pastel de queijo

Feenajeep

2008-06-01T17:58:00.001-03:00

4x4 on top of "morro do vulcao"

2008-05-12T17:48:00.000-03:00

Off-road "Vale da Lua" in Teresopolis

2008-05-01T17:07:00.001-03:00

Long week-end due to public holiday on Thursday. Spent the day messing about with4x4's at Vale da Lua (Moon Valley) near Teresopolis and then ended up in a Russian restaurant called Donna Irene. Loads off straight moon-shined vodka!.... Watch the videos of the trail below. We managed to do some 5km in total and it took us pretty much the whole day (hence the need for vodka). Great fun:

Part I

Part II

Paulo Cesar Angel taxi-driver

2008-04-21T19:53:00.004-03:00

Ever thought that nobody trusts strangers in a violant city like Rio? Well think again. When we got to Priscilla and Anri`s wedding I found out that I had left my cash on the kitchen table. The bride was more or less just walking in, gives me a note and just goes: "Here, don't worry, my name is Paulo Cesar and this is my number - call me tomorrow and you can pay me them." I aksed him if he wanted my phone as deposit or not at least take my name and phone number. Paulo Cesar just says "no, you have my number so that's ok. You need to hurry the brid is just walking in". The next day, I wrote him a short thank you note, put the meter-fare and a decent tip in an envelope with our door man and gave him a call to pick the money up. When we came back to the flat there was a thank you note from him and the CD that he was listening to in his car radio when we caught a ride with him as a present. Try that in Germany!

Wedding training take two : Priscilla and Anri

2008-04-20T21:34:00.006-03:00

Sunday night we were invited to Priscilla and Anri's wedding. They had hired a boat which left from Marina da Gloria and went around the Bahia de Guanabara, along the bridge between Niteroi and Rio, Ilha Fiscal, Pao de Acucar (and back again). To get everyone loosened up, they plaid a pre-produced chav take-on pop-video in Bollywood style called "Eu te amo" (I love you). I have been told that the song is ranked as "brega". Hilarious - take a look. If you happen to not have lived in Aberdeen at any point of your life and are unfamiliar with the word chav, you can find an explanation by clicking here. If you don't know what "brega" means, then well, join the club. If you do, then please write me.

Needless to say, there was plenty of drink and dance, and following good Brazilian tradition, some themed fancy dress as well (towards the end of the night)

Watch a clip from the chav video below:

Camping in Visconde de Maua

2008-04-19T19:24:00.002-03:00

Saturday, we packed our bags to head for Visconde de Maua for a "roof tent" owners gathering. Visconde de Maua lies at the border of Rio de Janeiro state and Minas Gerais state. To get there you have to climb a 30km dirt road that leads you over a mountain with loads of erosions and nasty potholes. It feels like proper 4x4 offroad stuff until you are overtaken by "Fuscas" (to Europeans: the VW beetle) which makes you feel real stupid. Once you are there, Visconde de Maua has loads of waterfalls, mountain biking, hiking, off-roading, etc... As we had to get back to Rio the next day for a wedding, we only stayed the night (in our roof tent) and did none of the outdoor activities. The roof tent worked and we met loads of new people that go for expedition type trips all across Brazil.

Wedding Training

2008-04-12T21:49:00.002-03:00

Friday was Paula`s wedding in Praia de Botafogo. Very good liveband, very good Caipirinhas. So good even, that I nearly forgot is was my birthday come midnight. Thamine reminded with a spiked (labelled) champagne glas. We stayed until I don`t know when and we slept right through Saturday until I don`t know either.

In the evening I hijacked Kelda`s Birthday Party (actually her Birthday is on the 13th) so that I did not have to do my own... Next year, I will have a big party as compensation.

Good bye Andre and Carol

2008-04-05T22:06:00.001-03:00

Two good friends are headed off to Dallas, Carol and Andre. We spent the afternoon (after getting lost on the rally) bidding them farewell at their good bye BBQ and drink-up.

