Heavy, heavy skies

                                hot-soup air
                                        under a purple-cloud blanket
                                   the maelstrom of rain
                                                     expectantly
                                               moments away


Actually, no longer moments away. We had temperatures of 34ºC this afternoon. The air was hot and breathlessly heavy. Since arriving home, the storms have broken. Jurgis suggested we use the ironing board to surf down our little passageway here, the water was moving so fast. The poor people in other parts of the city had hail and in other parts of the greater São Paulo, there have been major destructive floods - again.

I wanted to post a quick blog. I've been absent, I know. Monday was a very long work day, starting with a breakfast run class and ending at 8:30pm. Tuesday, I spent the day flat on my back. It seems I'd go one step forward and two back. Nasty. Today, I went out to one student. It wasn't so bad, but the wriggly toddler insisted on lap time, and it was rather painful accommodating her. I'm so proud of the kid though. Her father made a point of telling me she can't tell the time in Portuguese and she's aced it in English. She did well today. I came home with a pre-storm headache. It broke as I walked up our road. I got home just in time! Our power has died a few times since I got home, so there's no guarantee we'll be 'live' this evening. We'll see how that goes. Supper is smelling good : )

Quick Sunday 'inloer'

'Inloer' is basically an Afrikaans way of saying 'to peek in'... kinda : ) 

Speaking of languages, I spotted this one this morning:
Ninguém é tão feio como no RG, tão bonito como no Orkut,tão feliz como no Facebook, tão simpático como no Twitter, tão ocupado como no Msn.

It translates to:
No one is as ugly as their ID (or passport), as beautiful as their Orkut (a local FB-type site that attracts teens mostly), as happy as their Facebook, as friendly as their Twitter or as busy as their MSN.

So, so true!

In the news today... my kind of news:
http://news.yahoo.com/video/odd-15749658/cat-moves-in-to-elementary-school-24150329

Every school needs a cat.... or a dog... or something.

My back hurts. It's hot. Yes, I'm whining. You know that feeling when you cuddle up to a hot water bottle in the winter? Well, we have that same feeling here now, except that it's an all-over feeling and it's not as pleasant as the winter feeling... not by a looong shot!


So much for the 'quick' inloer... this blog has taken about 4 hours of on and off attention to get written.

My nemesis

For the past few days, I've spent most of my time at home in bed, flat on my back. I don't usually give in to pain, but boy, this was pain. Ugh! I don't do painkillers. One regular otc paracetamol makes me woozy and knocks me out. I was popping them like candies. Heartburn much? Yuck! And pain. Ooh my poor back!

The rain left the pavements on my road home very slimy and thick with moss. This photo was taken after a couple of days of no rain. The slime strip was way wider. It's on the edge of a major road that takes a lot of trucks, so walking in the road wasn't a great option.

One foot hit the slick and I was doing the splits. For once, I managed to stay upright though, but paid for it with a week's worth of feeling sorry for myself. It didn't help that we have a dogsticle course in the house and the cat has taken to lying across my path in the dark. She's lucky to still be alive. Every time I felt my back was doing better, I'd trip over one of them.

Today, I can finally sit at the computer without self-pitying whimpers. I even did the laundry. Go me!

Oh... and it's hot. Have I mentioned that yet?