I would like to go back to Buenos Aires – needed more time there. The history is interesting as well as the old buildings and of course the SHOPPING!!

We´re having an early night tonight because we will be leaving for the airport at 4.30AM to fly to Rio. From Rio we fly to Sao Paolo and then to JHB from there – so we´ll only be in Cape Town Sunday afternoon.

Holiday was awesome but am ready to go home now!

Chat soon.

Adios

Oh yes – I was wrong about the timing of the carnival. It doesn´t start the day before Ash Wednesday – it starts the Friday before Ash Wednesday and ends the day before Ash Wednesday.

Tattoos are very big in Brazil, almost everyone has one. Our guide in Sao Paolo, Ishmail, had a really cool tattoo of him and his dad walking hand in hand. The photo was taken when Ishmail was about five years old – so he had a tattoo artist sketch the pic of the photo onto his back. Below the tattoo the following verse is written: (in Portuguese): ´Though I walk through the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art beside me.´ Ishmail´s dad is a federal agent (as in the Portuguese version of the FBI) and his mom is a pathologist. They were a bit disappointed that he decided to become a journalist and would have preferred him to study law.

You can find a pharmacy in every street of Rio as well as hairdressers. In one road we counted five hairdressers. The hairdressers do manicures and pedicures as well. I asked the shuttle driver why there are so many pharmacies and he said because it’s a booming business. Clearly the Brazilians like their medication.

Brad and I went for supper at a restaurant just opposite the beach and were wondering why there were so many single elderly men in the restaurant. And then we realized that they were waiting for prostitutes!!! We spotted an elderly gentleman with two ladies of the night and then one woman who asked for two prostitutes (yes a woman asking for female prostitutes)!! It was quite interesting to watch and the pizza was yummy!

On the tour to Corcovado mountain with Brad, we had an interesting group: An Englishman, a couple from Colombia, a couple from Rio and a couple from Argentina. The couple from Rio said they had lived in South Africa in 1994 / 1995 and will go back some day. The Colombian couple thought SA was big on coffee plantations but we set them straight by telling them that we have the best wine and vineyards in the world. The Englishman looked close to 70 and smelled of alcohol. He went ´missing´ on the tour to the Tujica Forest and was found drinking in the restaurant.  The tour guide was pissed off because she thought he was lost in the forest.

Overall had a blast in Brazil. One thing though, they are going to have to get their airport staff English lessons. Not even customs had an English-speaking person. And their airports look like old Home Affairs offices – a major upgrade needed.

The Buenos Aires airport is close to the sea and there see is brown!! Not blue like ´normal´ ocean but looks like ´brakwater´- not sure what the word is in English. No way am I getting into that water. Why is it like that? Must ask my dad – don´t want to offend anyone here by asking them. The airport was nice and clean but the queue at customs took forever! We had to queue for over an hour and even though the queue was that long, the customs officials got up and took breaks! And nothing irritates me more when I see that happening.

Brad and I spent the day exploring the city. We felt much safer here roaming around on our own than in some places in Brazil. Buenos Aries is BEAUTIFUL!! The city reminds me so much of Cape Town and Adderley Street. And we went shopping!!!

Tomorrow we are going on a city tour and a Tango show and dinner – can´t wait!

Chat soon!

We had a tour yesterday morning that took us to The Christ on Corcovado mountain – was awesome!!! Fantastic feeling to be there – had seen it on tv – but nothing beats actually being there. A most amazing experience! Then we went to Sugar Loaf – but I chickened out at the last minute and did not go up – the height was terrifying and those cable cars did not look too safe. I am doing the tour again with Bradley tomorrow and will go up Sugar Loaf with him – I´ll feel safer with him there. I just have to do it – can´t come all this way and not make the trip.
We also went to the stadium where the practice is held for the Rio Carnival. We were a bit disappointed that this year the carnival is in March and not February but was told it´s because Easter is later this year. The carnival is actually not just a party for the sake of partying but a celebration of the start of the run up to Good Friday and Easter. The carnival starts the day before Ash Wednesday.

