House hunting

So we are in the house hunting mode. In London, if you are on a budget, you see 10 houses, 8 will be really crap, 1 will be bad and 1 will be "well, if we have to move in a hurry, let's go for it". So far we've seen 4 houses and hopefully we will see another 5 by the end of next week.

To add tragedy to drama, we have to leave the flat on September 25th, we have a birthday party on the 30th, I work on the weekend of 6 and 7 of Setember and on the 13th. Basically we have 1 full weekend left.

Although loosing...

... I believe we have chances to win this match.

(yes, I believe in miracles)

The grass is always greener...

I can't help thinking that the US are playing exactly like the Brasilians should be playing. Their balls are so much stronger, so much faster, so much precise...

6.23 am...

... and here I am watching Brasil loosing for the USA at the volleyball finals.

Geez, after the great match yesterday, I think I'll have a heart attack.

If everything goes according to the plans, we are watching Hell Boy 2 tonight.

I've got a "new" computer at work. Not brand new, because it belonged to somebody else, but instead of a desktop I have a laptop. This now means that I have a slower computer, but I can now work from home too. Great, huh? :-

With Brazil's awful campaign in this Olympics, I shouldn't even waste much of my time writing about it. I guess I am truly suffering about our bad performance, maybe because I'm always hopeful that things will change, life will be better and the "future"* will one day finally come.

Sadly I'm not in a much better position when it comes to Portugal - my 2nd nationality. I guess I need to wait another 4 years to claim the British citizenship and support Great Britain in the next Olympics.

By the way, this is the logo for the 2012 Olympics. It's just me thinking it looks bizarre? I hope this is yet to be decided.

Poor poorly girl

That's me. I feel like being a bit of a drama queen today. Been feeling sickie for some days now, but being a woman I have to be brave and wake up everyday at 7am, go to work, work my ass out, leave late (almost 8pm today) and life goes on.

But today I'm feeling very poorly and in need of attention, i.e. have mum taking care of me.

Lucky me: mum is far away and boyfriend thinks these sickie dramas are for boys.

So, tomorrow out of bed at 7am again.

I was having some drinks with the folks at work today (ok, I was on diet pepsi) and we were talking about a pub/bar/restaurant next to our office that has happy hours 2-4-1 cocktails until 7pm. And here was the conversation:

Me: We should go there after work.
A guy: Nah, the place is kinky.
Me: Well, if the drink is good, what does it matter?
A guy: if the drink is good? We can see that you are a foreigner?
Me: what do you mean?
A guy: we don't say if the drink is good. Its not English?
Me: how would you say then?
A guy: I don't know, but not if the drink is good.
Me: oh, common, tell me. I don't want to speak bad english.
A guy: there's nothing wrong with what you said, but an English person would say 'if the club is nice', 'if the music is good'...

I genuinely thought he was talking about my grammar or bad English, but he was just calling me an alcoholic. That's fine then.

Quoting a guy at work:

Sarcasm is the cousin of anger.

Nice one.

Trip

I have the opportunity to go to Dublin for a weekend to work and will be able to carry Cipri with me.

Still need to discuss pro's and con's before booking everything.

I love Ireland but it is such an expensive country.

I'm def. getting old. Can't stay up until late, can't drink much, every single part of my body hurts - from head to toe, going through knees and back, have been very grumpy, loads of new wrinkles, horrible skin, lake of energy,...

I'm surely going through a bad period.

But as useful it lasts until the end of my actual period.

I got back from Ireland yesterday. The plane landed around 21h, only half and hour late. But I had to wait for my luggage, which took at least 20 min.

At least the driver was outside waiting for me and I could just relax the whole way home. Times like this I realise how far I leave. It took me 1h30 to get home. I think.