Andre thinks he is recruited into the US head office as as a knowledgable engineer. We all think he lives in denial and that they are just kooking for cheap labour for their company car wash.

Please write to me if you know hot to write "knowledgeable/ible/eble" I am not sure so I reckon I have a 30% chance to have picked the write spelling.

I am lost

2008-04-05T13:03:00.000-03:00

Navigator preparing for the 2nd stage of the Copa Carioca Off Road which was held at a military test facility...

check out this cool site

2008-04-02T20:31:00.002-03:00

Check out this cool site: www.4x4guinchos.com.br it has everything from winches to winches and also loads of winches. Incidently, it is also the sales front for the company that Thamine and I own. :-)

Splish Splash in Miguel Pereira

2008-03-30T20:00:00.002-03:00

Yes, dear Blog readers, as you have noticed we have dedicated our lives to the 4x4 world so here is another offroad story. We spent the week-end in a place called Miguel Pereira at the 4th annual jeep festival of the "Serra azul" (Blue Countryside). Miguel Pereira is about an hour and a half drive from Rio, Brazil`s largest tomato producer and very famous for its annual Tomato festival which happens each year in July (source: Thamine). So famous indeed, that I had actually never heard of it before. It also has the wolrd`s third best climate according to a sign at the entry of the town. We could not however find out which places are no 1 and no 2. Please mail us if you know. What we do know for a fact, however, is that Miguel Pereira has the best hot dogs south of the Equator, as these were are prime source of protein for the saturday night and very! tasty (yes we live in sin and eat fast food) The festival consisted of a RAID rallye, were we made a respectable 5th place in our category and the second day had an obstacle course competetion, were the willing participants were able to wreck their cars or take a bath. One person wrecked their car (flipped on its roof) and about ten took a bath. We were not willing, so we were good to take plenty of fotos.

Highlight was a guy called Renato. He was a participant like everybody else until they gave him a couple of beers and a mike. You can hear his commentary on the video - we think a new star is born and that he should change his job.

<- This is my car. Gravity tried to win a fight against it and we nearly had to give in.

Got Her!

2008-03-08T09:00:00.003-03:00

Meet Thamine - on a drunken night on Morro de Sao Paulo, she did not see the knee fall coming and promptly got tricked into accepting a proposal. T minus 10 months to the official wedding. I also had my phone nicked one day before, which is as good a reason as the first loss of a mobile phone to restart the blog...

Arraial do Cabo

2008-02-24T19:12:00.002-03:00

Annual offroad tour along the beach to Arrail do Cabo. this time not only André and his Landrover, but also Aloysio with a 2nd L200 and a couple of friends. Much to my dismay I was the only one that got stuck in the sand and had to be pulled out, which made my Monday morning in the office really difficult. As if there were no other things to talk about....

Things you don`t want to see boarding a plane

2008-02-10T09:56:00.004-02:00

This man at the controls, knowing that he has spent a whole week-end at the swim-up bar....

Long Weekend in Morro de Sao Paulo

2008-02-08T09:49:00.000-02:00

After Carneval, we went up to Salvador and from there to an island called Morro de Sao Paulo. We stayed at Pousada Villa das Corais which is very recommendable. The photo shows Thamine in her natural habitat: the swim-up bar.

German idiot of the month

2008-02-02T10:07:00.001-02:00

Last minute purchase of helmets for the rally. They only had pink, so we had to improvise some post purchase colour edits. Thamine chose pink and I chose to make a statement:

Transparana Rally

2008-01-26T09:18:00.008-02:00

Since the Dakar was cancelled this year, we had to find another rally to show off our incredible off-road skills: The Transparana Rally across Parana state in Brazil.

The trusty pimped L200 made it all the way in 5 days!

This photo shows the trophy for the first place..........

...........which we did not win. We actually came last. I personally think it was because of the Navigator. Thamine thinks it was because of the Pilot :-)

Still no rain....