The people here are very religious. We also visited a Catholic Cathedral that looked like one of those Mayan buildings. I would never have guessed it was a Cathedral at all!
I definitely do NOT feel like a beached whale here in Ipanema Beach, because no matter what your size, you wear the skimpiest swimming suit you can find! (BTW: I discovered that there definitely are fat people and they are all at the beach). I feel like a prude in a full-piece swimsuit. Also all you take to the beach is a chair and towel. Walking around in your swimming costume is normal even though you´re not planning to swim but just feel like taking a walk around the city. I saw this group of fatties that had way bigger tummies and thighs than mine and their costumes were mostly pieces of string – not a lot of material around their bodies. It really is a different world here – the attitude seems to be ´As I am´ – no hang-ups about body weight or shape whatsoever. I think we could learn a thing or two about that. I´ve never really been shy about wearing a costume on the beach, despite looking like a beached whale but now I actually think that I might be able to pull off a bikini if I lost like only 5kg – but only here in Rio – don´t think Cape Town beaches are ready for my booty yet!

People here seem to be out very late with tiny babies – maybe they bring them to the beach to fall asleep because it´s so hot  - I don´t know. Clearly they are not worried about getting their babies into routine – they are out at the beaches till about after 12. Most families here seem to be families of four: parents with two children.  One thing that we saw a lot of was teenage boys walking hand in hand with their mothers. Children here seem to spend a lot of time with their parents – even teenagers. Wherever you go you will see groups of families together and not large group of just friends – at least during the day. The parents (some of them) leave around 11pm and then the younger crowds start arriving.

The beaches are filled from early morning till early hours of the next morning. Last night we went for supper and afterwards went splashing in the waves till after 12. The temperature was about 29 degrees and the water was very warm. A bit weird considering it’s the Atlantic –because on our side the Atlantic is normally freezing. It´s hard to fall asleep because it is so noisy till about 2-3AM because there are still a lot of people on the beach. There are huge flashlights on the beach – so its okay to be out so late – the walkway is kind of like Sea Point Promenade but much longer because it stretches from Ipanema Beach right through to Copacabana Beach.

Between the walkway and the main road there are cycling / running lanes. There were people running after 12 last night and I was thought only in Rio would people be exercising that time of the night – but I suppose its probably because that is the coolest time for them to run. At 9Am this morning it was 33 degrees already. I love it!

Most of the group left just after 9AM to start travelling back to SA. It was sad to see them leave as we were having such a good time. But I am getting Bradley in exchange so not too sad. He will be arriving in about 3 hours – can´t wait!! This morning can´t go fast enough!

I will be checking out in an hour and checking in at The Windsor Plaza in Copacabana beach. And then I will see my husband!!!!! We stay in Rio for another two days and then off to Argentina and Iguassu falls. How romantic are we spending Valentine´s day in Rio!!! Awesome!!!

Sorry about not being able to load the pics – will create an album when I´m back for everyone to see.
Chat soon!

The people working at Abril are all very young. Some of them look as if they should still be in high school. Also, they must start working at a very young age because they all seem to be with the company for over 10 years – at least most of the people we´ve met. Dress code is smart casual to the office. The offices itself are a bit like newsrooms – our offices are fancier.

The Abril staff are very big on saving electricity. When you go to the bathroom, you´ll find the lights off and you have to put it on and then put it off again when you leave. And they all brush their teeth after lunch!!! They have little bags with their toothbrushes, toothpaste and floss and they queue to brush their teeth. I think it´s because they kiss such a lot when greeting.

The CEO gets escorted by bodyguards! They look like a secret-service agents complete with earphones. I asked if there had been an attempt on his life because of all the security but they said no that’s just how they roll here in Brazil! The CEO also hardly has meals at home. He goes out every night for supper for a three-course meal at one of the most expensive hotels or restaurants.

The women here hardly wear any make-up, but they don’t need to –they are naturally beautiful and stunning! And so SKINNY and short – about 155cm average. We asked the director of the weeklies (mags like YOU etc) if their ´before and after´ real weightloss stories are indeed ´real´ because we haven’t seen any really overweight people here in Brazil. They speak minimal English but we manage to understand each other.

One thing I must say – we complain about service delivery in SA, but take a walk outside of our country and you realize we have it good. Here everyone tell you they´ll get to you in ´ten minutes´ but that can mean an hour or so. And the cashiers take their own sweet time and queues are horrendous. These are the slowest queues I´ve ever been in.

