Moving

Two things have let me down here at Blogspot.

1) It's not very community-orientated. I like people. I like visiting blogs (and not just a random choice when one clicks on 'next). I like people visiting my blog. I find Blogspot to be very difficult to navigate to see other blogs and broaden my horizons. I won't even go into the fact that not a soul reads blogs in here. Few blogs I visited through the ubiquitous 'next' button at the top right had any number of commentors.

2) The new Blogspot has me disgusted. It is well known that I live in Brazil, but I am English! I want to manage my blog in my language... not the language that their cookies decide I should be using. Sure, I can switch my language preference to English, but when visiting friends' blogs, I get to face a comments page in Portuguese. I don't like the new Blogspot. I didn't choose it. I was finally forced to accept it or not access my blog. They want it that way, they can have it that way.

My blog is now at Yahoo 360°. The community spirit is wonderful and its so easy to browse and find new friends. There are a number of ways for me to show my photography and tools that allow so much flexibility with page design and blog post setup.

Do stop over and visit: http://360.yahoo.com/tintalasia.

Christmas 2006

Christmas eve was beautiful. We exchanged our gifts at midnight, as we do every year - who wants to wait for morning?? From Linda, in Vancouver, I received a mini scrapbook album to decorate and fill in as I wish. Its done in a poinsettia style.... very pretty. So at the end of the evening, just before I went to bed, I journalled in it:

"Tonight we had our most special and memorable Christmas ever. Tat wrote a message to us on a 'scroll' and resting on it was a tsuru bird for luck. Jorge had already given us our memory sticks for our immigration documents. We each have one now. I made mini-scraps for Jorge and Tat with the theme, '10 things I love about you'.

We had a Runescape Christmas We all met in the party room at Seers Village. It was fun!

The fireworks are very loud and seemingly unending. We gave the dogs some rescue remedy and treats to calm them. Its warm and damp outside after a day of rain."

For those who don't know, Runescape is an online game set in medieval times. We play it as a family. Some people watch TV, we play Runescape.

Christmas day was just as good. I still need to write it up and print the photos for the scrap book. We slept late, had our Christmas 'photo shoot' and prepared our Christmas slunch (sic) of turkey, carrot salad, potato casserole, green bean salad, beetroot salad - yes, there are a lot of salads. Its too hot for the traditional fare. Our South African custom is to have cold meats and salads for Christmas. Turkey was a brave move for me this year. For desert there was this super-rich chocolate tart. Halfway through our slivers of tart, we gave up and packed the rest away for later.

Today was a lazy day of Runescape, cleaning up a little and this afternoon/evening, we watched Eragon. Nice movie... reminded me a lot of LOTR. Jorge has gone to bed now. I'm settling to sort out the rest of the photos and journal the Christmas. Tat is colouring in. Yep, she got a new set of coloured pencils for Christmas and has downloaded and printed some pics to colour in

White Christmas!!

We had a snowball fight today - in Brazil!


Reality check: Its raining buckets outside, interspersed with thunder. We took the turkey out of the freezer this morning. It was quite thoroughly caked with ice. Tat started scraping the ice off - a weirdism of hers. She scrapes ice from the supermarket freezers too. I looked at her hands and it looked so like snow... white, crystally and cold. I scraped off a handful and threw it at her.... she threw some back - a snowball fight!! It was wonderful! We decided to spread our seasonal cheer to where Jorge was sitting. Suffice to say, he's threatened to get his own back on us =D

The spice cookies are in the oven and I've just taken the first batch out. They came out perfect and smell heavenly! Once they're all done (I quadrupled the mixture), I'll get started on the shortbread and the chocolate cookies. Yum!

And so this is Christmas...

So this is christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young a very merry christmas
And a happy new year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear and so this is christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The war is so long
And so happy christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let’s stop all the fight a very merry christmas
And a happy new year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear and so this is christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so happy christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young a very merry christmas
And a happy new year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear and so this is christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
And a new one just begun

And so this is Christmas... and what have we done... Another year has passed and what have I done. Nothing much of anything, it seems. No major accomplishment. A couple of new friends, the loss of a couple of old friends. Am I a better person than I was last year this time? I wish I could say I was. Well, I'm working on it and working on getting the newly resident 'Grinch' atmosphere cleaned out here.