The driver took me through places I've never been before - or I've never notice before. Maybe he wanted to show me a whole new world or just remind me of my poor little life in the suburbs (apply the Brazilian meaning here) of London. We passed by some really posh area such as St John's Woods (Sir Paul MacCartney and Kate Moss live there, just to name a few), and some streets in the Regent's Park area. The houses are shamefully big! It vaguely reminded me of a rich neighbouhood in Houston, Texas, and its mansions with greek columns at the entrance. The driver told me that they belong to the rich arab family who send their kids to school in England. Actually there was this beautiful mosque in the area, huge and richly decorated, looked more like a palace.

When I say "shamefully big" is because London has such bad problems with housing and space that it is embarrassing that a handful of spoiled kids actually live in a 15 bedroom house and they don't have to do much for it. Anyhoo, maybe it's just me wanting a bigger slice of the cake, or in a grumpy mood, but when I think that a 'cheap' small two bedroom house in East London can cost £250,000 (500,000 american dollars?) I can't be in a better mood.

Things I like about my job...

Staying in five star hotels whenever I go to a meeting in Ireland.

The photos are not faithful to the real deal, but you can have an idea. Specially for backpackers and penny accountants (?), or those who know that 30m² in London is the size of a house - oh, well, and I wouldn't pay £150.00 per night in accommodation anyway.

By the way, this room is for couples - I've asked ONE toothpaste (I forgot to bring one) and they gave me two toothbrush/past kits. I got two welcome cupcakes, two glasses of wine, etc.

Two days off

Today I'm flying to Ireland, coming back tomorrow around 23h. Business trip, so no fun there. Still need to pack and do some work before going. But at least I am at home, which makes my day a bit more productive (I'm doing the laundry, for example).

I wish I could work a couple of days per week from home. It is just so nice! One day...

What a difficult film...

We have been trying to see Wall-E but everytime we go something happens and we need to change our plans. So yesterday we saw The Dark Knight instead. It is a good film - a bit to long for my bum and knees, but still a good film. The only thing I don't like about sequels (well, there are more than one, but it doesn't matter now) is when the replace the actor/actress of the previous film but keep the character. I know that there have been 5 or so different Batmans, but the last two featured Christian Bale as Batman - so why Rachael is one person in one and another in the sequel? This is no good to me. I don't like Katie Holmes, but I get confused with all these changes, you know?

Hopefully next week we will manage to see Wall-E. Fingers crossed.

How sad: I couldn't find one single decent photo of myself to post here. Nothing in Paris, London, parties,... this one was taken in Hampton Court Palace - once of Henry VII palaces in London. It's the least worse of all the latest pictures from me.

Besides, I don't appeare in photos lately - I'm always taking them. So most of my photos are of landscapes, which are not that interesting, considering that now you can just google images and you find loads of similar pictures.

Bloody hell

My Brazilian passport expired two months ago. Shit.

So hard to be British

You know, I'm a last minute person (although I hate it). I don't plan much, I like to think I can do whatever I want, whenever I want. Well, this is probably easier for rich people - they say "yeah, let's go to Jamaica next week", they book a first class ticket and they go. As simple as that. We are trying to book holidays for November and everything is SO expensive already. I guess we need to plan our holidays for 2009 if we want to go somewhere nice and don't pay a fortune.

In the meantime, we will have to be happy with a trip around the corner. At least it's Spanish territory and Spanish are really nice folks.

August

Back in Brazil - not sure about other countries, but I'm too lazy to research about it - we say that August is the month of the witches, or the mad dog. The month where everything goes wrong. From a painful bump on your favourite toe to a plan crash, anything can happen. This said, no wonder why the temperature dropped to 16°C (and should go to 13° later in the week) during high summer. If you are outside Europe you might now know, but August is the month where all Europeans take summer holiday and go to the beach. British being smart, they go to Greece, Spain, Portugal or any other "normal" country.

Cipri being half-British and me being 100% Brazilian in need to sunburns and water, we are planning a trip to Tenerife (Canaries Islands) end of October-beginning of November. It's been ages since we last traveled far (Marocco, for Christmas and New Year), so time has come.