Goodbyes are never easy

I think I have too many blog posts around with that sentiment. Some day, we’ll actually be in one place long enough to avoid having to say that. On the other hand, we are making good friends all over, people who find little niches in our hearts and get comfy there. We’re also not too far from Killruddery, so if we have a mind to, we can go back to visit. To put it mildly, Killruddery was a special place with very special people. We will miss it terribly.

In spite of the heartsore, we left with good ‘vibes’. The Thursday before we left, we went to dinner with Anthony and Fionnuala. It was a relaxed, informal affair where we chatted about our plans, The Cottage, plans for Killruddery and general waffle as conversations go. Friday was the start of the second weekend of the Christmas Fair, so we didn’t really get to speak at length with anyone. Fair time tends to be a crazy headless-chicken run-around for all staff. Saturday was spent in a futile attempt at packing, knowing all the while that there would be no time to pack on the Sunday. I did, however, manage to fit in a little milk tart making!

Sunday morning, I cleaned up while Jurgis chased deer and fed pigs. We had a lunch date with Lord and Lady Meath. Lunch with the Meaths was unusual, especially as we weren’t ‘regular’ staff. They were wonderful! We had a lovely roast beef dinner with wine. I think I have a new alcoholic passion…. ginger wine! Ooh, it was delicious! It reminded me very much of my old favourite cocktail, the ginger square. Of course, it doesn’t take much to get me to imbibe ginger in any form. We chatted about anything and everything, from deer fencing and pigs to trips along the Garden Route to saving tiger turd in Nepal. Warm, and definitely fond on our part, farewells were said and good wishes abounded before we rushed upstairs in the hopes of getting the roast done before our visitors were due.

We had Mirek and Larissa, our Polish and Russian friends, over for dinner, another wonderful couple to whom I owe a debt of friendship…. even if Mirek ate my mushrooms! I did a pork roast and served milk tart for dessert. We drank to everyone’s health with a fine bottle of pro seco bubbly that was given to Jurgis on his birthday. We’d kept the bottle to celebrate the arrival of his papers, but figured celebrating friendship was a grand occasion to open it. As usual with Mirek and Larissa, we laughed a lot in a variety of languages. It was a good evening. Though I paced the floors for hours afterwards, drifting between intense sadness, happiness and frustration over the still-unpacked goods, I knew all was well and would turn out fine.

Monday, all thoughts of ‘turn out fine’ were forgotten in my wailing and gnashing of teeth over cases that wouldn’t close. I went downstairs to say goodbye to Aislin and Cathrine. Gosh, I’ll miss those girls. Of course, we promised to keep in touch. Finally, the last suitcase umphed itself closed and was dragged downstairs. We came up by the kitchen stairs and left from the main entrance… I think that was a fine way to leave! I said goodbye to my portraits and thanked them for listening to my nightly waffles, joys and frustrations. Anthony and Fionnuala were to take us up to The Cottage in two cars, as they were going on a family trip into the mountains at the same time. Fionnuala very kindly packed us a ‘doggy bag’ of goodies, which, aside from being kind, turned out to be a wonderful thing. That night, we dined on reheated sausage rolls with Killruddery Christmas cake for dessert. Not bad for a first meal. Kindnesses and fond memories were recalled as we settled into our new home.

I drink a toast to friendships forged!

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Long overdue

I've been a bad, bad blogger. Thing is, I'm usually out, busy preparing for going out, or just plain pooped. I've been ready for bed by 9:30pm most nights. I mean.... that's awful. I'm a 2am girl!! A night owl. I swear! Ok, I was.

Life has suddenly gotten very busy, which, in itself, isn't a bad thing. I often leave home really early and return late. It isn't that I work a full day out there, but it takes up to 2 hours to get into town and having students 3 or even 4 hours apart means I can't go home between them and end up wasting time in town.

We had an interesting start to our day yesterday. Jurgis' motherboard on his pc blew. Yay... not news that brought great joy. We had another old one, thankfully, a temperamental one, but it works. Then I was woken by a crash... another shelf had come off the wall. With all the rain we've had, I think the very brickwork is soggy. There's a lot of black mould on that wall, so that is probably the case.  The shelf had a lot of stuff stored on it. A few broken light bulbs later (we still need to test Jurgis' circular saw, which fell rather hard, but need the rain to clear to do that), we now have random boxes stacked all over the floor... again.

