PICNICS and BROOMSTICKS
Wednesday, 8. November 2006, 23:40:44
Blog for the week ending Wednesday, November 8
This week’s theme:
Usually you don’t think of the Halloween season as being such a great time for picnics.
But here in the Southern Hemisphere, October means springtime. So we have plenty of orange all around us, but not from dead leaves and pumpkins. We have orange flowers…
And even the “Green House Café” has plenty of Halloween orange. In fact, it has pretty much every color except GREEN.
The logical orange-and-black food to serve for a Brazilian Halloween is a mango salad… with orange passion fruit pulp and black passion fruit seeds.
Bianca LOVES passion fruit all by itself.
MONDAY, October 30
Bob and I went with Shirlee when she went to Sirlene’s to get a haircut.
Sirlene had a surprise for Bob and me: fresh mangaba.
It’s a little bit sweet, and a little bit sour, and a lot like stretchy pizza cheese… only greener.
TUESDAY, October 31
It was time for Bob and me to check in on Seu Geraldo and Dona Rosa, the nice folks who sold us their condo. Cindy, their dog, had got a haircut,
but the really big news was that they have a new house, and they plan to move at the end of November.
Halloween is not normally considered a Brazilian holiday, but anything North-American is “chic”, so Halloween is catching on as a springtime holiday.
We had a very festive Halloween party, complete with jack-o’-lanterns,
candied apples,
decorations,
and guests.
Bianca and I read Halloween stories.
I even had a spooky plastic necktie.
The power grid here is a bit fragile, so when the power went out, we just added a few more candles and carried on with the party.
WEDNESDAY, November 1
Slow news day. I stayed home and worked on my blog.
Even the most beautiful Halloween pumpkins end up in the trash the day after the party.
THURSDAY, November 2 Finados
Today was a Brazilian holiday: All Souls’ Day, or “Finados”. It was another slow news day. Bob and I walked around the airport, and I helped Matt pack for his trip to the US.
FRIDAY, November 3, 2006
Bob and I went to Goiânia with Brian, Shirlee, and Matt. The goal was for us to go furniture shopping. We went from one place to another. I found a Japanese-style bed I really liked at a store which is modeled after Ikea, only a lot less Swedish. Only problem is, the bed only comes in one size: small.
My “unauthorized photos” collection is growing by leaps and bounds. “Deck Parking” is my latest.
The nice parking lot security agent at Flamboyant Shopping informed me that I could only take pictures of the parking lot with authorization.
At Flamboyant Shopping, Bob and I ate at one of the Lebanese restaurants in the food court. A food court here is a “praça de alimentação”, or “plaza of alimentation”. Brian, Shirlee, and Matt filled their trays at “Bapi Special Light Food”. It wasn’t the only fast-food restaurant with an English name. Other notable English names include:
“Big Pizza”
“All Cheese Pasta & Grill”
“Bob’s Burgers”
“Fry Chicken”
McDonald’s
Pankekas & Waffles (Pancakes & Waffles)
“Parks and Games” (Games center)
The mall was already set up for Christmas. I learned a lot of Christmas geography at Flamboyant Mall. Bethlehem and the North Pole are across the street from each other. The heat from the Christmas star still wasn’t able to melt the polar snow.
We left Flamboyant shopping to go to the store next door, but Goiânia traffic patterns being what they are, we had to drive in circles for miles to get there. We looked at appliances at Carrefour, where the price-checkers travel around the store on roller blades. Dozens of new high-rise condos have sprouted up in the area recently.
I persuaded Brian to drive us to the botanical gardens.
It wasn’t so much a “garden” as a park, but it was a tranquil place in the big city, so we enjoyed our time there.
On the way out of town, we stopped at the Oscar Niemeyer Center.
Bob and I got out of the car to take a few photos, and ALMOST forgot to return to the car, where Brian,Shirlee, and Matt waited... and waited.
After all, the new museum was open, and they were handing out free guide books to the place,
and the terrace had a great place to take pictures…
And it was air conditioned.
SATURDAY, November 4, 2006
Around noon, Bob and I walked to Praça Dom Emanuel to buy a few things. I was surprised to see a tiny kitten curled up on linens under the cleaning supplies.
The spring flowers were so beautiful, I just had to take a few pictures.