So... And so this is christmas. I hope you have fun, The near and the dear ones, The old and the young a very merry christmas And a happy new year... Let’s hope it’s a good one....

Saturday...

And I decided to, once again, clear out my mailbox. I'm an e-mail junkie, packrat, hoarder... there's no hope for me ;) So, I went to the bottom of my mail pile. The oldest message is always a good place to start, but the hardest too, as it is usually a message that I have decided once before to keep. It turns out to be a poem sent to me by my very dear friend, Diane. I can't possibly delete it, though I may do the intelligent thing and save it somewhere, so the mailbox can be lightened. And then I can do the next best thing... share it with others, as its so beautiful.

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder,
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger,
May you never take one single breath for granted,
God forbid love ever leaves you empty handed,
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
When ever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

I hope you dance...I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance,
Never settle for the path of least resistance,
Livin' might mean takin' chances but they're worth takin'
Lovin' might be a mistake but it's worth makin'
Don't let some hell bent heart leave you bitter,
When you come close to sellin' out consider,
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

I hope you dance...I hope you dance I hope you dance...I hope you dance
(Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along,
Tell me who wants to look back on their years
and wonder where those years have gone.)

I hope you feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
When ever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

Dance.. I hope you dance...I hope you dance I hope you dance...I hope you dance
(Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along
Tell me who wants to look back on their years
And wonder where those years have gone.)

Lee Ann Womack

Isn't it beautiful?
Its hot here again today with an incredibly high humidity, thanks to the thunder showers we're expecting later. Tat is on her way out to meet a friend. I hope she doesn't get caught in it. We have low-lying areas between here and town that will be flooded.

I slept late this morning. Nothing too unusual considering my 3am bedtime. My plans for the day? Well, I need to work on something I have for madam while she is out. Need to get laundry and dishes done first - there, my note of the mundane thrown in. Hm... and I simply have to get started on my Christmas baking. Chocolate creams (for South Africans, they're Romany creams), Spice cookies, and the quintessential shortbread.

Away in a manger

I was about 3 when my gran, Ouma, who raised me, decided I had to have some sort of religious training. She was Nederduitse Gereformde Kerk and my grandad, Jim (everyone called him Jim) was Presbytarian, like all good Scotsmen. So one Sunday morning, Ouma marched me down to the Salvation Army on the corner, where I was introduced to Aunty Val who sat at the door welcoming all the kids to Sunday school. A little later, I was shown through to the hall where the children gathered for Sunday school. I remember clearly the rows of wooden chairs… the kind with the flip-up seats (many a boy lifted one of those while I was sitting and made me fall over the years). The floors were wood. To the left of me as I walked through the door was a strange entrance. I found later it led to a den under the stage – a most exciting place. Up ahead was the kitchen, an office, a store room and the ablutions. But this day, the gathering was in the main hall. Ouma took me on a good day. There was no Sunday school. We were going on a march.

We walked through the main streets of Port Elizabeth, Aunty Val holding my hand. Everyone looked so smart in their uniforms and the band played beautifully. My eyes must have been like saucers. I was in awe. It became my dream to wear a uniform. The Salvation Army taught me about the Bible. They taught me about caring for others. They taught me about love for my brothers and sisters. They encouraged our talent and trained us for leadership. It was my second home for so many years.

Christmas time! If there is a part of my childhood Christmases I treasure and holds happy memories for me, it is the part that I spent in Salvation Army activities. A while beforehand, we would go from door to door with our little wooden boxes. Naturally, I was accompanied by an adult. We collected, so that we could make Christmas special for those who would otherwise go without. In later years, I became part of the sorting of other donations for this as well. Then the most exciting part – the carolling! We would all stand on the back of a truck. The band sat at the ‘front’ behind the driver’s cab and, as the truck drove slowly through the streets, we would sing our hearts out. I loved those evenings on the back of the truck carolling! I was listening to ‘Away in a manger’ playing tonight and the memories came flooding back.