I have been contacted by a woman from SESC here. SESC is an organisation that promotes sport, exercise, culture, art, etc in Brazil. They're looking for a South African who can do workshops on weekends for the duration of the world cup to spread awareness of what South Africa is all about. Apparently, it will be paid work. I did, however, laugh when she asked if I knew of any singers, writers, dancers, poets, artists, etc in the local South African community. What community? I tried to start one, but the consulate at the time said "No", they were not prepared to associate themselves with any form of community. Besides, any South African who is anyone will be heading home for the world cup. Anyway, I'm meeting her this weekend to put together a plan of action. I'm rather excited, not because it's work, but to be able to spread awareness here. Yes, we do have telephones in South Africa. Yes, I am white (shock! horror!) No, there are no lions in the street. Besides, it's the mambas you have to worry about. Y'know... that kind of thing ; )

Then, last week or so, I got a call one night. A guy from my hometown, Port Elizabeth, in South Africa tracked me down by researching my domain name on Whois. He wanted to know if I could buy a domain for him with a .com.br (Jurgis and I agreed he must be somewhat crazy, but if he wants it....). You have to have a Brazilian tax number to get a Brazilian domain name. Oh, and they wanted our parents' names too. That's the Brazilian way... nothing happens without your parents' names on any document. Then the mess started. How to get money into Brazil. Paypal worked fine, except that after the money was in my bank for 2 days, my bank, in all it's wisdom, sent it back to Paypal. Paypal blames the bank. The bank blames Paypal. Yes, we go in circles like that here. Then we thought of Western Union. He had a bit of a song and dance that end and finally transferred the money today. I must say, it was fairly painless in the end. It did require trips into town and the bank.

Uh... I've run out of steam. I know there was more to post about, but my bed is calling. Oh! Tat went to Alton Towers, an amusement park in the UK, courtesy of Kings Park (they took all the volunteers). Fun was had by all, I think.

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Weekender

Saturday morning found us going shopping. About half a mile from home is a shopping centre with a Walmart inside. Yes, it is the same company as most of you are familiar with, but the products and prices are vastly different, I think. It's not a bad place to shop. I think we'll use that from now on. The walk there is flat, past the smelly river, past a litter-strewn tributary (we pretended the water was sparkling... it could be pretty), past the rubble someone dumped on the sidewalk, past the football club where the norm is to park on the sidewalk so pedestrians get the dubious privilege of sharing the highway with trucks and other monsters. In all, though, not an unpleasant walk, if we ignored the persistent heat.

When we got home, I'd just sat down to some cold water when Romany started barking. We had a visitor, the same cousin from last week. He promptly usurped my chair in our tiny front room, rejecting the visitor's chair, but moving in such a way as to render the third chair useless. Guess who ended up with no seat again. I was a little more than peeved. It was my seat *insert temper tantrum* I felt bad about my annoyance afterward though, as he only stayed a short while and his sole purpose was to offer Jurgis a business proposition. That was... until he got kissy and huggy. He's a bristly bearded man in nylon shirts. I discovered I still have major reservations with the Brazilian custom of kissing and hugging virtual strangers and he was rather effusive in his displays of this particular custom.

When he left, Jurgis got stuck into the cupboard upstairs. It was alive with termites and had to be removed. I supervised with camera in hand. We ran out of bug spray and resorted to chlorine in the end.

Termites are a huge problem here....



Though the patterns they leave can be pretty. Jurgis said it looked like a map....



Today, Jurgis put up a couple more shelves in the bedroom. With less stuff on the floor, we discovered the room is actually fairly big. It will be nice to sleep in there tonight. My dilemma now is to decide what to pack on which shelf. Choices, choices!

Last week, a student gave me a movie he wanted me to watch, so that we can discuss it. The movie, Into the Wild, was at once an inspirational and depressing movie. It was based on the true story of Christopher McCandless. The cinematography was breathtaking, taking the viewer across America up to Alaska, a place I've long wanted to visit. The young man moves relentlessly towards his goal, leaving a trail of heartbreak.