So, what’s the weather like in Seattle now? We stopped at a furniture store along the way to look at beds, but babaghanouj and eggplant salad were a lot cheaper, so we bought them instead.
Matt is spending his last few days in Brazil saying goodbye to friends.
There's always time to take pictures of Lexy and Bianca.
SUNDAY, November 5, 2006
Around noon Heidi, Marcelo, the girls, and Marcelo’s brother, Luiz, showed up. Heidi announced that we were all going to Pirenópolis for a picnic. I drove Heidi’s VW Gol the forty miles each way. It’s easy to be a Sunday driver in Brazil. I’m trying to work up to Saturday morning driving. From there I’ll try to take on the weekdays. Who knows? Bob and I might even buy a car. I’m getting used to Brazilian driving.
I took a lot of photos in Pirenópolis…
The picnic
The “Pencil Bridge”
The historic church
Our visit to the ice cream store
And the gazebo in the center of the “Hippy Fair”.
Lexy has fun wherever she is.
Sometimes the most interesting parts of life we can’t, or shouldn’t photograph.
Example One:
The restrooms at the park in Pirenópolis had those ever-popular two-dimensional toilets… which are not much more than porcelain footprints and a drain. Don’t try to flush them, cuz the knob on the wall isn’t really to flush. It’s for the overhead shower that you didn’t know was there cuz it was so dark. Oh well. In the warm sun, I dried off before the picnic was over.
Example Two:
On our way home from Pirenópolis we were stopped at the Federal Police checkpoint. Oops. The car documents were a little out of date. They would have given me a fine, and taken points off my Brazilian driver’s license, but I don’t have one. I’m driving with an Inter-American driver’s license, so I was off the hook.
MONDAY, November 6, 2006
Just after 7:30 a.m. some potential buyers came by to look at Brian and Shirlee’s house. The “buyers” need a place with easy freeway access, since they commute to Goiânia. They made a lowball offer.
Today was only the second day of daylight savings time, so 7:30 seemed extra early. But the neighborhood parrots are still on standard time, so I got to watch them fly around in the neighbor’s trees before they, too, commuted to Goiânia, or wherever they are employed.
I spent a good part of the day working on a couple of letters of recommendation for tutors who worked with me at the John Stanford International School.
TUESDAY, November 7, 2006
I got the letters of recommendation ready to mail.
Heidi took us to Correios to mail a few things, and Bob and I walked home, stopping at “Rio Vermelho Cash & Carry”, where we picked up a few items. Just look at what twelve dollars (US) will buy you!
Banana cornflakes: 2.25 dollars
3 lbs bananas @15 cents per lb: 45 cents
2 liters of soy milk @ 1.40 each = 2.80
Lemon grass tea bags: 35 cents
LIPS brand napkins: 75 cents
1.1 pounds shelled peanuts: 1.20 dollars
Pit Stop crackers: 80 cents
Animal crackers: 60 cents
1 pound peaches: 1 dollar
1 pound cheese: 2 dollars
As my farmer-grandfather in Oregon said when bananas went on sale, “that’s cheaper than I could grow them myself!”.
The peaches here could be mistaken for small apricots.
They SMELL like peaches. Somewhere in the south of Brazil is a place cold enough to grow tiny peaches. The advantage is that the pits are also teeny-tiny.
I was expecting to find exotic Brazilian animals in my animal crackers, but they just have the same animals I trip over on my way to the store every day… chickens… that sort of thing. There was one mystery animal I couldn’t quite identify.
Any ideas what it is? A sloth? A bear? A gorilla? A space alien? Cousin It?
WEDNESDAY, November 8, 2006
To be a person in Brazil, you need to have a CPF number. I had mine renewed easily. Bob has had a bit more trouble getting his. Finally today, we went to the Receita Federal, and Bob was granted his magical CPF number!
Now he has many privileges associated with the number… things like paying taxes.
We went across the street to the Bank of Brazil, where I was told that foreigners have to go to the bank on Avenida 85 in Goiânia to open an account. Oh well. I don’t need a bank, anyway.
Bob and I went to see Dona Sirlene. She gave us coffee and cookies while we waited out the tropical downpour. She also gave us lots of those elasticky mangabas today.
The main entertainment of the day was watching Alexandra play with shredded paper, and play with the hats that Bob and I use to protect us from the sun.
Tomorrow we go to Brasília for a visit to the US Embassy.
