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I couldnt remember where I was for NYE last year, so I checked my flickr and blog to jolt my memory. I remember now, I played Wii at atariboys place, and then went to the house party at Gearons. Remember getting drunk and mixing really bad cocktails, and seeing some distant fireworks, dancing to JT, and then going home around 4.

This year here I am in Copacabana. It looks as though its going to be quite *maluco* or crazy tonight. My friends, who could probably play volleyball in their sleep, are going to follow through on their tradition of putting on skirts and heels and play in those, for the enjoyment of the millions of passerbys.

The weather is fine, and Ill make sure I get some photos to post.

Ill try to sum up my life for the past few months.
In Octover I moved out of that noisy and expensive apartment and moved into a small granny flat on the ground floor of an apartment where I could stay for free until the 20th of December. I met the owner on the beach!

Moved out of there into another part of town, Gloria, which is closer to the centre of town, and Im renting the place from one of the volley ball players from the beach. Hes in Recife for 2.5 months. Hes old, so the place smells of ammonia, theres no hot water, but surprisingly I dont miss it. Things were going well until the internet stopped working, and the unpaid notice arrived. And what with this being this time of year, it doesnt look as though I will have much internet access at home until... unfortunately I cant say! This is troubling.

Ive been continuing my workouts with Paulo as my personal trainer, and Im settling into the Carioca lifestyle, eating lots of rice and beans, chicken, red meat, as well as guzzling lots of Skol, Antartica and Itaipava, and regrettably my fair share of Coca Cola. Even chocolate has been on the menu here and there. Basically Im not thinking about what Im eating much.

Went to Unidos de Tijuca on Sat night, it was full to the brim of samba dancing pintosas! It was fun and I think Ive got the basic movements down. Need to practice though. I had a personal moment dancing samba with a caprihinia in hand wearing board shorts with hundreds sweating around you while the fireworks went off overhead (and even a few bits dropping into the crowd).The bus trip home was quite a ride and while waiting for it to arrive (buses run all night here) we took this hilarious photo of me lying down across everyones laps with me doing the peace sign at one end and my sneakers sticking out at the other. I had a good giggle before I got on the bus.

THE WEEK is the hot spot as far as clubs go, and 00 (Zero Zero) is pretty swanky too, but theyre both pretty much full of Rios rich elite... and the places themselves, well lets just say that they resemble in atmosphere and music and patronage what you would see in Melbourne or Sydney. Nice, but same same. And they are prohibitivly expensive for most of the poplulation, most of my friends included. I went once to THE WEEK, but doubt I will go again to a place thats like what we have back home (except that the DJs are CDDJs! ugh!) when I can visit things that we dont have, like the Samba schools and the Lapa area street party.

If youre craving more (yeah right) check my flickr photos, they are updated much more regularly than this blog.

Feliz novo ano para vocês.

P.S I can feel my Portugese getting better!

Labels: copacabana, NYE, revelion

I love this photo set I took on Sunday with my friends from the beach volley ball courts in Copacabana.

Labels: beach, copacabana, volei, Volleyball

Right before I moved into my much more secure apartment, my iPod nano, Bang & Olufsen headphones, Cannon 8mp IXUS and $300 Brazilian Reais were stolen by a nasty thief from my locker. The story goes...

He checked in during the morning. I was having a lye down as I was feeling fluey and gastric, and he made no effort to be quiet as he sang in the shower and then promptly went to bed, with a sheet over his face presumably to block out the light. Prolly should have smelt a fish, yes, but I was sick.

Went out to lunch, and 45 minutes later came back and it was all gone.

Many sweaty hours spent getting police reports later in Leblon for insurance purposes (which will probably be a story of woe in itself) I made myself forget about the camera and iPod and got on with life.

But then I get this adorable little email from the Tourist Police

YOUR CAMERA WAS FIND

Hi!

We get your camera "CANON ixus 860 IS" with a thief. Please you need come
back here, Tourist Police District - DEAT, to recognized it. If you leave
Brazil, try to contact us to advice how you intent to receive back your
camera, ok?
Thank´s!

My best regards;

Inspector Mergulhão
Delegacia de Atendimento ao Turista

So I just went back and picked it up! No iPod or headphones, they were probably sold off fast. But I was still pretty pleased. The police were happy with themselves too, for catching this guy. He had a sack full of loot apparently.

That's the back story to this post - I wanted to show you the pictures taken by the thief which were left on the card. Delightful!





See them all at flickr

Labels: copacabana, photos, police, rio, theif

Here's me at the start of the parade yesterday.

See flickr for some more craaay-ze photos!

Labels: copacabana, gay, parade, rio