I'm late!

Which reminds me of a little anecdote from the past...

I tried working, very briefly, in direct sales. Let's just say, I'm definitely not a salesperson. The area I was assigned for the day was Indian. Durban has a very large Indian community. The calls were based on requests prospective clients put in at the shopping centre. I knocked and the lady of the house opened. "Could I speak to Mr X, please?" "No, sorry. He's late." I said I didn't mind and that he'd requested the visit and perhaps I could start the quote while I waited for him. "No, no. You don't understand. He's late!" Yes, I understood that he was late. Did she think he'd be very long before getting home? She got very flustered, threw up her hands and exclaimed, "He's dead!" I was rather nonplussed by the revelation. Late? Dead? Ah yes! I got it!

I woke up at 6:30am, considering my alarm (buried deep in my handbag) was set for an hour earlier. That left me half an hour to get my sleepy butt out the door. The sky was heavy with clouds. I left saying that I needed to take an umbrella. Guess who left without an umbrella. I arrived at the Metro a little more than damp. On my way home, I bought an umbrella. My last umbrella is in tatters. I miss it, a bright lime green. It was a cheerful umbrella. The new one is a rather boring, sombre beige, but it works. Needless to say, because I was now armed, not a drop of rain fell on the way home. As I walked in at home, the rain started again.

The weather has been freaky. Yesterday, the entire state of São Paulo was without electricity due to a cyclone in the south somewhere. Jurgis mentioned where, but my head was elsewhere. We were lucky in that it wasn't off for too long here. Some people are still without power. Over 100 trees were felled by the winds here in the city. That laundry I'd left out? It was tied in knots on the lines. T-shirts don't do well in knots.

I leave for my next student in half an hour. It's raining. I do categorically not want to go out in this. I love the rain, but a 1 mile trek with trucks whizzing by and spraying slush? Nah.

In latest news from the pond

The hazy look is rain
Actually, there's no news really. Even the persistent rain isn't news any more. I waded home from my lunch time student in my water wings. It's now practice for Jurgis to meet me at the door with towels. My little umbrella is finished. In the end, it wasn't worth keeping open. For a 4 buck cheapie, it's done quite well for itself. I'm going to miss the bright green. I have a black vulture ready to take over though.

Yesterday evening, I went out to my late student... got as far as the bus stop and waited.... and waited... and waited... I amused myself while waiting...


There's a manhole cover. The underground water forces them up into a fountain in the road
Let's just say it was wet!


It's usually dry under the huge rubber trees at my stop.
I was using my umbrella under the bus stop shelter.
I eventually waded back home. No go. I left a message with my student that there just are no buses. No wonder...


Photo taken from the news. This is the bus I was waiting for.
It was stuck far away from me.
These two photos were taken in our neighbourhood, though at the other end. We weren't as badly hit.





I'm intrigued. She's actually riding her bicycle through the water!

Feel free to browse more to get an idea of what it's been like here lately:
http://noticias.uol.com.br/album/110216chuva_album.jhtm?abrefoto=87
Some areas were very badly hit with cars completely submerged and a couple of landslides.

Not too long after I sent a message to my student, I got a text from him: "Don't come. It's flooded here." Uh... yes... I'd say!

My one student was saying that the rains of this year are the worst he has ever seen. I know that, for us, it's the worst we've had, though São Paulo is no stranger to rains and floods. It's a seasonal way of life here. This is constant though. We're well used to the 4pm sudden rain storm in summer, but this day in and day out rain and flood? Not nearly as much fun and very awkward, to say the least, for intrepid teachers like me to move heaven and earth to get to students - ok, not quite heaven and earth... make that 'wind and water'.

And speaking of students, I need to get back to preparing for young MF.

For those who're waiting, Tat won't be blogging in a hurry. I got a "My pc has a fatal error" message last night. She is less than impressed.

Glug glug

Blog written 'on the run' - Monday, 21 February 2011

The bus this morning is impossibly full. Traffic is manic. Wonder if everyone's out in preparation for carnival.

Road rage ~ an overload of testosterone to little point ~ insanity prevails

What on earth gets into people? One guy cuts another off. Sure, not a clever move. The 'offended' party then feels the need, in relatively smooth-flowing traffic, to swing in front of the 'offender', screeching brakes, to give him a verbal lambasting. I thought they'd come to blows. After almost causing an accident himself and holding up the rest of the traffic, el 'offended' stomped off to his car and took off with tyres spinning. Eejit.