Brazilians speak Portuguese. The currency is Reals (R$) and its about R4,50 to the Rand. Eg for $100 you get approximately R$164. Brazil has the largest Japanese population outside Japan and about 1 million Italians living here. We still have to locate the places to buy leather bags and shoes for ´cheap´. In Morumbi mall, every second store is a shoe shop with the most beautiful shoes ever, but a bit too expensive for our pockets. We´ve had good coffee at Abril, but we still need to find the supermarkets where we can buy really nice coffee to take home. We´re all hoping that Rio will be a better option to shop than Sao Paolo. ´(btw – the locals here pronounce is ´Sun´ Paolo). The weather here is similar to Cape Town in that you can have about 4 seasons in one day. At night the temperature is about 22 – 28 degrees and then during the day about 32 – 35 degrees. At 3-6pm it rains with lighting and then about 7pm clears up and gets extremely hot. If there is wind it’s a hot wind.

I need an iPad! I want an iPad! I was going to wait till version 2 came out, but think I have to get one soon – would´ve been so convenient to have one. Those of us who don´t have iPads or laptops have to share one PC, set up in English, but internet connectivity is a problem. When you get internet its super fast but then it goes down and takes hours to go back up again. On the other hand we don´t really have spare time to be surfing the net because our schedule is jam-packed. I have quite a few pages of notes that I still need to type out while its still fresh in my head.

On Wednesday night we went to Rua Sao Cristavo – it’s a  kind of a ´Long Street´- but way cooler! Rua Sao Cristavo is situated in what you’d consider more of an affluent area – kind of like Bergvliet / Constantia but not snobbish. There were better looking houses but still not as beautiful as houses you’d find in our suburbs. We went to 533 Sao Cristavo (a small bar) and I attempted to drink a cocktail that tasted like pure rum / tequila and I have no idea to pronounce it. I managed two sips and then gave it a miss and rather had mojitos. The little bar we were in was awesome. It had pictures in frames in all sizes of soccer images from photos, magazine features and newspaper clippings of the last 100 years. It also had framed soccer jerseys signed by soccer greats like Pele. I was told that what happens in Brazil stays in Brazil so that´s the end of what happened at 533.

Then we took a walk down the rest of the street and it had lots of restaurants / bars type of places – all of them small and heavily crowded. What differs from Long Street is that none of these clubs played music. The noise came from everyone talking. We really enjoyed it – no music blaring – so you could have a good conversation. Because it was so hot the locals all had on shorts – the less clothes the better. People who go to Long Street are often more dressed up – but here it’s very casual.

The last bar we were at was so packed that we had to have our drinks on the pavement – but most of the bars are like that – and what they do is – if you don’t have a table they bring your beers in a big silver bucket filled with ice. (kind of like at shebeens at SA except instead of a ’kus’you get a silver bucket – I took a pic – so will load as soon as I can – that’s just how they roll here! Despite the bars being so full, you don’t get people shoving you around to get past – they are very polite and will ask you to move. One of Brazil’s staff, Ishmail, was our tour guide for the evening. He was in SA for the World Cup. He said Capetonians were good at ‘organizing’ things and that they don’t have such a word here when we say ‘we’ll organize for you’. He definitely wants to come back to SA especially Cape Town. He said he found the people of SA very friendly and that when he came back he missed hearing ‘howzit’. It was a really fun evening with Ishmail, we only got back to our hotel early hours of the morning.

On Thursday, the work day at Brazil seemed very long despite us only starting at 11h30 and finishing at 6pm (and a 2 hour lunch) because we were tired from the night before. So Thursday night we just had a light supper at the hotel bar and then had a early night. After spending a week at Abril I have to say my experience was WOW!!!! These people PUBLISH magazines in capital letters –their circulation, ad revenue and website traffic are unimaginable!! One of their websites, a teenage mag, gets about 70 MILLION page views a month!!!! And one thing I will never forget is ‘Veja is Veja’- will explain when I get back.

We’re leaving for Rio in about half hour – its now 11h30 AM on Friday morning. Brazil is just over 4 hours behind South Africa. Apparently it was 40 degrees in Rio yesterday – and we are very excited to go there because we hear it is very similar to Cape Town. We will be staying at Sol Ipanema which is just across the road from Ipanema Beach.

Am missing you all – hope you’re all keeping well! Will try to mail from Rio. Just two days to go before Bradley arrives – can’t wait!!!

Chat soon!