I still love carolling. Oh, another favourite Christmas memory has just come to mind – Carols by Candle-light in Happy Valley, Port Elizabeth. Happy Valley was where the river that ran through Settler’s Park ended before running into the sea at Humewood beach. The place was a popular picnic and strolling spot by day and by night, a fairy tale come true. In among the bushes and trees were lit-up scenes, sprinkled with fairy lights. If anyone out there reading this blog has photos of Happy Valley at Christmas time in the 70’s, please let me know! Nativity scenes, Disney scenes, fairy tale scenes…. a child’s dream come true. I honestly believed that those scenes would spring to life at any moment. In the flatter area, closer to the beach with the fun fair up on the hill, they had Carols by Candle-light. We each held a candle in a paper candle holder and by the light of those candles, in front of the huge Christmas tree and the lit up Nativity scene, we sang carols in the dark. What a beautiful scene from the hill… all these candles and lit up faces and the music…!

If my Ouma were alive today, I would love to thank her for giving me those very special memories to hold on to and hopefully pass on to Tatiana and the generations to come. My wish for all my friends is that you also build special Christmas memories and traditions and experience the love and joy of the season in so many ways.

Water, water everywhere...

São Paulo is flooding. There are areas flooding that don’t usually get flooded much. Below the Pinheiros River (or next to it or somewhere), there is a huge underground reservoir to collect flood water. Well, the Pinheiros flooded and the surrounding neighbourhoods along with it. We have moved away from the Tiete River now and I see those areas are pretty much under water now.

If you would like to brave some Portuguese, stop by at Terra and look at the photos. Scroll down on the page until you see, in bold print, “Veja mais fotos” with a tiny camera next to it. The rather bland photo, with no apparent flooding is just drawing attention to the fact that there was 115km (71 miles) of backed up traffic in the city. A few of my own photos of São Paulo’s version of ‘in the wet’ can be found here.

My daily gratitude: I am grateful to be in a house that doesn’t leak and I am grateful to be on a hill. The days of sweeping water out of the house are over. That is surely good =)

Turkeys and trimmings

Its Christmas time. On Dec. 1st, I decided to go officially into Christmas mode. Many have already received the cards we sent out. Just hope the few gifts get to their destination on time. I, once again, made our own cards. I really enjoyed making these. If I had a regret, its that they are small. I should perhaps have made them bigger. Next year, I think I’ll do A5 cards with more trimmings.

We put up the tree yesterday. I video’d it with grand plans to make a spectacular Christmassy… uh…. thing to send out to friends. I’ll see what I can do with that. The tree looked miniscule (judging by the glorious pines I see on the net), but gorgeous! Then last night, I was sitting peacefully at my desk when… crash… the tree came down. Specs sat here with huge saucer eyes, so I immediately expected her paw to have been involved. I took the fragile ornaments off, just in case, and put the tree back up. Jorge says it came down this morning again, he left it down, and said Specs was sleeping in her box at the time, so she wasn’t the guilty party. We just have a highly unbalanced tree *sigh* So today, we’re making tree plans… to see what we can come up with to keep the thing upright for the month.

And…. today… I am cooking turkey for the first time ever! Wish me luck. Roasts aren’t my strong point, though I do a pretty good chicken roast and this is just a huge chicken, right? We bought the turkey for Christmas day, but delivery was overnight and it arrived home partially thawed, so we have to cook it. That’s fine with me, as it gives me a practice run for Christmas. I’m going to cook rice with the turkey, as madam doesn’t eat mash - sacrilege – I love mash! Anyhow…. the turkey won’t be cooked with me sitting here. Its time to take the covers off and get it in the oven…

Zuurberg

I’m having a serious case of ‘wanna go home’. I had a dream the other night that is still with me. I dreamt I went back to Zooberg – or Zuurberg Inn, its real name. I dreamt there are new owners (naturally, as its been more than 25 years since I was there). The building had changed somewhat, though it was added on to the original structure. I dreamt I met the new owners, who didn't know me, naturally, but were interested in the stories I had of years gone by at the Inn. Some time later, I met an old man who recognised me, though I didn't recognise him. He reminded me who he was, the man who used to take me horse-riding as a little girl. As he spoke, in my dream, I remembered parts of my experiences at Zooberg that I had long forgotten. I dreamt too, that I got a job there and we found work for Jorge and Tatiana too.

