Getting back from Brazil, moving house and a lack of decent internet access have put the blog on the back burner for a few weeks. As I'm on a 22k modem, I won't be putting any photos up or doing much internet until civilisation arrives in the form of broadband web access on Wednesday.
Sky plus was installed on Friday, so at least we can now watch the 24 hour live feed from the new Big Brother house. What a rum bunch they've found this time round. There aren't many to like there, but thank god it's more interesting the Camerooooooooon and Tickle fest last year.
Rio was bloody amazing - I was still battling my cold so I didn't enjoy it as much as Stef who went on a 2-day diet of no sleep and beach life. The full day we had there was great though - we went up sugarloaf mountain, James Bond cable car and all, took a helicopter ride over the city, a lobovan trip to see the Christ Statue ("Jesus Christ!") and went out on what was a planned few quiet last night drinks which turned into a 6-hour fruit flavoured caipirinha fest, with inevitable 2.30am paddling on Copacabana beach.
3 days after getting back we moved up to Edinburgh, and we're now living in our new flat in Broughton. We're very much enjoying it so far. The flat is on the 3rd floor of a traditional tenement block, with high ceilings, nicely done up, a really good place to live. It was a bit of a nightmare moving in.
Rach's work is now a week old, and she's settling into the responsibilities of working as a fully qualified architect. She has a site on Shetland, 3 ferry rides away, so we're hoping for a crafty weekend visit if possible. I'm still looking for work / whoring myself around, and I've got a few decent leads, so I should be doing something before not too long. Ideally I want to work for a local company so I get out and meet people, but initially it looks like I might be working from home.
We've been out wandering the city in the evenings, went up the touristy and brilliant camera obscura on Saturday, have tried some trendy cafes and pubs, been out with Charlie and the new neighbours, had dinner with Emma and Dave the Cave at Charlie and Mel's (and got drunk on wine and Balvenie Doublewood) and yesterday went to a concert of a local amateur orchestra, who have spaces for horns, so I'll be joining when they start again in Septembner.
We're lucky to be 5 mins walk from a decent cinema, and have caught up on a few films:
Van Helsing: Pretty rubbish.
Troy: Better, very Gladiator-esque, proving that time is irrelevent when it comes to starting wars for stupid reasons.
Kill Bill 2: I think I enjoyed it more than Chris did - but I did nod off at one point. There is one amazing movie hidden in there somewhere between the 2 of them, hopefully rumours of a single vol Kill Bill DVD are true.
The Day After Tomorrow: Big dumb Hollywood Summer Popcorn Blockbuster (tm). Fantastic.
More later this week, along with some photos. Fun fun!
PS - Chris - sorry about West Ham...
Monday, May 31, 2004
Monday, May 10, 2004
You know you are somewhere strange when...
... a flat-backed truck goes past with an elephant standing on it.
updated - food at football - Brasileiro style
Photos in...
Food 1: popcorn with bacon bits. Quite nice.
Food 2: unidentified deep fat fried thing. Absolutely horrific.
Food 1: popcorn with bacon bits. Quite nice.
Food 2: unidentified deep fat fried thing. Absolutely horrific.
Sunday, May 02, 2004
day 18 - football!
Went to our first football match last night - Gallo, my new adopted team, versus Pondupreta from Sao Paulo. Brilliant experience, great atmosphere. The game was a bit rubbish, but then I'm an Owls fan and I'm used to it. On TV today was Minas Gerais's equivalent to Man Utd - Cruzeiro - rich and supported by everyone - which was a much better game. Why do I always choose the bad team?
Catering report: beer on sale in the stands, which I think is very sensible and civilised. food - popcorn with bacon bits was OK, but the maize pie was grim, and remained half-eaten (after the customary photo of course).
We're now in stop 5, Ipatinga, 100km from Monlevade. I've landed on my feet at this place, as my hosts own a hotel, so I have a room there, and I don't feel like I have to be under their feet all the time.
Catering report: beer on sale in the stands, which I think is very sensible and civilised. food - popcorn with bacon bits was OK, but the maize pie was grim, and remained half-eaten (after the customary photo of course).
We're now in stop 5, Ipatinga, 100km from Monlevade. I've landed on my feet at this place, as my hosts own a hotel, so I have a room there, and I don't feel like I have to be under their feet all the time.
Friday, April 30, 2004
Day 15 - Monlavade
Boa tarde amigos, tudo bem?
Stop 4, and we´re back on track with friendly hosts in a very welcoming city. I´ve not got much time at this internet cafe from the dawn of time (no photos here), so I´ll be brief.