Luckily we got $75 dollars from SAA for toiletries for the inconvenience caused. So we went to Morumbi Mall the Saturday after we woke up to go get some toiletries and fresh undies. I should tell you that no place in Morumbi mall sells ´full´panties – the skimpier the better! Even the briefs were those types that have most of your bum cheeks showing. The bras are all push up – definitely not for me cos it raises mine to under my chin.

The walk to the mall from The Hilton where we are staying was about 20-30 minutes. The mall was huge – lots of sales but still too expensive for our pockets. We found a store called C&A which is kind of like a Edgars / Woolies combined. The store was quite reasonable – beautiful shoes! Just a problem getting our sizes – so we´re going back on Wednesday cos we finish early at Abril to see if we can find some stuff that fit us. It was quite funny having to wash undies and the clothes we were wearing on the flight incase we had to spend another day without our luggage. Luckily it came the next day.

The people here are BEAUTIFUL!!!! (men and women – beautiful, gorgeous – I can just stare at them all day. Women my mother´s age wearing hot pants and looking gorgeous – seriously not trashy at all –they all look good! Anton, the infographics guy from family mags said that he noticed that the pants are so short that you can see the bottom of the pockets hanging out! LOL!

Fashion and Food is a main priority here. The malls have mostly fashion stores, restaurants and pharmacies. You won´t find a supermarket like Pick ´n Pay, Checkers or Woolies food in a mall. That was a bit weird. The Brazilians start work at 10h00 or 11h00 and then work till about 6/7pm and then they go to the malls for shopping and food. The malls close around 10pm Monday to Friday and open at 7AM in the morning – on weekdays. On the weekends the malls open late and close early because weekends is spent………………… EXERCISING!!! Seriously!! On Saturdays and Sundays everyone walk everywhere – or cycle – hardly no cars on the road. There are THOUSANDS of people on the roads just walking or cycling. On Sundays they close one lane of the roads for cyclists around a huge park (similar to New York central park I think) – its quite a large stretch that is closed so cyclists get in a good cycling distance. It is AWESOME! I really wanted to get a bike a cycle with them (for about 5 minutes). But this explains why the women are so tiny. And every second or third woman is carrying about a baby – another reason they so tiny and are so well-toned: their babies are HUGE!!! Must be breastmilk – I have never seen such big babies –they probably drink out all the fat from their mothers so their mothers can have that tiny waists and toned body.

We went on a tour of the city – to ´downtown´- was a bit dodgy but very exciting to be there. They have this HUGE markets – this is where people shop mostly and not supermarkets – massive markets of fruit, food and meat – not clothes or novelties – mainly food – you do get the small stalls for bags and wallets but mainly food. At the one food stall these guys were getting us to taste their fruit and they kept shoving fruit into our mouth – fingers and all – not sure if they were trying to give us a ´sensual´ type of experience but it was a bit weird – they thought Charlene and I were brazilian because of our skin colour but when we spoke they tried to shove more fruit into our mouths and tried to con us to pay unreasonable rates for the fruit. When we said goodbye they wanted to kiss us goodbye – the one guy had hold of Christa (W360 research manager) and started kissing her cheek by cheek but then wouldn´t stop kissing her – Charlene managed to get away and I managed to shove them off after about a kiss per cheek – those cheeky men! I must say though we tasted this creamy pineapple type fruit that tasted like a pina colada with fruit – loved it! Can´t wait to have it again.

We visited a cathedral in the centre of Brazil that is 100 years old this year – it is absolutely beautiful. They have mass the entire day so you can go anytime of the day and is quite casual. Parishioners are undisturbed by people walking in and out and taking pics – but you´re not allowed to take pics close to the alter and not during communion.

We saw a street that was just bridal stores right down the road but we weren´t allowed to get out and take pics cos the place was dodge – its like this road full of bridal boutiques and then the side streets are like giempie street in Woodstock – again the people are middle class though but the buildings look like lower Woodstock.

Sao Paolo is kind of like JHB I think – lots of office buildings. What is weird for me as a capetonian is that there is no suburbs. You have lots of office buildings and then suddenly in the middle of the office buildings you get a cluster of apartments where people are living in – most of the time these are old office buildings that are no longer in use and people move in. Its kind of like you would have a block of apartments in between media city and the naspers building or where the media24 parking lot would be – it’s a bit weird. Most of the apartments here are dilapidated – I´d be very surprised if they have working lifts – people don´t seem to take care of the appearance of their apartments – it looks very ´slummy´-but the people that live there isn´t poor – my first impression was that this must be the ´poor´ area but not so – people prefer to live downtown and be in the hub of things.