The next morning, I looked up Zuurberg Inn on the net and found it looking much like it did in my childhood. Gosh, I can even smell the place! I remember the kitchen knew me well and always had a bowl of their custard ready for me for my desert. Custard still has the power to take me back to those idyllic days. I so want to go back. I will still go back... some day. Those were happy, innocent days.

Busy busy...

Its been hectic around here, but I’m finally seeing ‘the light’. Seal Restore depends on word of mouth and folks going to the site. Seal Restore is where my heart lies. I so enjoy working on history…. with all the human interest that surrounds it. Then there’s the Store =) My favourite part of the store is the printable greeting cards and the bookmarks. They’re so easy to open and print. We’re especially proud of our new gsd files though for Wishblade and Craft Robo fans. We’re going full-steam ahead with creating these files. I hope to soon have them integrated with the greeting cards, bookmarks and scrap sets. Carol is so talented and is a wonderful partner in this. Her video tutorials should attract a lot of attention – they’re great! Yesterday, a friend (thank you Cheryl) sent me a link. This lady started baking out of her kitchen and now has her own commercial bakery and even takes online orders for mailing. Now I can do that! My kitchen is by no means fancy, but it works and the things I bake are good. The question is finding the market. What I bake is not known around here, so I’ll have to introduce it to the locals. I’ll see how that goes. For now, I am setting about pricing my ingredients and calculating profits. Hm… I think I’ll involve Jorge in that. Perhaps a “Seal Confections” is in the making? Maybe not… the locals will understand ‘confection’ to be tailored clothing. I need a way around that.

We have another rainstorm this afternoon. The sky turns a greenish colour. I guess summer is truly here. And we bathed the dogs this past weekend…. nice wet dog smells coming up. On the subject of dogs, we had Rover put down this week, so we’re down to 2 dogs. Ah… life happens…

Pete's pond

This is where I wish I had a larger readership of this blog. I wanted to share Pete's pond with the world.

Pete's pond is a live cam in Botswana, where one can watch African wildlife around-the-clock. Do yourself a favour and go to the link on the National Geographic site. You will need to install Real Player to watch, but it is well worth it.
http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/wildcamafrica/

Enjoy the stunning African sunsets, bird calls, elephant calves frolicking at the water's edge, various buck. The whole video is in real time, so you'll watch and hear the wind in the trees. See the wind ruffling the feathers of a kingfisher in the thorn tree on the side of the pond. At night, thanks to the night-vision camera, you can watch the cats come out.

For those who, for some reason, can't support the video, stop by at the wildlife flash-cards. This is great for children. Click on each animal, hear what its called in Tswana, the local language, listen to information on the animal that goes beyond what the encyclopedia will tell you. See what the animal's tracks look like and more.
http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/wildcamafrica/animal_gallery.html

I have decided to keep the cam open in my browser just for the sound effects. Can't think why... but I love the sound of the African bushveld ;)

counting petals

A blog 'must visit'... counting petals

I was blog-surfing tonight. There are some weird, wonderful, strange, thought-provoking blogs out there, but few I felt the need to save and go back to. Lené's photo's are perfect in their reflection of the world she visits and her writing creates pictures and sensations in my mind. I've been told I'm very visual. Reading her word transported me to where she was, feeling the breeze, the sand....

Do yourself a favour and visit her blog!

Updates

I've been updating my site. I just need to get the Brazil albums all uploaded, but of course, your's truly has decided in her infinite wisdom to redo a number of the pages. Might have something to do with Tatiana's frantic working on her site - its catchy. Her site is looking great. Do stop by and visit and bookmark it while you're there to see her poems and stories.