On death ~

Crazy Cousin B sent me photos of A's 'velorio' (the open coffin viewing). *shudder* The guy was no oil painting when alive either. What is it that people get out of seeing the bodies of loved ones who've 'moved on'? I have a somewhat irreverent attitude to dead bodies. The spirit of the person is no longer in that 'container', so the 'container' has no meaning to me at all. I prefer to remember the person as they were alive. I expressed my horror to Tat, who, like a good little daughter, promised me faithfully not to have a viewing of my corpse and no red roses. The guy was smothered in red roses. He was definitely not a red rose kind of guy.

The raucous parrots in the trees were having a ball with the guavas...
biting off bits and spitting them out.

While I was waiting to go into the students, I stood in front of a high wall, enjoying the noise of the parrots overhead. The locals hate them because they're noisy. I love it. They sound like squabbling families. I can almost hear wifey scolding hubby and the kids.

All was good until a woman flung her soggy carpet over the wall to dry.
Yuck!

Ok, so today you get a *blog* When I finished the third student at 1:30pm, it was unbearably hot. I got the bus to the metro station. At that point, the humidity was sitting at an oppressive 99.99999%

In the space of 10 minutes, the sky went from glaring sun to dark purple. As I got onto the metro, the rain came down in solid sheets. I changed lines at Sé. The trains were already sporadic at that point, though I didn't know why. While in the tunnel, there was a tremendous thunder clap outside and even the train shook. I'd gone one stop on the second line when the power went - take a crowded metro, turn off the lights and the fans (no aircon on this one) and you definitely have everyone's attention!

The doors would open ever few minutes to let air in and briefly turn the lights on. I assume that as run on backup generators. The driver announced that the doors were being kept closed because of the rain, which would pour almost horizontally, crossing the wide platform and drenching everyone in the doorway of the carriage. I eventually made my way to the door, deciding to take my chances with the rain instead of the stifling heat of the interior of the carriage.

To give you an idea, to the left of the platform was a double set of escalators and a flight of stairs. The rain was driving across those, across the platform and into the train.

I eventually found a semi-dry corner to hole up in for a while. Audio books are good company.

The view outside from my sheltered corner.
This was half an hour after the blue sky photos shown earlier!

Power was eventually restored and I gleefully snagged the next train. At my metro destination, I was in for another surprise... the area was waist deep under water! I got off the metro, headed to the exits and wondered why everyone was just standing around. This is the view that greeted me when I looked out...

The waterfall is run-off from the roof. You can just see the flood waters on the road.

To give you a better idea.
The car circled in red is up to its windows in muddy water.

Thankfully, the metro station is on higher ground. That water would need overnight to drain. I eventually made the decision to get back onto the metro and go another two stops to Tatuapé, where there is a shopping centre I could hang around in.

But the day wasn't finished with me yet...

The shopping centre was in darkness. I took the opportunity to use the bathrooms, as I had no idea when I'd get home. Public toilets during power failures are definitely an experience. One central bulb was on. The actual toilets were in the dark. With no place to hang my bag, I hung it over the doorknob and prayed it would hold. Fumbling in the dark, I did what I had to do and headed out. Um... technology fail... the taps and soap dispensers are sensor operated.  You wave your hands in front of the sensors to get water or soap. Guess what needs electricity to function and wasn't considered important enough to be generator-driven =/  Here's where my Girl Guide training came in handy (also the reason my bag is double the weight of any sane person). I had some wet wipes in there. Whew!

With the shopping centre being in the dark and already overloaded with stranded passengers, no seating was available. The rain had eased off. I decided to stand in line for if and when the bus would come to take me home. We stood... and stood... and waited... and waited... The rain started again. At about 4:30pm, the bus rolled up. Was it really only 3 hours ago that I walked out of my student's apartment?? By the time the bus came, many of the people in front of me in the queue had given up and gone who-knows-where, so I got a decent seat. There were 3 queues for this bus. It was full, but many decided to wait for the second bus. On hindsight, that might have been a good idea.

Because of the flooding, the bus had to take a detour.... and got lost! We ended up on the Tieté, then Salim Fara Maluf... then back again, almost to the starting point! I packed up laughing when I saw the metro going overhead and the familiar blue-cabled span bridge. By now the day had taken on a distinctly surreal quality. The girl next to me swore (I learned a lot of new vocabulary). She was due at work. I think it was a new job and she'd left home early to make a good impression, to little avail. In the end I told her to just relax. There was nothing she could do and surely they'd know by now that the city was flooded.

