, because, yeah, I will need a four page post, yeah, to explain in details, yeah, all those funny noises, yeah, Soufeasterns do, yeah? Know woh I mean? Woh? You dont? Man, noh good, man, yeah, Soufeastern are cool, innit?

If you live in London or you will visit London, please do come to South East London for a "cultural" trip. Yeah?

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In my city (not going to generalize and say country, because I don't know if this is a countrywide common sense), when you say "good for you", usually you are being ironic. Example:
Someone you don't even like that much is going on a trip to NY and you don't have money even to go to the cinema, you say "good for you" thinking "yeah, I hope the plane won't crash, you won't break your legs, and the trip is not too boring. If I had the money, I would never waste it going to NY anyway". Boobless is how we call this person in Portuguese.

In this country (and I guess everywhere else in the world), good for you is supposed to really mean good for you, as in "yey, that's great!". But for some reason I don't feel it is said with the same enthusiasm you would say "yey, that's great!". It's more like "good for you, let's change topics?".

My friend Meytal (she is American) always laughs when she has to say good for you. And poor thing, now she cannot say it without thinking of the Portuguese (Brazilian? Cariocan?) connotation.

From the series "What the heck?!"

It's been a while now that I've been fighting against spots. Facial red spots, to be precise. Yeah, like a damn teenager. I hate having spots more than I hate being overweight! Hmmm, maybe not. But you get the point, heh?

I bought this product that promises to elimite spots in 4 hours! I've been using it for a week and so far no good.

And because I am a pharmacy freak, I bought new stuff to scrub my face. Quite nice I have to say, but it hurts a bit. Some sort of peeling.

I don't want to get old, but I don't want to look like a chubby teenager. I just need the braces and the glasses to be Ugly Betty copy cat.

Sperm-a-lot

We are going to the theatre tomorrow. Monty Python's Spamalot. I don't like Monty Python (sorry), but the Palace Theatre is so pretty that I don't care what we are seeing.

The same for Cirque du Soleil, which I am very frustrated to have missed. The Royal Albert Hall is gorgeous, so impressive. *sigh* Next time.

More than 200 channels...

... and nothing good to see!

Blame my mum: she wouldn't allow me to watch TV during the day and because I didn't like soap operas that much (in Brazil, from 6pm to 10 pm you only have soap operas, with one News programme inbetween), I was left to watch the films after the last telenovela. When I was a kid.

Lucky me, now I don't have patient to stay in front of the TV, unless to watch films.

Unlucky me, I cannot say the same about +1, who watches almost anything, including Star Trek series, Star Gate, football games of unknown teams...

What we are watching now? Blade.

I have to say that I am following Lost Season 4. I'm looking for answers, you see?

From the series "What I have been doing lately"

Nothing, really. Well, nothing in special. Oh, no. I managed to (slowly) go back to gym! :-) Four times last week, twice this week so far - the goal is three times. We've seen a couple of films: Charlie Wilson's War (I love Tom Hanks), The Golden Compass (well, well), American Ganster (can't even remember the film, but it's good - oh, now I remember!), I am Legend (keep distance) and No Country of Old Men (very good, but can you draw the ending?). On video we've seen Atonement. Keira is one of the worse actress in history, and despite lovely James McVoy, the film is so slow and boring. And although it is supposed to be a love story, it lacks some loving. I mean, suffering for love. Even Brokeback Mountain was more passionate. We’ve also seen 3.10 to Yuma, with Christian Bale and Russell Crowe. Nice, but I’m just too bored with the same I’m-a-very-bad-guy-but-I-have-a-heart kinda film.

Other films in the list: Sweeny Todd, Cloverfield, In the Valley of Elah, The Kite Runner, ...

From the series "I've never thought I would say that"

I used to have a love-hate relationship with soups (the exception being chicken soup). Until I had my gall bladder taken off and spend a month having soup of whatever. Not too awful, but nothing delicious. With this annoying cold almost all year around, I had to learn to appreciate soup. Chicken is still my favourite, but I have added two new flavours to my menu: carrot and coriander (taste like fish) and Maryam’s mushroom soup. It’s worth saying that I hate mushrooms with all my strength, but this soup…

From the series "I shouldn't be here"

I have to confess that lately I have been so lazy and feeling so tired that I woundn't mind staying at home for a couple of months. I can't remember the previous years, but - although the cold is not too bad this year - the winter sucks all my energy and all I want is to sleep. Ishould be working, but no motivation to.