Oh and while I'm talking about sites, please take a moment to visit the ASPCA's blog. There is some really good info on pet care.
http://www.aspca.org/aspcablog/index.html

Just muddling along

I was trying to word what I would write in my blog and got to thinking about the Oval. The Oval, in Port Elizabeth, was an athletics sports track with a field in the center. It was used by the local schools for athletics day and field games. My title for my blog was going to be 'running in circles', but it should have been, 'running in ovals'. I have this sensation of running around and around looking for the starting line - never mind the finish line. In front of me is a 'to do' list. I look at it daily. The items are so varied and so unrelated to each other that I simply usually don't know where to start and often don't get started at all as a result.

Tonight was pancake night. Pancake night on a Sunday is traditional in our little family.... a tradition that started when Tatiana was around 4. Oh, pancakes, for us, are thickish crepes... not the paper-thin French type... and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. We absolutely pig out (talk about killing sugar cravings!) Of course, its not always cinnamon sugar. If I have other goodies that go well in pancakes, we have that. Nothing slimming, of course. Sometimes savoury mince (ground beef) or chicken in white sauce, or whatever. When Tat was little, we used to do the pancakes in the lounge and make them while watching Disney. I would haul out our camping gas drum and cook the pancakes as we watched. That poor pancake pan made pancakes for our school fetes when I was in primary school. Jorge replaced the handle for me a couple of years ago and its feeling like its going again. I really think its time for a new pan.

To those that read this blog, have a simply wonderful week!

Falling off the bandwagon

Its been a while since I blogged. No apologies :) I always said I was the world's worst at keeping journals or diaries.

Hm... new and newsy?

Tatiana did her stint in South Africa. Many lessons learnt and an enriching experience for her. I need to look back in my blog to see if I wrote about that time. It wasn't a good time for me. I hankered to go home myself, but wanted her to see her country of birth and learn to love it as I do. At the same time, it was extremely hard letting go of my daughter and friend for so long. She came home changed too. New attitudes, renewed goals and full of... verve! Gosh, I haven't heard or used that word in years. For those who are bound to ask, it refers to enthusiasm, vigour, spirit, vivaciousness (not that she's ever lacked any of that).

Jorge has just returned from his stint in Lithuania. He's in love. I just know that if we showed the slightest inclination, he'd pack our bags and ship us off to live there. He took no less than 6 dvd's worth of photos! We haven't even looked at the video footage he took yet. As soon as I have been through the photos - how on earth will I choose? - I will put a selection up on my site. Watch this space for news. Jorge is thrilled with his family up there. They treated him well and he discovered a lot about his ancestry and got the documents he needs for his EU passport.

Its nose back to the grindstone now though. All the holidaying and traipsing around the globe is at an end for a while. I'm working very hard on getting Seal Restore going and actually earning for us. Then there's More than Molly, where I now sell my graphics related goodies. The store is looking good with stuff for digital scrappers and those wanting to print clipart, bookmarks and greeting cards too, not to mention note paper and so much more. I'm branching out into gsd files for Craftrobo and Wishblade too. Hey, something there for everyone! =)

My to-do list for tomorrow is looking far too long. I need to go shopping before anything else gets done. Nooooo fun! I think I am going to go back to preparing my monthly menu's. Its such a big help knowing in advance what to buy and cook. Not tonight though. I'm past my bedtime and am trying to get rid of this horrible cold before it gets me down.

Have a great Spring to those of you who, like me, are in the southern hemisphere. Apparently the south of Brazil has had -10°C (14°F) temps with snow, so we're heading into a cold front for our spring. Not too bad, considering our winter has been a milder version of summer.

Now you see it, now you don't... continued...

I guess you were wondering about the odd title of the blog, which didn't seem to fit in with anything in the content. That is just one small example of a wandering mind. My humblest apologies!

After getting our hose fitting in Florenço de Abril, we made our way to the shopping center for lunch. On the way, we were walking along yet another hawker-filled road, just in time to witness a typical downtown São Paulo phenomenon. I wanted to video it, but Jorge cautioned that it might mean the end of me and the video, so I compromised by just standing there with my jaw hanging open.