The bus in question took a few detours, avoiding the worst flooding and made its meandering way home. I didn't take more photos, as my battery was fading and I didn't know if I'd end up stuck somewhere else before getting home. While on the bus, I cancelled my evening student... I was too late to make my way to him and I'd missed my afternoon student completely. I did get a call from a prospective new student while on my way. That was nice.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

I got home at 6:40pm, over 5 hours since leaving my student. It was an entertaining, but tiring day. I think I'm still recovering. The weird thing was that, with all that water, I never got to use the umbrella I was lugging around. As natural disasters go, the flooding here wasn't bad. We're fairly used to it. Now to just fix my schedule. One thing I did discover was that there is no way I can realistically get from Santana to Mooca in an hour and I can't move MF to a later time slot or I won't get to the evening student in time.

C'est la weekend

Have I mentioned lately that it's hot? Well, if I haven't... it's hot. If bits of the north are having an early spring, can I please, please ask for an early autumn? Preferably winter. Winter would be nice. Thank you.

Last week was a mess of frantic running around and lying on my back. It was nice in some ways though. I got myself a couple of new students and rested up somewhat.


Early morning (4am) full moon, broken by clouds. Not a good photo at all.
It was far more impressive to the eye.

Thursday was one of my early starts with a student I like. Heck, I know I have it good when I can tell a joke in class and have the student 'get' it right away and find it funny. I'm not the world's greatest joke teller. In fact, my jokes usually fizzle to a "... and the punchline is...?" Then, at the end of class, he introduced me to a colleague who wanted classes. Nice! I love that guy... really! Ok, the new student is pretty basic and I don't usually take basic students, but I think she has more English than she gives herself credit for. We'll do just fine. Thursday evenings brought storms again.

Friday was 'one of those days'. Thursday's rain continued. Friday morning, about 11am, our internet died... completely. The nice new modem was stone dead. We tried everything, then Jurgis went over to a friend to call in support. They would only get someone over here on Tuesday afternoon. Gah! I immediately freaked, as I have Skype students before then. When I stopped cursing, I entertained myself by reducing my mailbox from 1084 emails to 550 emails. Yes, I'm an email packrat =Þ And yes, I'm quite sure I'm going to be looking for some of those emails that someone is bound to refer to... just because I deleted them.

Shortly afterwards, the heavens really opened. Many parts of the city had hail. Flooding, of course, is pretty much the norm now. Right after 2pm, the power died. We amused ourselves by standing at the door, watching the rain fall.


That water was about an inch deep. We're very lucky where we are. Our house is higher than the surrounding houses, so we get off lightly when it rains. We just can't go anywhere.

The power returned after about two hours. About another hour or so after that, our modem burped and lit up. I think it just needed shock treatment... defibrillation... Stat! Usually, the modem dies after a storm. Ours resuscitated. Ok, we're special ;)

So tomorrow will be a long day. I set out for my first students at 7am. Two hours with them, then on to a new student who'll have a 2 hour class. I'll barely have enough time to get to MF for her class, after which I get home, change and go out to my last 2 hour class. It's only 7 hours of teaching, but the travel time in-between makes it a rushed day. I get home at 8:30pm. Definitely a long day. It's nice though. The day is filled with actual work.

This past week, a cousin passed away. Not someone we're in any way close to for a number of reasons. Jurgis went to the 'velorio' (viewing). The day after his death was the cremation. They do it quickly here due to the heat. The mourners and onlookers gather from about 10am, but the actual funeral and cremation is at 5pm. No one thought to tell Jurgis that. In fact, we only knew about the death because a cousin from the US called to tell us. Anyway, the 10am gathering was primarily a family gossip session. We had to chuckle. One cousin had recently 'moved' to the UK. Turns out the UK kicked him out. He was there on a less than legal basis. He spoke not a word of English either. Now that he's back, he's the local go-to for information on life in England. We were highly amused by his tales. The thing that seemed to impress him the most was kettles. "You won't believe it! They have tall kettles that you just plug into the wall and it boils the water!" Uh yes... no one uses electric kettles here. You can get them, but the electricity is just too expensive to use one.... when you can find them to buy. The cousin in question has had all his English appliances shipped to Brazil. Good luck to him. No one told him that the power here is different and each one will need a transformer.