The movie opened with one of my favourite quotes:

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods;
There is a rapture on the lonely shore;
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more...
                                         Lord Byron

A quote from the movie I enjoyed... so much truth in this:

The sea's only gifts are harsh blows and occasionally the chance to feel strong. Now, I don't know much about the sea, but I do know that that's the way it is here and I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong, but to feel strong, to measure yourself at least once, to find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions.

Romany, I think, was bored with all the movie stuff...

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It makes no cents!

Jurgis went to change our address with the electricity department. Now here, if you have anything due on your bill, you can't change your address. We couldn't change the address, as the previous people hadn't paid up yet. No problem. The owner would sort that out.

But... while Jurgis was there, they said, "Wait, you have an outstanding amount on your account." Oh no we don't. Jurgis whipped out the bills to show they were all paid up in full. We've been pretty good, paying as the bills came in. "Oh no," she said, "this is at your old address." Huh? We moved out of our Perdizes home back in November 2005. The amount due? 28c! Yes, you read right... twenty-eight cents is due since we moved out, but there's more. The 28c worth of electricity was racked up in March 2008!!! It's worth noting that after we moved out, the house was razed to the ground.

This is a bit like those optical illusions where you don't quite know which direction is up...

 

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Settling in

I was able to do a load of washing this morning. Great! Our clothes were about to get up and walk to the river to be washed. It says something that I think the river smelt better.

Leaving home, I was barely 10m away from the front gate when I twisted my rubber ankle in my 'block' shoes. These shoes were chosen to last. They're wood platforms. I wanted platforms to give me that bit of an advantage in rainy weather when the streets turn into rivers. The trouble with these is that they have no give, so if I hit a crack in the paving, I go down like a sack of potatoes, as my ankles have no stability at all. Anyhow, this time, the leather ripped. Luckily, I was close to home and could change into my moccasins, which are usually for winter wear, and hotfoot (quite literally) it to work. On the bright side, these shoes are comfy and I can run to catch a bus if I need to. I love moccasins!

Speaking of buses, I found a bus that stops about 100m from our gate that uses my bus card. Ótimo! I asked the conductor and found a  bus to return home with. Even better. Thankfully, it's not the inter-municipal, which is now the same price as the regular buses, but doesn't take the same bus card.

Where we're living now is good, I think. I'll have to go into Zelina occasionally to get mail, but it isn't as though we get much, so that won't be often. We get NO traffic noise in spite of being 1 block away from a major freeway. The only traffic we get is planes flying overhead. We seem to be on a major flight path. I don't mind that in the least.

We have 5 supermarkets to choose from, plus an apparently awesome Horti Fruti. All are within a mile from home including the shopping centre I have yet to visit, which has a Walmart. There's even a Sam's Club, but I'm not sure how much we'll use that.

: (  Tell me... what kind of person has as a ring tone, the sound of a little girl screaming in horror or pain. It was so real that everyone on the bus turned around to see where this child was in trouble. The idiot whose phone it was got numerous calls. By the third ring, I told him take his phone far away from me or I wouldn't be responsible for my actions. I wanted to grab it from him and toss it out of the window. I wish I had known how to ask him if he was a paedophile or something. I was sick to my stomach. He was a 20-something slob of a guy. He said, "But it's only a ring-tone!" Gah!

 

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Moving Monday

Advanced apologies... this is long-winded, but there's a lot of detail for Tatiana's benefit, as she'll be able to picture it all with painful clarity.

The cable guys still haven't been. We found out today that they're only coming on Wednesday and were supposed to have told us that last week. Ugh! I'm lost without the internet. My students are used to communicating by email and I've had to cancel my Skype students because of this. It's losing income for me in a big way. Jurgis can't work without the internet either. This is so frustrating.

I had a ditzy airhead sort of day. I left home early to get things done in the village, which is now a fair trek away. I took a bus in to the bottom of Zelina and walked up. It was disgustingly hot. Got into the village only to be told that, no, the post office no longer forwards mail if you move. Oh? I asked them what on earth people do with their old mail then. You have to change your address with the utilities and hope for the best. And what about mail en route from far off? If you know the postman, you could ask him to redirect any mail that arrives. That is just crazy.