2007-03-15T12:41:00.000-03:00

am having chicken-curry nightmares

Bala Perdida?

2007-02-21T18:03:00.000-02:00

Frequent and usually lethal in Rio, this bony version of the "bala perdida" (lost bullet) was carelessly deposited on my glass roof by my neighbours from the opposite building. Judging by height, wind speed and distance I reckon that the culprit was somewhere on the 10th or 11th floor, probably feasting on some chicken legs. Am happy to report that there were no casualties in this Carnaval attack. I am now desperately waiting for rain to wash the chicken remainder off of my roof so that I can give the poor animal a more adequate burial...

Sambodromo

2007-02-19T18:17:00.000-02:00

If you feel really fancy in Rio during Carnaval, you can blow 1.5 Brazilian minimum monthly salaries on an entry ticket for the Sambodromo. Sambodromo is a stadium in the shape of a 500 meter long street, built especially as a venue for the Carnaval parades. Because of the hefty price, Sambodromo contains more "gringos" (foreigners) per square foot than at empire state building. The show is amazing and a definite "must do" if you are visiting Rio during Carnaval (or, like myself, can't find a better excuse.

Hot hot hot

2007-02-19T13:45:00.000-02:00

Today was street Carnaval for us. We paraded in two "blocos". A bloco is when you have a band of drum players ("Batteria") walking and playing somewhere on the street, followed by a truck with a PA system and a singer shouting samba lyrics. Mix these two elements with heat and Cariocas and you get a first class traffic chaos. I wore my favourite hair patch and nearly died from heat stroke.

Street Carnaval

2007-02-18T20:30:00.000-02:00

During a street parade in Jardim Botanico is not the time or place to be in a bus. The driver was obducted and force fed with cold beer, his vehicle used as additional dance floor and released only two hours later...

walking in Memphis, errh, Houston

2007-01-31T22:18:00.000-02:00

Off to Houston for a week to do some slave work for my employer. This is my first time to the Oil Capital of Texas and here are some of my observations about the traffic:

All Texans drive cars the size of 2 bed apartments
Rush hour seems to start at 4:59 am and end at 4:58 am the next day
Houston is the only place south of the artic circle that has ZERO taxis
Fact no. 3 led me to discover that Avis,Hertz, Budget, National do not accept Brazilian drivers licenses (Bolloks!)
If you walk on Houston streets, friendly Police officers stop to ask you if they can help you, because you must be obviously mad or something

So far I have walked three days from the hotel to the office and back (15 mins each way). I have seen one other pedestrian. Don't think he counts though, because it was my boss from Brazil, also on business trip here... Will keep on looking and counting!

Mr Lam's magic trick with 180 Reais

2007-01-28T22:09:00.000-02:00

Found this fantastic Chinese restaurant at Lagoa called Mr. Lam. The food is great and the ambience magical. So magical, it even made R$180 per person disappear. Well worth it though. Thanks go to Bea, Thamine, Rob, Iris and Susanne for being part of the 'tricky' situation.

Ensaia de Samba

2007-01-14T11:55:00.000-02:00

Yesterday we started our own Carneval season by going to one of the Training sessions of one of the big carneval schools. Well, actually, the school is not so big, becasue it is one of the new ones. The school is called Rocinha which is also South America's largest favela - and the school's location, what a coincidence, huh? We were all mighty impressed by the Dance moves that the samba girls know.

Sister in town and DJ Trieste

2007-01-06T23:52:00.000-02:00

Went to a show at Ipanema beach with DJ Trieste. Had loads of Caipirinhas and saw the whitest person on earth: MY SISTER (who just arrived from Germany). Unfortunately I was censored from putting up a picture of her so instead here's a show-off picture of the sunset at the concert...