Ack! Sunday is nearly over. I've procrastinated more than enough. I still have lessons to finish for tomorrow..... off I go again...

PS. It just occurred to me that the primary topic of my posts is the weather. I'm so exciting! *grins*

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 : )

Monday, Monday...

Whew! It's been a week and a half so far!

I figured Monday would be like any other day. I was sooo wrong! I'll take any Friday 13th over this past Monday.

The day didn't start badly, if I ignored the stalled metros. I got to my first set of students. They're meant to do their classes in 1 hour turns. It's a mother and son. She decided to opt out of class, leaving me with her more advanced son and one hour's worth of materials to stretch over two hours. Ok. I can do this. It didn't go badly.

I took the bus to my next student. It was one of those times when I have too much time between students, but not enough time to go home. I hung around in a coffee shop for an hour, but left when it got awkward. I moved down the road and sat on a step under the broiling sun - literally broiling. Wait... make that 'pressure cooking'. The tattered awning helped a little though... until the rain started. The heavens opened and in the time it took me to dash 200 yards, the water was over my shoes. I got to the student looking like a drowned rat (a rather overgrown drowned rat).

They were renovating and my usual class area was out of bounds and would I mind giving class in the child's bedroom? My heart sank. I'd forgotten my flash drive at home and her bedroom had a very poor wifi connection, so I had to wing it. She wanted her class under a tent created by her duvet. I swear the child is insane... didn't she know how hot it was? That was after she shut the door and the windows and turned the lights off.

I left her in the rain and headed off home. I was grateful for my long(ish) legs compared to the locals. I could jump the flooded sidewalks to relatively shallow water while they had to wade through. I felt like Mary Poppins sailing over the water with my umbrella that was threatening to disintegrate in the wind. We stood under the leaky bus shelter, each trying to crane past the others' umbrellas to see if the bus was coming. Needless to say, the buses were slow in coming. I had less than an hour to get home and get out to the next student. I waded home. The water at my last bus stop was almost at my knees. Yuck!

The storm grew worse. There was a major clap of thunder and lightning. It was right over us. Then the power went out. Our internet died at the same time, as I discovered when I got home.

At home, I dashed some food down my throat. The next student was a 2 hour long session and I'd be home really late. I had no time to change, but dried out while I ate. Heat has its advantages. I didn't want to dress up anyway, as the next student wasn't in a great end of town and I'd probably have to swim to him anyway.

I headed out. I took the wrong bus. I ended up having to walk a mile and some change. I was late - only by 10 minutes, but that just about killed me. I'm never late, especially for the first class with a new student. Then I arrived at the address. It was a major international corporation!! I was dressed in khakis and a t-shirt!! UGH! The student, who just happened to be the sales director of this company *cringe*, learned how to say sorry, profusely, many times over, within the first 5 minutes of the class. Once I'd regained my composure, the class went well. I even scored a ride home for which I was really grateful - in a luxury 4x4 with aircon. 'Home' was on his way.

Tuesday consisted of cancelled classes. My classes were online : (  Skype doesn't work without internet. Did you know that?


What's the height of boredom? Taking photos of the truly fascinating interior of your water bottle!
Today was back to normal. We got our internet back tonight - a brand, spanking new modem - after a day of yet more knee-deep rain. Ah fun! : )

On my way to work... tomorrow...

A preview of me going to work tomorrow...


Yep... it's raining again. The thunder just now made me shoot two feet out of my chair. The cat and dog vanished. Apparently this is here to stay. My trip to and from work should be interesting.

2011 in all its glory

The year has just started and I'm already behind! Goodness only knows how many blog posts behind I am. It looks like some of you have been on vacation and typing away madly.

The year has started with student pile-ups. Picture a street crossing where one car blocks the way, then another drives into that one and another and so on. Everyone is having a hassle of some sorts. I've taught exactly one class this week, but the whole week has been dedicated to student-related bureaucracy. Blah!

