A belated blog

I thought i would have written a lot sooner and  more often than I am going to have this time round in Rio. It is amazing how when not travelling and working one is actually busy working and as I spend a lot of my work on the computer - opening it up to fire out a blog doesn't seem as appealing as when travelling!

Since I last wrote, I have had a birthday, the laser sailors have gone, the windsurfer ladies (and Dom) have arrived, it has rained at least twice,  I have been sick for a day and it is currently cooler here than in the UK.

Winter in Rio is quite different to March, when 35-40 Celsius was almost unbearable and thunderstorms were awesome and a welcome relief. I should have packed my thermals especially for the 30 KT of wind we had on the water the day before yesterday.

We are based out of the Late Clube do Rio de Janeiro or something like that. Which is more of a social club than sailing club. It use to be a club for planes that land on water (the real name of those escapes me right now!) and so there are some massive hangers and in one there are racks of Lasers in others more boats neatly parked away undercover. Though none of them seem to move....but it is winter!
There is a swimming pool, sauna, jacuzzi, two restaurants (one where the chocolate milkshake is basically half melted ice creama, BBQ area, fuel pontoon chandelry, shop and a creche all within the very large confines of this club.
Current rumours are membership is near on impossible people apparently trade membership you can't just join and they trade them at up 70,000 reals, pounds, dollars...no one seemed to know but a lot.

Apart from at the weekend it is relatively quiet and we are the only ones there sitting staring up at Sugar Loaf waiting for the wind.

I have got myself into a little routine out here living in my little one bed apartment, walking down to the club and getting, I think the turn of phrase is 'clothes lined' along the way. Warning do not overtake people on the pavement that look like they are waiting for a bus because they will fire their arm out at 90 degrees, wind you in the process and then proceed to shout at you.
I then either going out on the water or film from Sugar Loaf, come home cook dinner and make friends with the local residence at the in house gym. By friends I mean we are now on nodding terms and pretend communication about what TV channel we should watch!!!

Outside of this I am now on the 7th day of the local laundrette that I found holding my clothing to ransom - I have had to buy new clothes and from C&A no less. Yes that department store that died a death many a year ago back home. Seems to be fairly well known here. So having checked the times the shop closed 2200 it was 2100 in I went only to discover 10 mins later the shutters were down and I was trapped in

Tonight having recovered from being poorly I thought I would treat myself to dinner out at one of those weigh your plate buffets- brilliant- the food as you can imagine is generally not good for you but quite frankly I didn't care  piled my plate high and watched in weigh in!

Having made myself suitably rotund and it now getting dark, I decided a cab home was advisable. The first time I have caught a taxi for a good week or two and minus my map and a taxi driver who was willing to read it, reminded me why I didn't really want to take a taxi.
1. there is a ridiculous amount of traffic and you can walk quicker (which I pretty much ended up doing)
2. Despite practising how to say 305 Sorocaba Road the taxi driver proceeds to bang on about how long that road is and where on it is it (no map can't answer this)
3. Taxi drivers have a death wish or think they drive bumper cars
4. This taxi driver as actually watching the telly - we missed the lights change twice!
5. The get angry if you don't have the exact change

The list goes on, some to be fair have taken the time to teach me to speak a teeny tiny bit of Portuguese

Anyway tomorrow I am going to attempt yet again to get my washing