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2007-01-01T15:35:00.000-02:00

We spent a rather rainy new year in a party in Rio at Palaphitas, which is a Goa style converted kiosk at the east shore of Lagoa. As I had never seen the big Rio fireworks before I talked Thamine into leaving the perfect venue and venturing out with a bunch of Gringos (Leigh-Anna, Scott, Hobson and me) into the unknown - we set off to Copacobana just before midnight. Black Eyed Peas were playing in Ipanema, attracting the bigger crowd (1.5 mln) which meant that Copacobana was kind of deserted with with a mere 1 Million people (!). Sounds big, but according to the newspaper that is 40% less than last year. Bloody Hell! We had some awesome sights from a ninth floor beach front flat as we gate crushed some guy's new year party 4 minutes to midnight. Thanks again to Scott for finding the place. We saw a brilliant first 15.4 seconds of fireworks and then got smoked in as we were standing upwind. Unfortunately I was too drunk to hold the camera straight during the fireworks - so you'll have to make do with a picture looking down onto the crowd after the smoke had cleared. Do not adjust your computer for lack of colours: on new years eve, everybody dresses in white down here...

After successfully fleeing the gate crashed party (quote from the host - "stay, we have alcohol in the back!") we walked back to Palaphitas were Thamine had to endure terrible John Travolta dance moves by myself. She was not the only one suffering but unfortunately I do not have photgraphic evidedence of the equally terrifying moves of Scott. Leigh-Anna, I cannot believed you married that guy!

Darren-Saturday-Night-Fever-Kilbride (no - I did not have to sedate her!)

Scott-Da-Booty-Shaker-Commons seen here in his natural habitat "Dancefloor" with Leigh-Anna

my favourite sales pitch

2006-12-20T22:39:00.000-02:00

says it all - found in Tamarindo in Costa Rica

collective present at work

2006-12-20T22:37:00.000-02:00

our floor at work was round up into a meeting room for a surprise meeting. the surprise was that one colleague had come down with Tuberculosis and now we all have to get exams to see if we have it as well. Merry Xmas!

where's my bike?

2006-12-10T11:59:00.000-02:00

ok, sorry for not updating... being pretty lazy these days. Keijo, Luisa, Thamine and I went to Leme Beach for the Brasilian Moto Cross Freestyle championship yesterday. I don't know why, these guys actualy have some pretty nice bikes, but all they are intersted in is to jump up and throw them away. Very peculiar! If anybody wants to do the same thing, Please: don't throw it away. Give it to me!!

Oktoberfest in Blumenau

2006-10-21T21:25:00.000-03:00

We flew down for a week-end to Blumenau in the state of Santa Catarina for the Brazilian version of the Oktoberfest. Important facts about Blumenau: (i) In Blumenau, everybody speaks German (ii) Blumenau is the only place in the world where you are considered "cool" if you are German. (iii) because of fact no. two, Blumenau concentrates the entire German population located in South America during Octoberfest.

Germans from Bueonos Aires, Sao Paolo, Rio, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Muenchen meeting up before the Bierfest...

Bierfeststimmung!

No Oktoberfest without silly hats!

Bye bye Fidel

2006-10-05T19:59:00.000-03:00

Sad day: We are back in San José and had to give Fidel back.
Sad day2: two days ago we attempted the "two oceans in one day" race. We started in Manuel Antonio on the Pacific with a swim in the morning, had breakfast and then raced across the country in Fidel to the Caribean side. We arrived in Cahuita on the Carribean side at 7 p.m. and did not make it into the ocean because it was too dark. Mission failed! The After Action Review showed that Fidel was doing alright but Mike messed it up by driving like a retired grandmother in a flat tired wheelchair.

