It's not so hard anymore

Before I went on holidays, I could barely wake up in the mornings. I
could easily stay in bed until 7.45/8 am. Now I jump out of the bed at
7am without feeling extremely sleepy (well, sometimes).

Ok, weekends are exceptions. Really hate waking up before 10am.

--
Sent from my mobile device

It's Wednesday

But it feels like Friday, although it will soon feel like Monday.
Going out tonight, thinking of going to the gym tomorrow,
gym-manicure-night-out-with-friends on Friday, house viewings on
Saturday, work on Sunday. Then it's Monday again.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Weird things happen...

... when you are alone at home.

An I'm a bit scared now. :-S

Just realized...

... that I have more abandoned blogs that active one in my list. Maybe because I only read about 5 of them anyway.

At home and online

and I've quickly updated the links on the side!

A post for our friends in Australia

* Some time ago I read on Erica's blog (ops, I need to update the link on the right) that Melbourne has water control and she had 4 minutes to have a shower. First I thought to myself that this is impossible!
You're supposed to brush your teeth for 10 min., how can you have a shower in 10 min? Then I actually believed that it is possible as I am rubish when it comes to calculating time. Best thing to do in situations like this is try it. So there I went to have a very quick shower (hair wash not included). The result: 8 minutes. Damn, 4 minutes is impossible!

* She was also comparing life in Australia to the life in the US. I always thought that Australia would be closer to the US than to the UK (I guess I had Brazil in mind) but not really. It seems to me that Australia is like the UK, with better weather and nature, less mass culture and really far away. Prices are quite expensive specially housing and girlie needs services (I.e. Manicure).

* in London we have big problems with the size of the houses. People here think it is ok to have a 4-bedroom house, 2 living rooms, a big kitchen, nice garden and ONE bathroom. How the heck you expect a family to share ONE bathroom in rush hour (morning)?? At how dare people charge 400-500K (yes, half a million pounds) for something like this in an ok area (dude, good area is a 3 bedroom for 600K). A pound is about 2 US dollars.

* for the records: we don't have a dishwasher or even a dryer for that matter. It's not normal in rented flats and it's not that simple to get them.

* I'm lucky to have found a lovely Brazilian girl that does my nails and cuts my hair. 10 pounds hands, another 10 feet, another 10 to cut my hair. She waxes too but I don't know if I have male readers and I don't want to get into too many details. Anyway, this is really cheap for UK standards. Still looking for a beautician to take care of my skin but couldn't find a good one for less than 70 pounds.

* food-wise, I have to say that in general I'm used to the food but I don't think it's great. Prices varies. Beef is not good and expensive. Everything else you can get very expensive or very cheap depending on where you go.

* great stuff about the UK: 6 months maternity leave (paid), 23 working-day holidays (minimum), affordable flights to Europe and almost everywhere else. I also like public transportation but some people might kill me for saying that (well, I just don't know any
better).

* All in all, I guess Erica would like London from a big-city-with-so-much-to-do-you-get-dizzy point of view, but the moral of the story is: they are the same shit, so go for the best
beaches/weather/food option. Or just go country-hopping; it is still the best way to live and see a bit of everything. :)

--
Sent from my mobile device

House hunting

Who said it was going to be easy?!

But at least it's good fun to get into people's house and see what they've done to their homes.

So far, nothing amazing but we saw a couple of great gardens, two really nice kitchens and a lovely street where I wouldn't mind living in.

Still a long way to find my dream house (which has 4 bathrooms but Mr. C said it's too far from the train station).

--
Sent from my mobile device

Don't you love...

... when your train has been cancelled and you have to figure out
alternative ways to go home?
... when the alternative way to go home is just wait for the next
train, 30 min later?

Luckily I'm not in a bad mood. Just very tired.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Cinema

Wednesday we are going to the cinema. Moon. No idea what it is all
about. So many films to watch...

Before the film we will go to the gym and remember the old days. :)

By old days I mean some few months ago when Mari, Lelei and I used to
go to the gym together.

--
Sent from my mobile device

I need some extra dose of energy

After a whole Sunday doing nothing but rest, I'm deadly exhausted
today. Don't know what happens to me but tired or rested I'm always
exhausted. Old age? Nah, my mum has more energy than I have and she is
more than twice my age.

I need caffeine injections in my brain.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Now we are talking!

I've been working out - hard, but not hard enough - for quite a while now. I can see results - good, but not yet great - and I'm quite happy. Two weeks ago I decided to follow a new eating plan - not dieting, but controlled food intake if it makes sense.

 

Without following it by the book - as with gym - I've managed to loose 4 pounds or 1.8 Kg in two weeks. Not too bad. :-)

 

I'll try to behave with food and increase the days at gym (at least an extra day would do) so I can see better results!

Things that you think about when you are on the train...