From the post office, I went to the hardware store. I needed to get a new post box. After a bit of the usual miscommunication, I left with a post box and some runners for the curtains. Yes, Tat, you read correctly... curtains! =Þ We have to have them here. The main window has no shutters and it gets full afternoon scorching life-draining sun.

Now being the ditz I was playing at today, I went back to the bank... with large metal box in hand. The doors here have metal detectors, so I tried to put the box into one of their outside storage boxes, but the machine kept telling me to try again. Hmph. I went to the door and signalled to the security officer that I had a problem with the box. She signalled back that I must get myself inside pronto. Yep... it was Tat's old friend who scolded me for even doubting that I'd get in. She kept me talking for what seemed like hours. Tat will relate to that, I'm sure ; ) I then went to the info desk and was told that only Tat could change her address... "But...!! She's in England! She can't!" She asked me if I had Tat's pin codes. I nodded a mite too enthusiastically, so she took me to the ATM where I could cancel all Tat's bank-related mail. Great! Uh.... guess who went blank at the ATM... Pin code? What pin code? *sigh* The lady was sweet and looked at me as though I was a special child. Never mind, sweetie... you can come back tomorrow. I think she must have walked off inwardly shaking her head.

Off to my own bank. That went a little better. My ditz moment only happened at the door. I saw a heavily armed security guard and explained my box issue. I was afraid I wouldn't be let in. He chuckled and said that I would be better off speaking to the bank security guards. Oh? *another blank look* Then it twigged... they were part of the armoured guards delivering or collecting money. I blushed and went into the bank where, again, the guard just waved me through. The info guy, who by now knows me for my strangely put requests laughed with me in disgust that the only way I could change my address was by phone and putting my pin in over the phone and not with the multitude of security passes I need to operate online. I can only change my address in the bank if I have a proof of address. Well, no I don't have a proof of address yet because we only moved a day ago. At least I know how to go about it there.

Back to the post office. I wanted to change our address on the forms we have there for our post office box where we get all our international mail. Who was standing there guarding money deliveries? The same guard from the bank! I think he thought I was following him. He looked at me and laughed... "So they let you in with your box?" I just blushed... again. I made a lame comment about the money delivery guy looking like Santa (he did too... the money bag was bright red and slung over his shoulder) just as they all disappeared, guns in hand, into the depths of the post office.

A brief stop at the supermarket (the one at the bottom of Zelina) and onto the bus home. No, my day wasn't over. I was worried about getting the right bus, as I couldn't look it up beforehand. It's amazing how I've come to rely on Google maps. I wanted a bus that didn't turn off at Giestas, but would go to the end of Ibitirama. Ah... found one! It was going to Shopping Plaza Sul. Great! I figured it would go down Ibitirama and turn right onto the river road. Ha! Clever is as clever does. I got on the bus, paid and as I went through the turnstile, the bus turned to the right. I asked a woman how far the next stop was. It was far... the bus went down and down... eventually it stopped and I stumbled off in despair. I had to walk all the way back up the hill to get another bus going down the other hill. I nearly cried. I was hot and bothered and lugging groceries and post boxes. With all the walking, I was feeling very sunburnt too. I eventually made it back to the top and took another bus home.

Let me tell you, I was grateful to get home! I did supper and headed out to my student who, thankfully, lives at the end of my road. What a pleasure!

And that, my friends, is the end of today's sorry tale. Wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Oh... we have loads of cats desperately trying to get into our place. Apparently the previous tenants had 4 cats! The last attempt was made by... a raccoon!! Yes, you read that right, Tat! A raccoon! : ) It ran away though. It was curious, but afraid. I'll see if it comes again and take a photo. There... I got a photo, as you saw. Not quite as raccoonish as Raccoon was, but close. She's very petit and friendly, except that she's taken to coming in and trying to swat the bird!

 

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Our move so far

I'm sitting here at 9pm on the Sunday, ready to go to bed. I have a raging headache. I think it's because there's so much to remember and my head is busting from its seams.

