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".

On friendship (again!) and this hot weather!

So, my dearest friends, according to many e-mails in my inbox, today is your today! I have no idea when this "date" was created, but it's the Friend's International Day! :-) I am preparing a nice chicken breast fillet to celebrate! You know, I don't cook, so when I cook there's something special happening.

I was reading the news and guess what? 13 people dead because of the heat in Europe. Nopes, not me, I'm still alive! I have to confess one thing: although the temperatures here didn't go to 40°C and anything above 38°C is "a new record", I feel that this city is hotter than Rio. Maybe because every store or office you go in Rio have air conditioning, almost all buses, the tube (line 1 at least), my house, your house. At least a very good fan. Where I live (used to) is quite fresh, despite of the heat. And also we have the beach, so we can refresh with a nice swim. Here? Pffff, some places have fans, one fan per room. Maybe in offices you have air con, those ones with 10 computers per room. And poor river Thames, makes no difference at all. Hmmm, in fact, I think it's a bit fresher near the river.

But please, I AM NOT COMPLAINING!!!!! I hate to sweat, I hate the smell in buses, I hate the stove that the tube is transformed into, but I definetly prefer having three cold baths per day than having my skin cracking, my nose bleeding, my legs and feet purple, because of that damn cold and wind. I just wish Bournemouth was closer. Beach is always good.

By the way, I read somewhere that the authorities are very concerned that this summer will be as hot as in 2003, where 15,000 people died in Europe. 15,000 people????? W-O-W. Let's give water to the elderly!

On alcohol, TPM (sic), friendship, hapiness and others

July 18th - today is Lorena's and Cris' birthdays. They are two good friends, the former from São Paulo, the latter from Rio. I know Lorena since beginning of 98, when she used to spend her school holidays in Rio; she was only 12 years old. I met Cris in 2000, we used to work together and since then she became one of my best friends. Despite the difference of age (8 years), Lorena and I used to go out a lot. She is very intelligent and talent and now her band is even one of the semi-finalists of Lollapalooza Festival. You can help them by voting at: http://www.freshtracksmusic.com/lolla2006/showartist.aspx?aid=50757&sgn=Indie%20Rock. Anyway, today I'm drinking (Bacardi Breezer, orange, so good) on their honor! And I am already drunk.

I just had a big big Barcardi Breezer bottle, but it was so hot and I drank so fast (ok, ok, didn't have lunch today) that... look at me... txk.

I am in my TPM (sic). How would it be in English...? PMT? Whatever. I don't feel like being on TPM, but I am. I mean, it's not because I want the world to explode that I am on my TPM. It helps, but I am also very tired and so unpatient and I was before getting to this period. Just to let it registered, in case I shout bad words at you.

I have spent the last hours searching for travel destinations. I'm planning to travel around (Around where? Europe maybe?) in September, for a month. I've found the inter-rail - train pass - which seems very interesting. Just need to be a little more corageous to get my backpack and travel alone! Such a shame that I cannot travel at niht with that pass and save on hostels! :-D

Oh, the mobile arrived. Me back to the world!

After the storm...

Phew! It's over! After a month (maybe more) of hard work, we had a very nice show. The opening was great, some interesting people around, I could speak Portuguese (hurray) and ended the night having a nice dinner at the Indian place across the street. Even the moments with no guests at all were fun, we talked, joked, played. We had a nice time after all, but we are also glad it's over. Now it's time to move on. My next step is to improve the jukebox, fix some details I'm not happy with, make different versions of the patch.

It is also time to start thinking about the dissertation. Two more months and the game is over. Time flies. It's been almost a year. It doesn't look so bad in summer.

I still have no mobile. Tsc, never thought I would be so dependant of one. Anyway, this week this will be sorted out.

Not so many news on my side. I have an interview on Thursday (no celebration, please), I’m going to a show called Fuerzabruta in Camden next Saturday, I’m flying to Greece on the 28th. And July is gone!

Be my guest

The Interactive Media students of Goldsmiths College are proud to present:

FEEL! *

Impossible to read, huh? Ok, here you go:

private view (but open to you, my guest) - 13 July, 6 - 8 pm
The show: 14-15 July - 10 am to 5 pm and 16 July: 12 am - 4 pm.
Where: Goldsmiths College, Main Building, Room 300 (upstairs), New Cross, SE14 6NW

For more information: www.feelshow.co.uk

HOW TO GET THERE

* no intentional erotic conotation

Who to blame

Brazil has this funny characteristic of refer to statistics and miths to justify its actions, especially the bad ones. It can also be used to justify future failures and this was so obvious on the news. For example, I read that Brazil never (hardly every) wins World Cups in Europe. Brazil never beat France in World Cups. Ronaldo Chubby never scored on quarter-finals. And the list keep going. I have my own theories to justify the poor game today; here is my Top 10 so far:

1) The French bad smell. Everybody knows that French perfumes are the best in the world because the French people are the stinkiest! I'm sure that the players and audience didn't use any perfume at all, so the Brazilian team would feel dizzy and nauseous. This also justifies that weird convultion Ronaldo had before 98's game. It was in France, summer and the country was all smelly.

2) Pelé. I bet this damn witch gambled against Brazil and did some black magic for the team. Ok, you can believe that Brazil won't win France, but you shouldn't say this to the papers, especially if you are a Brazilian. Faith above all, that's our fuel!

By the way, did you know that black magic was born in France?

3) Felipão. You greedy, you already won in 2002! Leave us alone!

4) Ali. He is what we call "cold feet" - no idea if this works in English. He supported Iran, Argentina, Brazil... I bet England and Australia too. Can you please support France now?

5) Lili. She wouldn't be able to watch the final properly, so it was better to end up everything now, huh?

6) Cipri. The first game he didn't watch in England. Besides, he wasn't wearing his Brazilian t-sirt, as he was on a wedding (not his own, that God).

7) Marco. Tsc tsc tsc. Bought a yellow multi-task t-shirt, so he could support Jamaica, Australia, Brazil, Ghana, Ukraine, Sweden, Ecuardor and all yellowish teams.

By the way, yellow is definetly not a good color. In Brazil, if you don't do something because you are afraid, it is said that you "yellowed". Ok, it's weird in English.

8) "Pra Frente Brasil". Mauricio said it was a weird version. I admit, it was. I took it from an Angra's lyrics website. Angra is one of the worse metal bands ever and only the Japanese like them. Shit, my fault!

9) Me again (yeah, the world turns around my belly button). I turned off the TV in the middle of the 2nd half. I should have supported my team until the end (but it was so obvious that we were going to lose, wasn't it? i felt humiliated with that game).

10) My mom. She is always against Brazil when it comes to football.

I will come up with other theories and other football posts, as I am so so so angry. If I was face-to-face with Parreira I think I would fix that horrible nose of his. Hunf!

If Brazil was Colombia...

Sorry for the stupid question, but what the fuck was that game?!?!?!?!?

I'm not ashamed of being Brazilian, not at all, but those guys should be. I think that there should be a punishment for those who make a fool of the Nation, like donate a year of salary for charity. Second thought. Knowing how things work in Brazil, this money would be stolen.

It was a shame that a good team like Argentina left the Cup prematurely, but it was well done for Brazil. This team shouldn't even be there to embarrass the whole country.

And now who would be Champion? I'm voting for either Portugal or Germany.

* Yawn *

I woke up early today. I have work to do. Brazil plays today, and like every game, I am stressed already. Germany sent Argentina home, I hope we do the same with France. Good luck for us!