At the moment, I'm thinking about things I want to do before I die (or
get too old to do it):

* taking diving lessons
* dive
* travel to Australia, Mauritius, China, Hawaii and all the 'exotic'
and far away places that a) require a lot of free time and b) cost a
lot of money
* write a book
* learn another language or two, or three
* take singing classes
* learn to roller skate and ice skate
* take belly dancing or tap dancing classes
* learn/practice a(any) sport - rollerblading could be one of them
* enjoy taking care of plants and have a beautiful garden
* learn to cook and enjoy it

I think that's all...

--
Sent from my mobile device

Catching up

I love seeing friends I haven't seen for ages. Today I met with two:
one for lunch and one for dinner. I feel I talk to much though - just
so much to catch up with.

Funny thing is that both are organising their weddings so it's like
listening to two versions of the same story.

It's kinda interesting to see how happy the bride-to-be is when
talking about their own wedding and all the little details, etc. I
really enjoy listening to it.

I'm going to my first wedding in the UK next April - should be fun and
I'm looking forward to it. By what I've seen in pictures, weddings
here are a bit different from the Brazilian 'version', so I'm really
curious. Such a long way from now...

--
Sent from my mobile device

And it's only Tuesday...

Last week was so busy and long that Ihave the feeling I didn't have a proper weekend and that today is Thursday, not Tuesday. That's bad, isn't it?
Plans for the week? I'm trying to meet with two friends and hopefully I'll manage to see them this week - on different days. I'm also trying to find a date to go to the gym. Yesterday I was really tired and lazy, today I'm not coming back to London until 6pm, so not really sure how I'll do that. Oh, yes, I don't like to go to the gym too late in the evening, as I have problems sleeping afterwards. I'm also going to check with the eating programme I'm on is working and this is Thursday - fingers crossed for a positive result.
I'm hungry!

Early bird

My day started at 4.30 am today. I don't have to mention that I am sick with sleepiness, do I? On the train to the north now...

Becoming British

Cipri just got into our bedroom screaming "my God it's freezing in here" and closed the windows. Honestly, it was nice fresh... and he is supposed to be the British in this relationship

What I love about being a girl...

... is feeling extremely happy after a manicure/pedicure. Priceless. :-)

House hunting

We are slowly looking for a new house. We saw two on Saturday and although they are not really what we are looking for, at least we can have a look at what's in the market. I quite like house-hunting - I just don't like the fact that houses here are too expensive for what you get.

Dress & All Star (Cont. from the previous post)

(ignore the jumper... you shouldn't (need to) wear jumpers in summer, it's just wrong!).

On summer dresses and sneakers - This post is for Ioana. :-)

Summer dresses and sneakers can get along very well, especially in this who-cares-about-fashion?-I'm-colour-blind-anyway-and-I-don't have-a-mirror world.

I used to wear keds & summer dresses back in time, but all my trainers now are especifically for training.

Below are some examples of how normal or how crazy you can go and the sneakers that usually go match with summer dresses. :-)

New New Year's resolutions... or catching up

I can't remember all of my New Year's resolutions but the few I remember were getting nowhere. Until now. I've been a good girl and exercising regularly - I'm starting to see some results. This week I've started a new eating plan - less boring and frustrating than ordinary diets, but still reducing the 'bad' food. Let's see how long it will last - this is my 2nd day.

Everything is going fine professionally, despite the economy. Got a promotion in the beginning of the year, extra help and I'm learning a lot.

All in all, not fantastic, but not bad either. Looking forward to the second half of the year.

A sign?

One of these days I had to call home (London home, not Rio home) and I realised that I don't have my home number on my mobile. And I don't know it by heart.

Although I've been leaving here for almost 4 years, I still remember my number in Rio.
(NB: Mind you, I just called the house a couple of times)

Day trip

I'm on my way to Ireland, but I'm back tonight. Not much fun,
especially because the weather is not that great.

I've been quite 'busy' since we came back from Sardinia. Loads to do
at work, but I haven't worked very long hours, fortunately. Last
weekend I had 'events' on Saturday and Sunday, which isn't very common
in our lives. My first baby shower abroad - and probably the 2nd in my
life? The weather on Saturday was lovely and the baby shower was in
Brighton (beach) so a very nice combination. And Sunday we watched the
tennis finals in a pub by the river celebrating Charles and mine
belated bdays and Ivika's pre-bday (which has now past and I just
realised that I forgot to say happy bday on the day).

Had breakfast and now feeling slightly sickish. I needed a warm meal
and airports are not the best place to have a meal. I went for egg,
bacon and toast + orange juice. Since I'm not used to that in the
morning, so wonder why I'm sick.

Great.

Gonna get on a tiny plane in an hour. Hope to see you again! :)

--
Sent from my mobile device