As well as the usual activities here (meeting the mayor, visiting schools, a church, a massive steel mill), we saw a little bit of the real problems facing Brasil at the moment:
- visit to homes for recovering drug addicts - heartwarming, strong courageous people. Good guitarist there too. They follow a 3-pronged tradition: religion, discipline and work, and stay on a 9-month recovery programme, voluntarily.
- visit to home for the poor and infirm - really sad... these are the locals who have no-one else to look after them, and no money to live. Mostly they were very old, but there was a 10-year old severely diabled girl there who had been abandoned, and has nowhere else to go.
I´m not sure what yet, but I will be doing something to help when I get home, even if it just means sending out jiffy bags with small gifts, copied CDs, pens and pencils, whatever. Honestly, giving someone one of our rotary badges is a big thing for these people.
I´m also going to see if there´s anything I can do to get some computers out to some of the schools. Whenever I get my camera out, kids are always really interested and inquisitive to try, to play, to use.
Tomorrow we´re visiting Ouro Preto, an apparently beautiful ex colonial town 100km away from here, and then going on to see our new adopted team, Atletico Gallo, playing in Belo Horizante. Sunday - onto Stop 5, Ipatinga.
Stop 4, and we´re back on track with friendly hosts in a very welcoming city. I´ve not got much time at this internet cafe from the dawn of time (no photos here), so I´ll be brief.
As well as the usual activities here (meeting the mayor, visiting schools, a church, a massive steel mill), we saw a little bit of the real problems facing Brasil at the moment:
- visit to homes for recovering drug addicts - heartwarming, strong courageous people. Good guitarist there too. They follow a 3-pronged tradition: religion, discipline and work, and stay on a 9-month recovery programme, voluntarily.
- visit to home for the poor and infirm - really sad... these are the locals who have no-one else to look after them, and no money to live. Mostly they were very old, but there was a 10-year old severely diabled girl there who had been abandoned, and has nowhere else to go.
I´m not sure what yet, but I will be doing something to help when I get home, even if it just means sending out jiffy bags with small gifts, copied CDs, pens and pencils, whatever. Honestly, giving someone one of our rotary badges is a big thing for these people.
I´m also going to see if there´s anything I can do to get some computers out to some of the schools. Whenever I get my camera out, kids are always really interested and inquisitive to try, to play, to use.
Tomorrow we´re visiting Ouro Preto, an apparently beautiful ex colonial town 100km away from here, and then going on to see our new adopted team, Atletico Gallo, playing in Belo Horizante. Sunday - onto Stop 5, Ipatinga.
Monday, April 26, 2004
brasil day 12
boa tarde!
The town we're in at the moment, Itabira, is industrial, very hilly, fairly pretty, but a bit of a crap experience all told. The rotarians are neither terribly friendly, organised, communicative or hospitable - i've been palmed off into a v. scummy student house with no english speakers. As a consequence, I've been speaking pidgeon portuguese of the shoddiest kind.
There is nowhere to change money! Apparently the man in the town's biggest bank asked "what do WE need dollars for?"
Nice.
We've done some good things nonetheless: a mountain hike, a disabled school and a massive iron ore mine - monster trucks ! Tomorrow we're meeting the mayor, and if I understand correctly, a place where they harvest human milk. Next day we're moving on.
Fact: in brazil, all clocks in public places are broken.
The town we're in at the moment, Itabira, is industrial, very hilly, fairly pretty, but a bit of a crap experience all told. The rotarians are neither terribly friendly, organised, communicative or hospitable - i've been palmed off into a v. scummy student house with no english speakers. As a consequence, I've been speaking pidgeon portuguese of the shoddiest kind.
There is nowhere to change money! Apparently the man in the town's biggest bank asked "what do WE need dollars for?"
Nice.
We've done some good things nonetheless: a mountain hike, a disabled school and a massive iron ore mine - monster trucks ! Tomorrow we're meeting the mayor, and if I understand correctly, a place where they harvest human milk. Next day we're moving on.
Fact: in brazil, all clocks in public places are broken.
Friday, April 23, 2004
Brasil photos!
I've managed to get some photos up. Due to technical reasons I'm afraid the photos take a fair old while to download, so please be patient. There are 4 pages so far, which you'll find:
Page 1 - here
Page 2 - here
Page 3 - here
Page 4 - here
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About Me
- Nick
- husband, son, brother, uncle, friend, musician, cat person, chicken-keeper, gamer, geek.