cinema

We will watch Wall-E tonight. High expectations!

We saw Journey to the centre of the world 3D yesterday. Not great, but lots of fun. 3D has improved a lot and it actually feels so real. If you have nothing better to do, you should see it.

The new Batman is in the list.

Yey!

Don't you love technology?? Now I can post on my blog while waiting for Cipri to join me at the cinema, or when I'm on the train, or when I'm bored in a meeting. Oh well, don't think it will be possible in this case, you know, eye contact in meetings is very important.

Let me tell you that Leicester Square is packed at this very moment.

Let me also tell you that I've lost the battle against the voice and ended up at Burger King, eating a lousy meal (really, tasteless and unhealthy) instead of running or going to the gym.

Another thing to tell you is that thanks to my friend Lelei I'm now into running. Ok, ok. I've just been running once (yesterday to be precise) but I am already totally addicted. I so want to run again and again. During the running I feel really tired and all in pain. Must be the same feeling when you have a horrible job but a wondeful salary... I don't know because I don't have a wonderful salary.

What else I have to tell... Oh, I have pictures to post, but they are all at home.

1, 2, 3 testing

I wonder if this will work. If it does, this blog will never gather spiderwebs again. hwahwahwa

I'm going to the cinema tonight. :)

TGI Friday AGAIN!

Deja vu?

Nah, just me taking a week to post here.

What's new?

Mum's flying back to Brazil today. I'm off at 2pm to pick her up and take her to Heathrow. As you know - or not - Heathrow, like almost all airports in London (we have five), is far, or as we say: where Judas losts his boots/where the wind turns the corner.

We went to a short trip to Paris - going Sunday morning coming back Tuesday evening. Last time I was in Paris was 10 years ago: mid-May 1998 to be more precise. And of course, with my selective memory, I didn't remember that Paris was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO lovely. The city is just gorgeous and reminds a lot of Rio. Rio's architecture was influenced by the French architecture, so the buildings are very similar. And for some reason, we are also very relax. I always thought it was because we had the beach in Rio, and the most wonderful views (for a 6-million-inhabitants city at least), but maybe it could just be the nature of the people. But then again, I would say that Brazilians - and cariocas in particular (people from Rio) - are closer to the Portuguese and the Spanish than to the French.

See this view? It's about 15 minutes walking from my flat. In fact, if you look carefully at the left hand side of it, almost out of the picture, you will see a tall building. I used to work there and walk everyday from and to the house.

Ok, this is not a post about Rio and how gorgeous the city is. It's about what has happened during these last days.

Yesterday we had dinner at a Portuguese restaurant called A Torre. Yummy food. I'll try to cook the bacalhau (cod fish) we had - seems quite easy.

I've been cleaning the house a lot with my mum here. We are already in the moving-mode so I'm trying to pack as much as I can (yes, I am very anxious), at least what we are not using. In a month from now we will handle your notice and in two months we will handle the keys. Another 'year' has gone by!

Tomorrow I'm working. Have to wake up at 5am. The event goes until 5.30pm, but only God knows what time I'm leaving the place. The good news is that I'll have an extra day off.

And Sunday we have an engagement party to attend. Should be fun and I'll try to fit in my nice green dress. :-)

TGI Friday!

YAY!
I'm leaving the office at 2pm, going to pick my mum up at home and enjoy the outdoors. No plans for today, but on the weekend, if the weather permits, I'll try to take her to the Hampton Court Palace, the home of Henry VIII. I've seen the pictures and it is gorgeous. Besides, it is very close to London. :-)

Geez

My mum is studying Romanian. God knows what for, but at least she can meet Cipri's parents and talk to them while Cipri & I and Ancu & Peter can do something else. Well, this is me thinking when we all have a family reunion.
I wonder when Cipri's mama and tata will come to London to meet us. We were hoping this year but something happened that they gave up. Maybe because I don't speak Romanian. Opsie, I think I need to start working on this. At least I know the very basics, like Salut/Servus, Ce face? Cipri? Un moment, va rog. Ciiiiiiiiiiipri, tata on the phone. Oh, this is in English.
Oh, and I also know how to sing this song:
La multi ani cu sanatate
Sa va dea Domnul tot ce doriti
Zile senine si fericire
La multi ani sa traiti!

Very useful, just found out that the below is part of the same song - I thought they were different stuff. Now I'll have to practice the whole deal.
Multi ani traiasca!
Multi ani traiasca!
La multi ani!
Cine sa traiasca?
Cine sa traiasca?
La multi ani!

...

...
...
...
...
a moment of silence, please.
...
...
...
...
no, nobody has died.
...
...
...
...
just need some quiet moment. shhhhh

New attack

I'm alive! Super Cipri saved my life and I survived the attack without a single scratch. But I'm horrified with these monsters getting bigger and bigger by the day.

More not so old stuff

The photo doesn't make justice to the taste. This is a typical Brazilian dish called Boboh, made of cassava and shrimps, so tasty that makes you cry. Not something you can eat everyday if you are on a diet. Plus, shrimps are very expensive lately, especially the fresh ones.

The thingy around the plate was a "British" touch - Yorkshire pudding, simple but good. Yummy, yummy.