Shirlee and Matt will be leaving soon for the States.
This week’s theme:
Usually you don’t think of the Halloween season as being such a great time for picnics.
But here in the Southern Hemisphere, October means springtime. So we have plenty of orange all around us, but not from dead leaves and pumpkins. We have orange flowers…
And even the “Green House Café” has plenty of Halloween orange. In fact, it has pretty much every color except GREEN.
The logical orange-and-black food to serve for a Brazilian Halloween is a mango salad… with orange passion fruit pulp and black passion fruit seeds.
Bianca LOVES passion fruit all by itself.
MONDAY, October 30
Bob and I went with Shirlee when she went to Sirlene’s to get a haircut.
Sirlene had a surprise for Bob and me: fresh mangaba.
It’s a little bit sweet, and a little bit sour, and a lot like stretchy pizza cheese… only greener.
TUESDAY, October 31
It was time for Bob and me to check in on Seu Geraldo and Dona Rosa, the nice folks who sold us their condo. Cindy, their dog, had got a haircut,
but the really big news was that they have a new house, and they plan to move at the end of November.
Halloween is not normally considered a Brazilian holiday, but anything North-American is “chic”, so Halloween is catching on as a springtime holiday.
We had a very festive Halloween party, complete with jack-o’-lanterns,
candied apples,
decorations,
and guests.
Bianca and I read Halloween stories.
I even had a spooky plastic necktie.
The power grid here is a bit fragile, so when the power went out, we just added a few more candles and carried on with the party.
WEDNESDAY, November 1
Slow news day. I stayed home and worked on my blog.
Even the most beautiful Halloween pumpkins end up in the trash the day after the party.
THURSDAY, November 2 Finados
Today was a Brazilian holiday: All Souls’ Day, or “Finados”. It was another slow news day. Bob and I walked around the airport, and I helped Matt pack for his trip to the US.
FRIDAY, November 3, 2006
Bob and I went to Goiânia with Brian, Shirlee, and Matt. The goal was for us to go furniture shopping. We went from one place to another. I found a Japanese-style bed I really liked at a store which is modeled after Ikea, only a lot less Swedish. Only problem is, the bed only comes in one size: small.
My “unauthorized photos” collection is growing by leaps and bounds. “Deck Parking” is my latest.
The nice parking lot security agent at Flamboyant Shopping informed me that I could only take pictures of the parking lot with authorization.
At Flamboyant Shopping, Bob and I ate at one of the Lebanese restaurants in the food court. A food court here is a “praça de alimentação”, or “plaza of alimentation”. Brian, Shirlee, and Matt filled their trays at “Bapi Special Light Food”. It wasn’t the only fast-food restaurant with an English name. Other notable English names include:
“Big Pizza”
“All Cheese Pasta & Grill”
“Bob’s Burgers”
“Fry Chicken”
McDonald’s
Pankekas & Waffles (Pancakes & Waffles)
“Parks and Games” (Games center)
The mall was already set up for Christmas. I learned a lot of Christmas geography at Flamboyant Mall. Bethlehem and the North Pole are across the street from each other. The heat from the Christmas star still wasn’t able to melt the polar snow.
We left Flamboyant shopping to go to the store next door, but Goiânia traffic patterns being what they are, we had to drive in circles for miles to get there. We looked at appliances at Carrefour, where the price-checkers travel around the store on roller blades. Dozens of new high-rise condos have sprouted up in the area recently.
I persuaded Brian to drive us to the botanical gardens.
It wasn’t so much a “garden” as a park, but it was a tranquil place in the big city, so we enjoyed our time there.
On the way out of town, we stopped at the Oscar Niemeyer Center.
Bob and I got out of the car to take a few photos, and ALMOST forgot to return to the car, where Brian,Shirlee, and Matt waited... and waited.
After all, the new museum was open, and they were handing out free guide books to the place,
and the terrace had a great place to take pictures…
And it was air conditioned.
SATURDAY, November 4, 2006
Around noon, Bob and I walked to Praça Dom Emanuel to buy a few things. I was surprised to see a tiny kitten curled up on linens under the cleaning supplies.
The spring flowers were so beautiful, I just had to take a few pictures.
So, what’s the weather like in Seattle now? We stopped at a furniture store along the way to look at beds, but babaghanouj and eggplant salad were a lot cheaper, so we bought them instead.