Hawking isn't illegal here, but what is illegal is selling pirated products. Those hawking 'cultural' items or any form of home made artwork or craft are left alone. I don't know how the hawkers get the message across. I want to impress on the reader here, that all this happens in a blink of an eye. Its quite possible to miss the whole thing. One moment, you're walking along looking around at all the goods for sale, and in a flash, its all gone. The pedestrians continue as though nothing has happened. Somehow, the hawkers and their goods melt into the tarmac, walls, sidewalks... who knows where they disappear to. The next scene involves a police cruiser moving slowly along picking its way between pedestrians. I turned to watch the passage of the cruiser and when I turned back, it was as though nothing had changed to start with. The hawkers were there as though they'd never moved!

One day, before I leave Brazil, I want to catch this on camera. It definitely has to be seen to be believed!

Now you see it, now you don't

First, let me assure you all that São Paulo has returned to normality, or about as normal as it can get here. I think even the criminals are aware that World Cup football is about to start!

Yesterday, we went into town. See... we need an excuse to go to town, so we puzzled and planned and fretted till we found one. We desperately needed a clamp for our second hose pipe. So off we tootled into town.

We took the bus to Liberdade, as it has some interesting goings on regardless of when you walk through there. Just seeing McDonalds written up in Japanese, along with our bank and Pão de Queijo is interesting enough.

Strolling along, I spotted an interesting sight. It was an outdoor hairdresser. This chap had set up his trade in a square, surrounded by the bustle of downtown traffic. His client, a lady streetsweeper. I would like to bet she felt every bit as pampered as I do when going to the hairdresser.

As we walked further, we spotted the black and white flags with red ribbons fluttering above the streets. This was something new. They were putting up bandstands in various locations. São Paulo is apparently having a combination of a cultural weekend and protests at government corruption. An interesting combination to be sure. There was a distinct air of rushing among the shoppers. For a start, shops close downtown at 1pm and the festivities were due to start at 1:30pm.

Our walk eventually took us down to Florenço de Abril, the road that sells hardware for the DIY handyman and everything else they can jam onto that stretch of road. The sidewalks are too full to hold all the hawkers, so they spill over onto the tarmac. There is little room to move among the DVD and CD sellers, razorblade sellers, pirated power tool sellers, refurbished powertool sellers, sweet sellers, cochinha-maker sellers... the list goes on. I managed to take a photo at the less busy end. I must say though, compared to previous visits, Florenço de Abril was reasonably quiet.

Well, we bought the silly fitting we travelled into town to get and then went to Shopping Light. Shopping Light is a shopping center that use to house the electricity department; thus the reference to Light. It is a beautiful old building. My only complaint is that you have to go up 5 stories to get to the eating mall. We got our lunch at Jorge's favourite haunt, Coração Mineiro, a restaurant that serves food from Minas, one of the interior states of Brazil. It is what we call a kilo grill. You pay for your food by weight, which is great because you only pay for what you eat (good for kids and dieters). The food is pretty good and fairly reasonable. I got wrapped over the knuckles by a very polite security guard for taking this photo. I gather no photos are allowed of the restaurants. Guess I looked like I was planning a heist ;) Oh... on the far left of the photo, in the dark, is Jorge. I told the well-meaning security guard that I was just taking a photo of my husband as a lembrança (souvenir). Well, it was half true!

It was drizzling lightly as we left the shopping center, but not for long. We wandered around a while before heading home. The trip home was uneventful. For that matter, so was the whole day, but at least I took some photos, right?

Today was a day for darning and cleaning. You don't want photos of that :)

Day 5 of the violence

Some photos...

The inside of one of the burnt-out buses

Another bus was burnt, in the area where Tat did her bridal modelling. Police have killed another 17 suspects, most caught in the act of throwing molotov cocktails - sorry, I don't know the details. The 'bandits' have attacked a school in Perus, one of the outlying neighbourhoods and they've attacked a few police officers' homes.