This was in my mobile for a while - we had this dish - without the puddings - on my birthday. :-)





Let me introduce you to our little old car. It is little - a compact car, to help the driver-to-be here to park anywhere. And it is old - so if I scratch it I don't feel sorry about it (unless I scratch it in some else's car and have to pay to fix it). It cost less than half of my original budget, but with insurance and road tax it is not that cheap.

My plan is to take the practical test (I pass the theory test already) in September and hopefully pass and get the UK driving license. I have the Brazilian one but it is just a pain to transfer it to Portugal and have the EU license, so let's try the easiest way. Easy is a nice way to put it, but it is not that easy to drive in this country, especially when you are trying to get the license. Full of little details and things that NOBODY does in the daily driving... Oh, well. Good luck for me.

Everybody is alive and well!

Mum arrived safe and sound last Tuesday after a 12 hour flight. We managed to carry her to IKEA to buy some stuff, before all of us - starting with me - dropped dead in bed around 9pm. I didn't take any day off - apart from Tuesday - but I'm off on holidays from Monday to Wednesday during the next two weeks. Hopefully the sun will come back (oh, yes, it is raining and cold) to greet us.

Cinema

Today we saw Hancock, Will Smith's new film. He was on Johnathan Ross' show one of these days and he is such a sympathetic character. But just between you and me, his latest films were a bit bleargh. I am Legend starts really well, but from the middle to end you just wish you were blind and deaf. Hancock is alright, but of course I was expecting something more... Or maybe something less. Less dramatic.

And when you think it's over...

... the Predator is right behind you.
Weekend... no big plans, but I need to practice some driving. I'm going to pick my mum up at the airport (Heathrow, as far as Brazil) alone and I am already panicking. Don't want to sound like a broken record, but I am scared to death of driving.

Why I don't like sea food...

Have you seen The Predator (the film with Arnie)? The monster looks like one of those sea animals... (how do you say tatuí in English?). Yuk.

Old pictures, new post

Ok, so I finally remembered and took the time to post some images that I have here at the office. I haven't been so inspired lately, but thanks to technology we now have cameras on our mobiles and can take photos from "those" moments.
A while ago I was waiting for my train to Charing X at Platform 6 in London Bridge when I spotted this bag. PanAm. Why is this thing coming back? I guess there is a TV show or a play named PanAm. I remember my uncle having a bag - the original, he got from the air company. He used to wear it even after the company closed down. I think I've seen a couple of other people with these bags after first seeing this lady. People like the past or what?

Not sure if I mentioned this before, but we are moving in the end of the year. Mid-September to be more precise. I could list a number of reasons, but I will stick to two:
* See the picture on the left? This is our garden. This rubbish is the neighbour's. The garden is part of OUR house, but he used it to dump his rubbish. He is refurbishing the house and because he changed the roof and the roof is part of the sharehold (meaning that our landlord has responsibilities as well), he said it was his right to dump this rubbish there. It was like this for months! Now it is partially cleared, but we still have old tiles, bricks and old doors and windows and the neighbour said he won't take them out! This country is so unbelievable: we called the council and guess what? The lady said that the guy has permission to do the refurbishment, doesn't have a time to finish and the issue with the garden needs to be solved with the landlord (just between us, life in Earth will vanish before this guy does anything). Anyway, the second main reason is that this house is extremely cold in winter even with the heating on. We don't want to go through it again!

Another picture taken with my mobile camera. This was in Bristol and it was taken in May, I guess. This is Bristol Bridge (I'm making the name up) and part of the Gorge. Bristol is alright, I guess, nothing really special, we won't probably go again, but at least is very close to Bath, which is so sweet and cute!







Tell, how disgusting is this? I hate snails. Not that I was attacked by one, but honestly, they are so eewww. And they live a trail of yuk when then crawl... We have loads at our actual place because of all the rain and humidity. We have the ones without the shell as well - equally disgusting.




That one was taken in our first visit to Roberto's house and to Holland Park (the posh West London). Mr. Peacock was trying to seduce Miss Peacock, but with the crowd around I think she was shy and he didn't have any success. I guess he was so desperate that even a pigeon he was trying to seduce.
What's the point in being so pretty if you can find a date?

Errrr...

I can't remember what I was about to say...

I've been working a lot, too much to do and I am quite workaholic. Today I left the office after 8pm, Tuesday almost 9pm, Friday I was supposed to leave at 2pm but we have an event that goes until 4pm.

As we say in Brazil, poor people's hapiness doesn't last long. Weather forecast for the weekend: rainy and cold. Boo hoo. I remember the winter of 2005 before leaving Rio to move to London - I was swimming to help healing my broken leg. Temperatures around 30-35°C. In winter, you know what I mean? Let's not talk about summer.

Haven't been to the gym at all in the last couple of weeks. I miss it - not the gym, but exercising. I feel very tired and "sad". :-( Need to get back in business soon.

Video 1 of 4

Ok, this might be old, but it's great fun! Zach & Meytal showed me on my birthday and I meant to post them here since then, but, well, you know, I barely had the chance to read my friend's blog, or even reply my friend's emails...

Video 2 of 4

Video 3 of 4

Video 4 of 4

Final countdown

Mum is arriving next week for 20 days. Fingers crossed that the weather will be as great as today. The temperature is around 26ºC (which the British think it is quite hot).