The weather is delightful. I'm enjoying it. Ok, only half enjoying it. It's hot, but it's raining and I love the rain. Not everyone loves the rain, though... and with good reason. I'm not embedding the video this time, but here's our weather for today. Where we are, we're just above the flood line, thank goodness.

http://terratv.terra.com.br/Noticias/Brasil/4194-340495/Chuva-forte-deixa-carros-debaixo-dagua-em-Sao-Paulo.htm

In between trying to sort out students, I have been trying to complete a now-long-overdue project. It's consuming my every waking minute. I can't talk about it though, because the recipient may read this blog. I hope the recipient in question will appreciate my lack of sleep, food, social life, etc to complete this - ok, that is aside from essential procrastination time (necessary for survival, I think). Recipient, if you don't, I'll go there personally and ring your scrawny neck.

I feel better now =Þ

I have made numerous resolutions for the year. A couple are doing well. Not bad for going onto day 8. Even I'm impressed. My biggest resolution involves a whole lot of dreaming, believing and just plain faith. Keeping my fingers crossed.

To anyone who may receive a Christmas card from me before June, please ignore the Christmas part and enjoy the new year's wishes. If the cards arrive after June, just ignore them completely. By then, the new ones will be in the making. I swear... I think I'll mail them in June this year. Or maybe I'll just live somewhere where the postal system is worth something?

Hm... here's a nice project: Krochet Kids - I like what they're doing, except I do wonder about the making of very winter stuff in hot Uganda... unless you're up on the mountain.

Random riddle: What does a bubble and a bruise have in common?

A few weeks

Strange - I wanted to write the date today as 2011. That's a first. Usually, I struggle to adapt to writing the new year when it arrives.


Two buses went straight past this morning - too full. Squish room only in the third. I decided to take my chances and wait among the crowds for the new metro to open - it doesn't run at useful times - though it would be cutting it fine. The new station is surrounded by its own patch of grass, which makes for a nice start to the day. Burying my uncomfortable feet (I really don't like these sandals) in thick early-morning-cool grass is pure bliss.

Today's "Nossa Bairro" (Our Neighbourhood) newspaper's front page is news about Facebook's plan for email and such. The neighbourhood must be out of regular news. Later, glancing at the Metro News over someone's shoulder showed me an article about Wikileaks... apparently the USA is trying to take over Brazil. Whodathunkit? That should help with Brazil's neurosis over the USA.

Most students are cancelling the rest of December. That should make January 'interesting'. I have inherited at least one new, confirmed student and two others in the pipeline, which will help enormously. Fingers crossed that they confirm.

Our week was marked by overcast, muggy days and afternoons complete with thunderstorms and associated power failures. Night before last, we had a frantic hauling out of towels and sweeping vast quantities of water out the door. Brazilian housing = major leak incidents. In fairness, the rain has been heavy...


This is the river about 200m from our gate. Photo from our local news site.
This is the usual level... though the rains had already started when this photo was taken...


To get an idea of depth, take a look at the trucks and cars along the road on the left.
Thursday... end of my working week - well, kind of. There's still Saturday, but tomorrow is off and its probably a good thing. I have a zillion things to do. Today has, so far, been one of those weird can't-get-going starts. Then I got onto the bus, which felt strange... standing room?! Then I nearly fell out of my chair - oh wait... I was standing. The first clusters of seats are for the aged and infirm. A pretty girl stood and offered her seat to me! *hauls out mirror* Ok, there's grey, a few lines, but over 60??

It always amuses me when we're standing with our faces mashed up against the metro doors during peak hour and the standard recording comes on, "If you're not getting off at the next stop, keep clear of the doorways." I really, really like the new air-conditioned metros, especially in our current super-muggy weather.

My plants are loving the rain. So am I. It's a whole lot cooler with the rain, even if keeping dry is somewhat challenging.



My most recent students are far from me, quite literally on the opposite end of the city. Going to them takes me through Bras. This area is well known to all Paulistanos as being the best place to buy clothes.... literally street after street of clothing shops, both wholesale and retail. Some shops are vast warehouses and others are small. The area also has streets that specialise in outfitting clothing shops. I find the mannequin shops fascinating. This one, I caught in passing. It tickled me that the sales girl was sitting so companionably with her mannequin 'friend'.



Christmas décor is out now, but very sporadic. I was on Av. Paulista, standing waiting to cross to Conjuncto Nacional. They pride themselves on their recycled Christmas décor. Aside from the snowflakes (don't know what those are made of), the rest of the decorations are all recycled cold drink bottles, in this case, more than likely Guaraná bottles.


I snuck a peek down a passage and saw a lady decorating her 'tree'. The tree was more a bush of naked branches, but the effect was pretty. It doesn't show well in this photo though. Ah for a decent zoom...