The city is still very quiet, though people are trying to go around as normal. Today is street market day and our road is usually a steady stream of housewives to and fro'ing, but few are passing. I haven't seen kids playing in the streets for so long and the neighbourhood gossips are staying well out
of sight, instead of at their gates.

On the bright side, the sun is shining and its a gorgeous day. I love the wintery sun here! Jorge went into town today. He says its quiet. Avenida Paulista usually has a certain 'buzz' to it, which is missing, but otherwise a lot of business is open again. All justice related buildings and offices had their main doors closed.

Rights for who?

We had planned to go into town today, but we can't... along with a large proportion the city. São Paulo's extensive public transport system is 'paralysed' (to quote the reporters). Buses have been burnt, so the bus companies are on an involuntary strike, as they want more security. Who can blame them. The bandits cut the buses off, get on, order everone off the bus and set fire to it. Up to 8am this morning, 44 buses have been burnt. Cops are stopping buses to search. Bank agencies have been held up and burnt. A fire-station has been attacked. The city is a mess. And why??? For 'human rights'.

Off the top of your head, when you think of human rights, who do you think of? Mafia bosses? Not likely. The PCC (a criminal organisation) is creating havoc in the city - to me, it borders on terrorism - because they want their bosses who are in high security lockup to have full cell phone access (so they can run their operations from inside), intimate time during visits, at least 60 television sets to watch the world cup and they want the prison uniforms changed from yellow or orange to grey.... Hello???? Human rights???

Guess what, Mr Esteemed Prisoner, I don't have cell phone access half the time. I don't own a TV at all, much less a whole bank of TV's. As for colour of uniforms? I love yellow and orange, but we all know why they want grey... its so that they can blend easier when they escape. And what is the point of prison if they get privileges? You do wrong, you commit a crime, you get punished. Or have I missed some vital point here?

Sorry, I don't usually like going off on political/contentious issues, but this really got to me. What about the rights of the people in the bank agencies being assaulted and burnt? What about the rights of the people to transport without fear? What about the rights of the people who need the transport to work or they don't get paid? What about the rights of people to protection against crime? Come on... I want someone from human rights organisations to explain this to me.

The other side of my toast

In a two-week long experiment, I have proved that I'm very shallow in my choices - with toast. Isn't that weird?

Every day, I make myself two slices of toast and every day, I eat the 'better looking' slice of toast last... the one with least burnt patches on it (old childhood habit that, leaving the nicer stuff for last... probably explains half my weight issues). And every day, without fail, I find that the nicer looking slice of toast is the slice with the most burnt patches underneath. So... where's the point to all this?

Recently, a friend of mine went on a 'new friend making' expedition. She went through a number of profiles and chose people who shared the same interests as her. Being a really sweet lady, with very family-orientated interests, she looked for people of the same type. One of her choices was a lady who's whole profile was about her young children and husband. In all, a very ordinary and nice looking person... until my friend clicked on what was listed as her home page. The home page was all about very explicit.... er.... relations (I have to confound the filters here). No, it was not a false link, as the lady's own photos appeared among the other very explicit ones. The burnt side of the toast. This lady is a fine example of the way we often choose the choose the 'better looking slice of toast'.

Now the other side of the toast, the 'rough diamonds', as my gran used to call them. My life is full of rough diamonds and overdone bread. I think it comes from always being in either the frying pan or the fire. People who, at first glance, you'd keep them at a safe distance and just observe. I remember one lady we met as a group of friends. The first day, one word came to mind, 'wacko'. She was so far removed from everything I was familiar with. Over the years, we have all laughed with her and learnt so much about people and life in general from her. She became one of the mainstays of our group of friends. Yes, she is still very different, but then, so am I in my own way. The man I chose to marry was another one, in fact, my gran's favourite 'rough diamond'. Definitely not a person who fitted into what people consider the 'norm', but a strong, generous, heart-of-gold type of person.

I guess I'm going to have to learn to flip my toast over in future, so that the true nice piece of toast becomes the keeper.