Saturday morning, as per arrangement (SHOCK!), the removal van arrived. It was a grizzled old man and his young black sidekick. What an odd pair. The dogs surprised us by not trying to take their heads off. In fact, they didn't even bark. I shut Specs into the bathroom, so the move could carry on around her. Heidi was put into our bedroom along with the things they weren't to take.

The old man's comment? "You have too many big things!" We laughed. That about describes our normal accumulation of furniture. It's always big and bulky and if Jurgis has made it? Even worse. The truck did 3 trips. It must be noted here that it wasn't a very big truck. I would have taken photos, but I was too busy packing last minute stuff and cleaning. Through all of this, the dogs were either following me or sniffing at the removal guys.

On the third trip, I got each of the men something to drink, at which point we discovered the old man, whose truck it was, was a diabetic. The young guy chatted. Apparently he's a builder's assistant during the week, but is a bit of a gaming geek. He likes to go on gaming weekends, where he games and wins huge prizes. He didn't elaborate much. He was a likeable guy with an open, friendly face.

I had to laugh. as much as the old man said we had too much (he mentioned it frequently), he insisted that that absolutely everything was taken, even the stuff we wanted to toss. As fast as I put it on the toss pile, he'd fetch it and load it up. He had quoted us R$130, but because it turned out to be 3 trips, he increased it (we expected that, as the quote was given blind and approximate by phone) to pay his helper 'a little more'. On the way back, he took Jurgis to a pub for a beer (he paid... yes, that is strange, but he's a strange man), so that Jurgis could have the peculiar priviledge of watching the assistant down a large helping of 'pinga' (pure cane spirit) in one gulp as though it were water.

We then called a taxi to take the last of the bits, personal stuff and valuable documents, and the cat and bird. Three taxi numbers later, we found someone available. He took us and the critters to the new house where I stayed.

I nearly had a fit when I walked in. Absolutely *everything* was stacked floor to ceiling in the bedroom! All the essential stuff was at the back under everything. This little house has one bedroom, a lounge, bathroom and kitchen. Specs took one look at the whole thing and fled into the mess in the bedroom. No, I took no photos. I had only a vague idea where the camera was at that point and both cat and bird were in covered containers.

We fell into bed after an ordered pizza at about 8:30pm, exhausted, and slept through to 8am this morning. It was hot. This little house is so hot!

Today, we managed to get some semblance of order into the kitchen, wire up a 220 power point (thanks Jurgis), without which little will function in our household. Jurgis did most of the hard slog. The poor guy is bushed and we're nowhere near done. He had just set up my pc, scanner, printer, etc, as I had to print lessons and scan timesheets for tomorrow morning when we got a call. "I'm on my way. What is the address again?" It was Jurgis' out of state cousin down for a visit. OMG! Flat panic. Jurgis was in ripped jeans and no shirt or shoes. I looked a mess. The toilet had a ladder poised over it (the 220 power is from the shower, which is right next to the toilet). The pantry is quite literally bare. We were in no condition to have visitors. We were expecting her, but only a week later.

And here was me saying, ".... It's not as though we get visitors anyway."

Nilza arrived with her brother and his wife in tow. In the lounge, we had two computer chairs... a plan had to be made *fast*. As it was, I spent all that time on my feet over the scanner. Nilza had brought old family photos for me to scan. The idea was that I would film her and Jurgis talking, so that we could finally nail down some of the names, faces and characters in the family tree on her side. She is the one who could fill in all the gaps for us.

Aside from the trauma of being inhospitible and not being able to offer the guests anything but water, it was a lovely visit. Nilza was as sweet as I expected. She seemed to prefer talking to me and leaving Jurgis to talk to her brother, Dito. Dito's wife wanted to talk technicalities of scanning (she plugged in her scanner and assumed it would self-install the way her printer did). Jurgis and Dito got along famously, ending the afternoon talking war wounds *sigh* What is it with old men? ; )



I took them out into the little 'garden' of pot plants and took photos there. The sun was excruciatingly hot. I think that's where the headache came from. Only Nilza seemed ok with it, but she comes from an even hotter state. After they left, I discovered they'd come all the way from Santos to visit! Santos is a beach town and an hour's  drive on the freeway, depending on traffic. In holiday season or funky weather, the trip can take 3 hours. They left after making us promise to visit them and stay a while. I felt so bad that they had come all this way and not been offered anything now. I honestly thought they lived in the neighbourhood, as Nilza said she'd visit while she was staying with someone right here and she knows this area well.