We love Fidel

2006-10-01T00:05:00.000-03:00

One day late, my friends finally showed up and we got started on our tour. Originally only four we added a new member to our travel group: "Fidel". Fidel is a white, beaten up Suzuki Grand Vitara and he has 4 wheel drive. So far Fidel has brought us to the following places:
Volcano of Arenal; Pacific Coast at Tamarindo; Cloud Forest of Monteverde. Tomorrow we are heading off to the Pacific coast for some more "falling-off-boarding" (surfing), then on to the Carribean coast and after that for some white water rafting. Hang in there little fella! only half the country to go now.... (Fotos to follow when we make it to a proper computer)

Missing in Action in San Jose

2006-09-23T01:34:00.000-03:00

Annual Holiday is off to a picture book start: Waited for Jo, Mike, Ruben at the airport in San Jose but they did not show up. Guys, if you read this I checked into the Gran Hotel Costa Rica (It´s actually not that "Gran"). I thought we were going on holiday together??? Oh well never mind. Leave me a message at reception or at kilbride@gmx.de when you know when you are getting here. I will be touring the city a bit in the meantime. P.S. The minibar prices are a rip-off!

Rio Oil & Gas

2006-09-11T12:44:00.000-03:00

This week there will be South America's biggest Oil&Gas trade fair which happens every two years in Rio. Excerpt from my entry ticket:
"Não será permitido uso de bermudas e chinelos -> Flip Flops and Bermudas not permitted"

2h:01m:53s

2006-09-04T22:28:00.000-03:00

Who would have thought that time can be so relative? Did the half marathon yesterday (with some 15000 people) and finished. It was pretty hot with a "mild" 25 degrees in the shadow. The above is my time. Here are some statistics to put this glorious achievement into perspective:
* in the 70-74 years age group, 5 people were faster than me
* in the 75 -79 years age group, 6 people were faster than me
* the oldest participant was 94 years old and he finished in 2:44:35, his name is Tuplet Seabra de Vasconcellos. Tuplet is my all time hero now!!!

I ran together with Ian, tried to overtake him and then got caught back 1km before the finish. Me: "I was hoping not to see you" - Ian: "That's funny, I was hoping for the opposite". Here are some fotos of the suffering and also, most importantly, my favourite sign of the day.

From left to right: (1) Start at Sao Conrado (2) Praia de Ipanema (3) Praia de Botafogo (4) 20 km sign in Flamengo (5) Ian and Darren (wearing silly Petrobras cap) after the run

Let me wash your car tonight

2006-08-27T23:34:00.000-03:00

Swapped cars for a day with Thamine, who has the most neglected car in the whole of Rio de Janeiro. Feeling sorry for the poor little Fiat Palio, I was inspired to mush up the words to the melody of Eric Clapton's "you look beautiful tonight" to "let me wash your car tonight". It is quite easy to play: G D C; G D C; C G D Em; C D G; I have written three verses which are available upon request. All sales proceeds will be used to buy car shampoo.

McDonalds and Classic Music

2006-08-26T23:16:00.000-03:00

Here's a contrast: MCDonalds have a charity day once per year where for every BicMac you buy, they chip in the equivalent amount of money for a charitable cause. They call it McDia Feliz. (Mc Happy Day) We already had breakfast a couple of hours before so I performed under par with just one. Will stop eating five days beforehand next year, all for the good cause of course.

Now the contrast: In the evening I joined some friends for a classic concert for free and at the beach (!!!) of Copacobana. There will be a couple of shows on the beach this year during "projeto aquarius". They were playing Mahler's 8th Symphony which is apparently sung half in German. I did not understand a word, I don't think it had anything to do with the earlier BicMac though...

Ferrari in town

2006-08-25T23:13:00.000-03:00

Ferrari have a new car which they kindly drove past the office. Guys and cars, same as everywhere. Was in a conference call, so I could not get a photo next to the car, but I managed to sneak over to the window and take a shot....

Churrasco - brazilian or german time?

2006-08-23T00:51:00.000-03:00

Invited for 7/8 p.m. on a Wednesday. Special recoginition goes out to Arturo II for pitching up at 11.37 pm. He is the most Brazilian Gringo I know. Witnesses of this memorable performance were: Rob, Iris, Thamine, Arturo I, Luisa, Keijo, Stefano, Bea, Giovanna, Danielle, Elisa, Bebel.