Then again, if you don't have a garden to decorate, what's the next best thing?

Living the week out

It's been a strange sort of week. I had a couple of student cancellations, which had me sleeping a little later in the morning, but still made me a little miffy. I can't afford the time off. No problem, I did enjoy my sleep-ins. 6am is a whole lot better than 4:30am.



This photo is of a painting on the wall of a school near the teens. Take away the masses of books and you have what is often my teaching setup, except not all the students look that sweet and I wouldn't be writing on my lap ; )

As Tuesday was International Peace Day, so I went through the Tsuru story with MF on Monday and folded some origami cranes. Nice lesson. She was really excited.

On Tuesday, going in to my paediatrician student, I encountered Barack Obama! Yep! 'Strue! It's something that's been amusing me for a while now, but I waited till I could take a photo. We're in a major election run here. This guy claims that people tell him he looks like the famous US president, so he decided to capitalise on that and changed his name to Rosamar Barack Obama. He has a site where you can see him clearer. He stands handing out his voting details in São Paulo's main financial district. He has designs on being a deputado federal (something like a state senator).


This photo was taken just before lunch. By 4pm, it was raining.... really raining. The day went from this...


to this...


in around 2 hours. Yes, that was taken from a moving bus. Guess who had no umbrella : ) The bus was leaking from the 'sun' roof, a 'lid' that gets opened to let air flow through on hot days. Needless to say, it no longer sealed. I was grateful to be home after my swim. Yes, we were rather water-logged. Apparently there was massive hail storms elsewhere and serious damage. We were, luckily, just plain wet. Welcome to São Paulo's summer rains!

I did manage this photo on my way home in honour of Peace day. It's a scrap yard. I'd like to believe they were promoting peace, but I suspect that they just used the graffiti'ed (how do you spell that anyway?) boards to make sides for their cart...


That's right. The photo is ugly, dark, blurry... but you can't expect more from a moving, dirty-windowed bus in the rain. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Wednesday found me as sick as a dog. Let's just say, ugly stomach bug/poison issues. I still don't know what caused it. I started getting sick on the Tuesday, but by mid-morning on Wednesday, I thought I was dying.... or was at least wishing death would come quickly. I don't 'do' stomach issues with a great deal of grace.

BUT... I did wish I was out clothes shopping! São Paulo discovered colour! Trust me, this is not the norm.


On my way to MF, though, I found myself draped over a wall, trying to keep my stomach in place and praying for a passing breeze. Over the wall was this scene. I kept my stomach in place long enough to appreciate the scene ; ) Perhaps because the lines had a somewhat steadying influence and over the wall was a lovely little breeze. I was in a proper sweat by that time. I called Jurgis and asked him to cancel MF. I dragged myself home, fell on the bed and slept for a few hours.


Thursday was one of those days where the world smiled back. I love days like that. I think it helped that I was feeling so much better. The teens weren't total monsters. We definitely did the right thing in splitting them. I caught a beautiful lilac sunset on the way home.

Before getting home, I stopped in at the bakery for today's bread. While waiting to order, myself and the elderly lady next to me were staring at a little girl, around five, who was drilling holes into the packets of Maria Mole (it's like a really, really soft and airy marshmallow). Her mother was standing over her, also looking down at the products. I went up to the little girl and, in my sweetest 'favourite aunt' voice said, "Linda, não faz isso." (Pretty girl, don't do that) and I super-gently pushed her hand away from the packages. The mother just about laid an egg and told me in a very uppity tone that she is the mother (no duh) and if I have a problem with her kid, I'm to talk to her, not the kid. The old ducky next to me rolled her eyes and smiled at me. It was that kind of situation. I said, well, next time, just stop your kid yourself and teach her well. Eh. The whole situation amused me. I chuckled all the way to the bus. I can't help wondering how she'd have reacted if I'd tapped her on the shoulder and said, "Scuse me ma'm, but your brat is drilling into the Maria Mole."

Today was delightful! It's been drizzling on and off. The sky has been very grey all day, but the air outside is so fresh, I want to bottle it and save it for later!

Wet World

I'm early. The world around me is wrapped in scarves and jackets, except for the guy in the denim shorts, no shirt, flip flops and a cap walking down below.

It's raining. As I'm early, I chose to stay on the undercover Metro bridge, watching the raindrops run along the concrete beam and eventually peel themselves off. The flickering fluorescent light turns the world around me into a kind of unearthly early-morning disco.