In all though, it was good. At the start, I apologised to Nilza for my bad Portuguese. Her reply was, "Don't worry. I can understand you." Now that was a novelty for me. The reaction I usually get is, "Huh?" or "Não intendo. (Don't understand)" with a blank expression. As they left, Dito turned to me and said, "We're cousins now too." That was sweet.

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It's happening! Kindof...

 

I'm not going online right now, but offline. We're going to bed tonight with literally just our bedding to put into a bag in the morning. Everything else is done. The van will be here at 8:30am. Weirdly, we were trying to make him come after 9am. I say weirdly because it is definitely a first in Brazil where they want 'action' earlier than we do. This is a nation that sleeps till after noon on a Saturday.

The cat is snoozing in her box... min gepla, as we say in Afrikaans. Hm... how does that translate? 'Little bothered' is perhaps the closest. The dogs are as rumbustious as usual. In all, the animals are unphased by the whole deal. We'll walk the dogs over to the new house. The cat and bird will go by taxi.

We currently have ADSL. As such, we have a ISP and a line provider. As from tomorrow, we'll have Cable instead. If we had a TV, we'd be able to watch cool things like Discovery Channel and National Geographic... and it's still cheaper than what we have right now. Fingers crossed for a smooth transition and no catches to the new plan.

PS. Someone send me some duct tape!! All the Brazilian packing tape is peeling off!! Every last bit. We have to retape all the boxes. The tape only sticks to itself, so all tape needs to wrap around completely, so it has something to grip onto *crying*

PPS. Do you know how large a dust bunny community there is behind your wardrobe???? Do you know? Do you really know???

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Ten thoughts?

I'm sure I can come up with 10 thoughts... I think... maybe. Och, forget it. Here's a regular blog.



I think Katey and Maggie may well be able to relate to this cartoon ; )

We went to see the new house this morning. It's a tiny place, which is more or less what we'd planned for, cost and size-wise. The idea being that, seeing as it's just the two of us, we can downscale, save and get rid of a lot of the junk we've collected in the past 10 years.

The house is in a far quieter road. That's a huge plus. It will be so good to be able to fall asleep in relative quiet and without the persistent smell of diesel fumes. Large aluminium gates lead to the front house. We're at the back. A couple of small flights of stairs later (necessary because of the flood level, if you recall) is our little tiled yard. Not too big, but enough size for now. Up ahead it tapers off. The previous tenants haven't taken their potplants as yet. I'm hoping they leave the gorgeous fern behind. Apparently they may leave the plants, as they're moving into an apartment. It seems plants thrive there though. That is good. A steep, narrow flight of stairs goes up the side of the house to a rooftop laundry area. We may well turn that into a rooftop garden and braai (bbq) area. I can see me sitting up there in the winter sun, reading a book with the dogs at my feet. Hm... wonder what the dogs will do with the stairs.

One of the tasks on Jurgis' to-do list is to make a gate, so the dogs can be kept separate from the main house. He's good with that though.

The inside of the house is not in the least fancy. One bedroom, a main room, which will be our computer room and office, a minuscule bathroom and the smallish kitchen. My biggest concern at this point is how we'll fit the furniture in and we don't have very little as it is. The desks will take up most of the space. We're getting the first month rent-free, as there are repairs to be made on the house. We'll be doing those.

I predict the next month is going to be... interesting...

The rest of the day was spent finishing the scanning of the photos. That goes hand-in-hand with the project I'm busy with that needs to be finished rather urgently. Then there's the packing. Actually, then there's the tossing. We're doing more 'donation pile', 'recycling pile', 'trash pile' than actual getting things into boxes.

Tat's doing well. Her biggest complaint is that the coffee sucks. Katey, what coffee do you drink? She's handling the cold better than most of the other folk there. Simple mind over matter, she said. One guy saw her badge and said, "Oh! You're from South Africa! Where in South Africa?" She replied that she's from Durban, at which he broke into a song he knew about Durban, "Ag please daddy, won't you take us all to Durban...." Tat cracked up! I asked if there are any other Africans there. She mentioned Thandi who was surely South African, but she wasn't sure, as they hadn't had a chance to talk yet, and Sipho from Zim. Sipho is a girl! Whoever heard of a feminine Sipho? For those not familiar with the name, that's like calling a girl 'Peter'.