Matt is spending his last few days in Brazil saying goodbye to friends.
There's always time to take pictures of Lexy and Bianca.
SUNDAY, November 5, 2006
Around noon Heidi, Marcelo, the girls, and Marcelo’s brother, Luiz, showed up. Heidi announced that we were all going to Pirenópolis for a picnic. I drove Heidi’s VW Gol the forty miles each way. It’s easy to be a Sunday driver in Brazil. I’m trying to work up to Saturday morning driving. From there I’ll try to take on the weekdays. Who knows? Bob and I might even buy a car. I’m getting used to Brazilian driving.
I took a lot of photos in Pirenópolis…
The picnic
The “Pencil Bridge”
The historic church
Our visit to the ice cream store
And the gazebo in the center of the “Hippy Fair”.
Lexy has fun wherever she is.
Sometimes the most interesting parts of life we can’t, or shouldn’t photograph.
Example One:
The restrooms at the park in Pirenópolis had those ever-popular two-dimensional toilets… which are not much more than porcelain footprints and a drain. Don’t try to flush them, cuz the knob on the wall isn’t really to flush. It’s for the overhead shower that you didn’t know was there cuz it was so dark. Oh well. In the warm sun, I dried off before the picnic was over.
Example Two:
On our way home from Pirenópolis we were stopped at the Federal Police checkpoint. Oops. The car documents were a little out of date. They would have given me a fine, and taken points off my Brazilian driver’s license, but I don’t have one. I’m driving with an Inter-American driver’s license, so I was off the hook.
MONDAY, November 6, 2006
Just after 7:30 a.m. some potential buyers came by to look at Brian and Shirlee’s house. The “buyers” need a place with easy freeway access, since they commute to Goiânia. They made a lowball offer.
Today was only the second day of daylight savings time, so 7:30 seemed extra early. But the neighborhood parrots are still on standard time, so I got to watch them fly around in the neighbor’s trees before they, too, commuted to Goiânia, or wherever they are employed.
I spent a good part of the day working on a couple of letters of recommendation for tutors who worked with me at the John Stanford International School.
TUESDAY, November 7, 2006
I got the letters of recommendation ready to mail.
Heidi took us to Correios to mail a few things, and Bob and I walked home, stopping at “Rio Vermelho Cash & Carry”, where we picked up a few items. Just look at what twelve dollars (US) will buy you!
Banana cornflakes: 2.25 dollars
3 lbs bananas @15 cents per lb: 45 cents
2 liters of soy milk @ 1.40 each = 2.80
Lemon grass tea bags: 35 cents
LIPS brand napkins: 75 cents
1.1 pounds shelled peanuts: 1.20 dollars
Pit Stop crackers: 80 cents
Animal crackers: 60 cents
1 pound peaches: 1 dollar
1 pound cheese: 2 dollars
As my farmer-grandfather in Oregon said when bananas went on sale, “that’s cheaper than I could grow them myself!”.
The peaches here could be mistaken for small apricots.
They SMELL like peaches. Somewhere in the south of Brazil is a place cold enough to grow tiny peaches. The advantage is that the pits are also teeny-tiny.
I was expecting to find exotic Brazilian animals in my animal crackers, but they just have the same animals I trip over on my way to the store every day… chickens… that sort of thing. There was one mystery animal I couldn’t quite identify.
Any ideas what it is? A sloth? A bear? A gorilla? A space alien? Cousin It?
WEDNESDAY, November 8, 2006
To be a person in Brazil, you need to have a CPF number. I had mine renewed easily. Bob has had a bit more trouble getting his. Finally today, we went to the Receita Federal, and Bob was granted his magical CPF number!
Now he has many privileges associated with the number… things like paying taxes.
We went across the street to the Bank of Brazil, where I was told that foreigners have to go to the bank on Avenida 85 in Goiânia to open an account. Oh well. I don’t need a bank, anyway.
Bob and I went to see Dona Sirlene. She gave us coffee and cookies while we waited out the tropical downpour. She also gave us lots of those elasticky mangabas today.
The main entertainment of the day was watching Alexandra play with shredded paper, and play with the hats that Bob and I use to protect us from the sun.
Tomorrow we go to Brasília for a visit to the US Embassy.
Shirlee and Matt will be leaving soon for the States.
WIDGETIZE
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