Somehow, the glistening wet of the side-walk makes the litter stand out starkly. Litter blocks the drains, so the water dams up in the road, turning the paving into a bug-sized, filthy surf.

Pigeons are amazing things. Where do they come from? One lone white pigeon bobs around, finds a soggy crumb and in a split second, twenty others arrive to help decimate the 'feast'.

My hands are cold, but then, my hands are pretty much always cold. They're saying that, a little way south of us, the sentient temperature this morning is -22ºC. I find that hard to believe. Not complaining here though. At least we're finally having a smattering of winter.

Augh. Poor guy. This old man is always there on the curb-side. His lopsided stool stands abandoned off to one side, as he hops around, trying to keep warm. He has a blue shopping trolley holding a polystyrene cooler of orange junk-juice and bottled water. I doubt he'll make too many sales today, if any. Even the coffee-and-cake guy is lacking his usual cluster of clients in the cold and rain.

Ah... time's up. I need to go down and wait for the bright yellow VW.

 

Technorati Tags: rain,people,cold,thoughts,carandiru,metro

Dry

Dogs! Argh! We're into day 2 of our regional water cut. The pleasant enough,but extreeeeemly slow chap at the water department said it was due to a burst water mains and water would be restored the same day. That was yesterday.

The air is dry. There are pollution warnings out. This photo is from our local news. The airport is on a 'fly only if necessary' due to the pollution.


This photo is from a different news agency. Apparently admissions to hospital have increased by 70% today due to respiratory issues.


Our water system is here complicated. We run off a cistern on the roof. This is because of the city's frequent water cuts. A storage box of water means that, during a cut, we still have water for a while. That's all good and well, but.... unless we go outside to the yard wash tank, which is fed directly from the street, we have no idea the water has been cut or if it's been restored.

Enter dog.

The son of a second-hand sea sausage used the standing space in front of the water tank as his personal WC! Let it be known that I leave home by torch light - It was dark when I checked the status of our water supply!

Apparently, I will have plenty of luck today, especially since I couldn't wash it off.


Does this look like the face of evil terrorism??

 

Technorati Tags: pollution,romany,cistern,water

Water water everywhere...

There have been more deaths too... and now I've heard they're evacuating the zoo : ( Apparently the animals are being moved to higher ground around the zoo. The botanical gardens alongside are taking damage. The Tieté river has flooded its banks, as usual. My other student for tonight cancelled as her part of town is without electricity.

Another tree, this time about 100 meters away from the student's door, fell... well, fell is a bit of an understatement. It was ripped down. Waiting for the bus to come home took forever. When it did come, it was loaded with steaming humanity. The inside of the bus with all the windows closed was a sauna. I stood with a neighbour's umbrella dripping on my foot and on the other side, a raincoated man... it took him a good kilometre or so before he decided that removing his dripping raincoat would be a good idea. The gaúcho ('cowboy' from the south of Braz) sitting in front of me slept blissfully though, his felt hat dipped over his eyes. Stubble on his weathered cheeks and toothpick making a statement out of his mouth, he looked out of place, but comfortable.


I found this excellent sketch of a gaúcho online, but can't find the original artist (other than the signature)

Speaking of gaúchos, while I was looking for a pic, I found this: link here. Can you imagine donning a pair of goggles and visiting a place in virtual reality?

 

del.icio.us Tags: floods,rain,gaucho,zoo

Insuportável!

On my way home, on the temperature board on Anhaia Melo, it read 37ºC (98°F). Enough already! Anhaia Melo is about a mile from where we live. The sky is heavy with clouds. On the bright side, small talk is simple. Everyone is talking about the weather. Extreme heat followed by extreme rain storms, daily. Last night's storm dropped a tree in our neighbourhood. The roads were all flooded, except folk like us on the hilltop. We're on daily emergency flood alerts. In January, 69 people died because of the floods. One woman was apparently sucked into a stormwater drain. No, the drains aren't that big. The woman was likely small. São Paulo is in it's 42nd day of daily rainstorms and feeling it.

Tat, if you see this, the tree fell in the little road that goes off to the right after crossing Anhaia Melo and before the new Metro construction:

I got myself a bright, psychedelic green umbrella. My old one was rendered useless in the accompanying winds on Monday.