Anyhow, today was Carnaval. As I said to Jurgis, it's legalised porn, where a lot of the dancers simply have their 'costumes' painted on. One float was even based on the Kama Sutra (or so I heard)... brave even for Brazil. One 'team' was led by a 7 year old girl. She is apparently the daughter of the team 'king'. Child protection tried to get a judge to prohibit her from performing, as she was to be the main dancer, which is usually a highly sultry role. The judge decided to let her participate. Brazil shrugged collectively. The poor little girl started her parade, had the entire media circus pounce on her and promptly dissolved into tears. I had to chuckle at Rio's solution to the toilet situation. They now have enormous fines for men who relieve themselves in the street.

http://img.terra.com.br/i/2010/02/16/1448447-5327-atm14.jpg No, I'm not showing the photo here ; )  You know what irks me? They only ever have solutions for men. I mean... women don't need the bathroom!

 

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Move on!

We've just had a major power failure of a few hours. I put supper (chicken wings and roast potatoes... keep it simple) in the oven (one of the few times I'm grateful for gas) and Jurgis and I sat around chatting. Note to Tat: We found the epsom salts by candle light!!! It was hidden under The Big Black Bag haha!

Our last few days... wow... like we need more 'action' around here. We were advised, on Friday, that we have 15 days to vacate the premises. We've been expecting this a while now, as our contract expired last year.


Did I mention it's still raining here?
First... Panic!! A while later, reason sets in and we start house hunting. There are a couple of options, but very little, as no one wants animals. Totally understandable, but not the way I work. Later, Jurgis went off to meet with his buddies at the pub and casually mentioned that we may lose the dogs because no one wants dogs and we have to move. His one buddy cried out in alarm! You can't get rid of the dogs! Move into my place! He owns a house close to a nearby river (read 'regular flooding', though apparently this house is built just above the flood line. It sounds perfect though. Very low rental, fairly small, close enough to a large supermarket and close to a bus route. I'd have to make a special trip to the post office, but I can deal with that. And..... the dogs can stay!! : )

Anyhow... Today I got my horoscope. I'm one who tends to take horoscopes with a truckload of salt, but I'm not shy to celebrate when it says what I want to hear ; )

Hi Corrianne! Here is your Daily Horoscope for Saturday, February 6   Slow down a little and take stock -- your intuitions should be more or less right on, so you can count on seeing the forest and the trees. Once you're settled, it's time to move out quickly!

Didya see that?? "Once you're settled, move out quickly!" *grins* Ok, I'll make no secret of the fact that I dearly want to move out. As I was explaining to a friend earlier...

As you know, our plan was for Jurgis to get his Lithuanian/EU citizenship and passport. I'd just tag along on his coat tails... seems South Africans aren't welcome anywhere really. There's a catch, though. For me to go to Lithuania, I need a Lithuanian entry visa. Recently, the Lithuanian consulate of Brazil shut down, so all Lithuanian consular issues are dealt with in Argentina. That, for me, means that, to get a Lithuanian entry visa, I need to get a visa to go to Argentina, then fly to Argentina, where I will apply for a Lithuanian visa. Ridiculous, não? Pft... Burrocracia!! (Dani might get that last one... )

So... here's what I decided. My end goal is to be in the UK with Tat. I'm going to get myself a job in the UK, then go there. Visa application takes place right here in São Paulo. Jurgis can amble along to Lithuania. Once we're both in Europe, either he can meander over to the UK or I can then apply, way easier, for a Lithuanian entry visa.

Can someone tell me why South Africans aren't welcome anywhere? Ok, don't answer that. I'm not sure I want to know. Now if I were Brazilian, I could fly over to Lithuania OR the UK without a visa. Let's not mention that 80% of Brazilians in the UK are there illegally *sigh* Yes, you've heard the same tale about the Brazilians in the USA... without the need for a visa too. Go figure.

Uh... anyone got some boxes to spare?

 

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