New favourite Sunday breakfast place

2006-08-20T23:05:00.000-03:00

Parque Lage. North of Lagoa is a park from which you can catch a trail up to Corcovado (Christ Statue). If you are more into chilling out mode - There is a townhouse in the centre where you get mediocre (only downside) breakfast with a great ambience.

It's a catholic country after all

2006-08-17T23:14:00.000-03:00

A friend of mine tried to donate blood today. She had to fill in a questionnaire beforehand which asked "have you had sex outside of a relationship during the last 12 months" Being a proud single (and a pretty gtirl) she crossed "yes" and was denied to give blood. So there, my dear Aberdonian friends, you are all dirty people and cannot give blood in the holy coconut country :-(

Yellow Cab and Broadway

2006-08-13T22:23:00.000-03:00

Dream of every Tourist. Get a yellow cab, the Broadway sign and yourself all on the same picture... (Shame about the stupid arm movement)

Lobster alarm in New York

2006-08-12T22:48:00.000-03:00

Had to work in New Orleans this week and instead of flying back home direct I am spending the weekend at my friend Martina's place in New York. It's my first time here and the city is amazing. Yesterday I spent the whole day walking around all the tourist sites. In the eveneing we met up with Martina's friends (Finona, Jordan, Matt, John) and we headed to a fancy restaurant in little italy. We had too many wines and ended up going to a gay piano bar called duplex afterwards where we drunkily sang along to some very dodgy music from the seventies http://www.theduplex.com/index.shtml - fun night and very different from the usual Carioca week-ends.

Being 30 degrees celcius in the city, today we opted to some rather unusual site seeing in NYC. We took the train and headed off to long island for the beach. I thought my body was roughed up by the Rio sun... bollocks! Am gonna buy a t-shirt tomorrow that reads "I went to NYC and got a sunburn at the beach" - ouch!

Rollerblading on Sunday

2006-08-07T13:12:00.000-03:00

Hey, just to prove that i also know some guys down here. On sunday we went Rollerblading with Bea, Luisa and.... drum-roll.... Keijo, Arturo, Stefano. So there! Guys!

dangerous caipi on Saturday

2006-08-07T12:58:00.000-03:00

Before coming to Brazil I thought that a caipi is a caipi... wrong. its a bit like ordering at McDonalds. You can choose cachaça/vodka/sake + with sugar/without + lemon/lime/kiwi/pineapple/strawberries/.... or in this case a white glibbery fruit with black bits in the middle. yuk! Luckily I also fogot the name of the fruit so i will not be tempted to repeat my error. Witness to the fatal order process were Thamine, Rob, Iris, Luisa. After the dangerous Caipi we went to a show of a Brazilain Singer called Marisa Monte. No caipis involved this time!

www.meiamaratonadoriodejaneiro.com.br

2006-08-03T19:59:00.000-03:00

just signed up for the half marathon in Rio on September 3rd. A half Marathon is 21.097 km. That is pretty much only 3 times the longest I ever ran. Anybody have steroids for sale? If you want o join too, it's only R$ 35 and you get a t-shirt as well...

got license - lost license

2006-08-02T22:23:00.000-03:00

I received my 4th speeding ticket yesterday. You get five points for every fine, which means I now have 20. Whith 20 points you loose your license.... now i am just waiting for someone to take it away from me. Shortest driving career in history?

where is my towel?

2006-07-22T19:08:00.000-03:00

Photos shot at 10:00 at the morning (They actually consider this time the empty time) and the same view at normal "crowdedness" at 13:00. Favorite Carioca game is to go into the water, get completely disoriented and then start looking for your towel.... real challenge!

Went to a bar on Praca nossa senhora de paz afterwards and ate the worlds biggest portion of Picanha for two. We were actually three people (Dani, Cris, me) and we still had to leave some.

Heatwave - pah!

2006-07-19T21:58:00.000-03:00

Keep getting nagged by Europeans about living on the cold side of the planet because it is so hot over there. Here's our five day WINTER forecast in Rio: Thu: 21/ Fri: 26 / Sat:29 / Sun: 29 /Mon: 29. So pah! Speak to you guys again in your winter!