Speaking of storms... it's about to break and I need to leave to the next student. Yay! : ) It'll be good though. The rain breaks the heat. The humidity build-up is no fun though.

 

del.icio.us Tags: rain,storms,heat,weather

Ok, you guys hogging the cold, share!

"37°C / 98.6°F at 6PM is not good" A local friend posted this on FB. She lives fairly close. I so agree... that is not good. I hope it cools down tonight. That promised rain must come, but the clouds have gone : (

Rio has reported temps at 38.7°C (101.6°F) - thermal sensation of 45°C (113°F)!! We must be in the 40's too then. No wonder we roasted!

I found this guy through Google.

I was just thinking. I need to defrost my fridge. Should I try it? It would cool me down and soothe the sunburn and the heat my sunburn is giving off is bound to defrost the fridge in record time. Oh wait... I can't fit into the fridge =/

del.icio.us Tags: weather,heat

Your monthly weather channel

Is anyone else freaking out over the weather? We're in our second day of flood warnings. This was our area yesterday:


Luckily we are high up and not affected unless we go into town, which is what we have to do this afternoon. I'm taking boots, umbrella and water wings... oh and a book to read in case we get stuck.

This is what Tat may be going into in a couple of weeks if the weather in the UK doesn't ease up:


(See the article in the Sun)

She's taking a chisel. She recons if she has to freeze her butt off, she may as well chip it off properly and slim down ; ) According to one report, the UK is facing it's coldest winter in the last century, right through to March. Fun! I really need to make a plan for a camera for Tat. This can't be missed!

 

del.icio.us Tags: uk,rain,sao-paulo,weather,sao paulo,snow,floods

São Paulo style 'snow'

Actually, it feels like we're in a giant popcorn maker with white balls bouncing off everywhere...


This photo was taken in our carport. The hail you see is what came from our gutter.

At about 3pm, the heavens closed over and huge splats of rain came down. A few minutes later, we heard the distinctive clackety-clack of hail falling. Being insatiably curious, we headed to the doorways to see the hail. I got smacked on the head by a few large stones.


I was kneeling on our quirky 'headboard' to get this photo of our 'snow'.

The dogs were terrified, poor things. The plants got totally shredded. The little cordelyn looks like a giant rat has been gnawing at it and Jurgis' Lady of the Night is shredded.


At our front door.
We were expecting some fairly dramatic weather, as the South of Brazil has been getting tornadoes with wind speeds of around 82km/hour (50 miles/hour). I know that isn't a lot when compared to our Northern friends, but for Brazil, it's dramatic.

It's a time of changes out our way. Most of you have seen Tat's new 'do' and, naturally, my profile photo. One of my newer students owns a hairdresser. She's the sweetest Japanese girl. I made an appointment and she worked magic. She put gallons of goop in my hair too and used a straightening iron (what?! on me??). I never, ever use products in my hair and don't even blow dry, never mind use curling or straightening irons. Freaky!! I loved the hairdresser though. They had those magical reclining chairs at the washbasins, so you get to lie down while having your hair washed. Bliss! I'd go there just for that. The sweetie gave me the whole anti-frizz treatment free. Methinks she knows who'll be marking her tests ; ) Nah.... she's just a honey. If ever any of you are down my way, I highly recommend her!


Thanks, Tat, for playing photographer again : )
And speaking of tests... we're in full test mode here with the totally out-of-this-world weird marking system. 'P' stands for 'poor' in the reports. We have been notified that putting the 'P' in the marking system is just a formality and we are not  to use it for any of the students. The lowest we're allowed to mark them is 'R' for 'regular' *sigh* They pass, whether they study or not. Makes me wonder why we bother marking the papers. The one class gets their tests to take home and do there. More on the subject of tests... at the end of the last semester, we were rushed and pressured into getting the results in way before school ended for the term. During the holidays, one of Tat's students asked her where his report was. "Don't you have it?" No, he didn't. We asked the co-coordinator. "Oh, the students only get their reports if they come back to the school and ask for it."  Huh? Have you ever heard of anything like that? No reports get mailed out. The students had been back at the school for the next semester and were only given the previous semester's reports a good month into the new semester. Weird. I honestly don't know how they function.

Ok, I'm off to a student now, assuming she is having class, as she often cancels when there's rain. Rain + São Paulo traffic creates merry havoc.

 

del.icio.us Tags: rain,hail,storm,tests,school,work,hair