60% of 80%

2006-07-13T20:17:00.000-03:00

Thanks to DETRAN (THE traffic guys = "do not argue") and a change in legislation I am allowed to do my driver's license for the 4th time in my life (one UK, two Germany, now Brazil) The questions are getting odder and odder everytime. Now if you thought that Brazil is a country where everything "goes" on the road, which I though after driving here half a year, then you are mistaken. Here are my favourite excerpts from the penalties section of the highway code:

driving in reverse (except for small manoevers) => R$ 120
using the horn between 22h and 6h => R$ 50
driving with arm outside of window => R$ 80

I only understand about 80% of the questions which should lead to some comic replies tomorrow... luckily it is only multiple choice and I need 60% correct (or was it the other way around?)

I'm Lovin it...

2006-07-11T00:18:00.000-03:00

My good friends Keijo and Luisa met with me in Barra from where we had planned to head off to Sona Zul to eat. Instead we ended up being victims of the lure of the golden Arches.... 35 minutes later and I had eaten 88% of my recommended daily amount (RDA) of saturated fats - "Big Tasty - 760 kcal", Luisa had eaten 31% - "Big Mac - 490 kcal" and Keijo had only managed to trail the field with a disappointing 12% - "Cryspy Chicken - 400 kcal". Better luck next time, Keijo!

Beach, Holland Beach

2006-07-09T19:11:00.000-03:00

Ipanema, Posto 10. Yasmine, Linda and Michiel at the beach (without trying to build a dyke)...

Hup, Holland Hup

2006-07-09T18:54:00.000-03:00

Friends from Aberdeen in Rio. Michiel, Yasmine and Linda came over to spend some week-ends here and chill out. In between weekends they went traveling around the country and probably know more about Brazil after three weeks than I do after eight months. Michiel also already speaks almost better Portuguese than I do and can order beers and pasteis de queijo perfectly. Bastard! Luckily, Holland got kicked out of the world cup before Germany so there was no clash of cultures during the matches... only in theory of course, I still got a phone call from the guys from Parati after Germany got kicked out to "rub it in a bit" quote/unquote!! They earned big time credit points afterwards again by wearing German colours during the game for the third place. Thank you guys! Dutchies before the Holland-Potugal game...

and we are out

2006-07-04T21:51:00.000-03:00

saw the last 20 mins (flight was running late) of the Germany vs. Italy game in Esch Cafe in my brand new Ballack shirt. Was the only guy wearing team colours. I was also the only person in the place cheering for Germany as well.... Looks like it did not work.

Football insights

2006-06-29T14:38:00.000-03:00

Have seen four games of the "seleçao brasileira". Here some observations:
-if a games starts at 16:00, you stop working at 14:00 and don't go back (the whole country!!!)
-dont even think about taking a car through town one hour before a game -> you will be stuck bumper to bumper and are most likely to miss the game.
-tried to buy beer at 15.49 but the supermarket guard would not let me in (closed for the game)
-on the day of the game you have to wear a yellow t-shirt at work otherwise you stick out.
-girls here love football. Watching with girls makes you see football from a different angle. I now know that Ballack (Germany), Beckham (England), Owen (England), Juninho Pernambucana (Brazil) are all "fofo" which means cute. Not sure I really wanted to know that, though!
-Japan is an "ok" team because they have a Brazilian coach
-Portugal is an "ok" team because they have a Brazilian coach
-Argentina is definitely "not ok"

Initialising

2006-06-20T00:15:00.000-03:00

Right. Now I have one as well. I have been promising friends news from my new life in Rio. Still not started to send that "what is happening" email. But where to start? Here's an idea: 7 months, 19 days and 10 hours after landing I have finally entered the famed Rio crime statistics. Had my mobile stolen... At Ipanema beach... Buggar. As good a reason as any - here goes.