We passed a fashion shoot – the model was gorgeous and extremely thin and while we were watching the fashion shoo the model started to faint from hunger!! The photographer was extremely irritated for his time being wasted while the rest of the crew got her food and was fanning her. It was so funny!

We also walked down Oscar Frede – its kind of like 5th A venue – a road full of shops – expensive shops like Victor & Rolfe etc – way too expensive for our pockets but lovely to look at! And oh my word on that road there was lots of people walking dogs – beautiful pampered dogs – their coats are shinier than silk / satin.

Because the Brazilians start late they only eat after 8pm – actually 8pm is still early for them to have supper – so its weird for them that we want supper by 6pm. Also this means that the bars open late – I don’t understand why – because one should be able to drink anytime of the day – not have to wait till 6pm! On Sunday night we actually waited at the hotel´s bar until they opened- they probably thought we are winos from SA – lol! Proudly SA moment – they have SA wines on their menu! Last night we were a bit later in the bar than usual and by after 10pm we were ready to leave the bar became full as the other people just arrived – and on a weekday – but I suppose they can party that late because they only have to be at work by 11Am the next day.

Hot, gorgeous barman at the bar!! He looks like Kevin from Coyote Ugly except with darker skin and a thinner face. A pity he doesn´t speak English though – but that doesn´t really matter – we just like looking at him!

Have loads more to chat about but the others want to use the internet now – will try to chat soon again.

Am having an amazing time! we leave for Rio on Friday – am looking forward to that and bradley arrives on Sunday.

Ciao! Obrigado!

On the way to work on Monday (reading Breaking Dawn again) and ignoring my husband – he said that he is going to drop me off on the side of the road and I can wait for Edward to fetch me there! After being very much amused with my obsession these last 4 weeks, I think he’s a bit worried. But what I’ve realized these last few days is that I am not inlove with Edward Cullen but rather the love-story itself.  Of two people destined to be together – soul mates forever. They survived everything that stood against them. And what I realized is that the recipe for a lasting relationship is PATIENCE, RESPECT AND COMPROMISE.

Though I feel a bit less-obsessed today I am still counting down the days to New Moon! And still would strongly recommend that you read the books – it’s the most exciting read and Stephenie Meyer writes in a way that you makes you feel like you are a character in the story. The books are available at Exclusive Books, kalahari.net and take2.co.za – and get them soon before they are sold out! I am sure with New Moon coming out soon there is going to be much more obsessed fans out there – Harry Potter can go to bed now – the vampires have arrived!

Now what I find interesting about the presidential convoy (or whomever it is being transported) is that it is always 3 black BMW’s headed and tailed by police marked cars with sirens blaring.  And I always assumed the reason they use 3 black BMW’s was to confuse any snipers or criminals as to which car the president was actually in.  But I don’t know how confused they’d be if only one of the black BMW’s had tinted windows and the other two clearly had no passengers…… unless the president was the driver?……. (or maybe I’ve got it all wrong).

It felt so good to do nothing – absolutely nothing.  Caryn said what she missed most was boredom and I thought she was mad, but she was so right.  My body and mind definitely needed this break to recharge. We’re so busy that we never take time to admire the scenery around us and we really have such a beautiful country and city with so many friendly people.

 On the drive home from Gansbaai as we came over the mountain and I looked over the ocean – my thoughts were: My God I live here – what a beautiful place.  I am with my soulmate surrounded by this beauty and (for a minute there) without a care in the world.  That feeling did change the closer we got to home and real life.

What I did realize (shockingly) is that after only two and a half years of marriage I am already living past my husband. We live in the same house, we travel to work together, we talk – but really we have gone onto auto-pilot.  We are not living – we are doing the routine everyday things we have to do to survive and get through the day. We don’t have kids, so there shouldn’t be any reason why we are spending less time together.  But all that is going to change.  Yes we are at work 8 hours a day, but a day has 24 hours – so that is 16 hours we can spend together and if we start thinking that way, things will get much better. Don’t get me wrong – we are happy – but we’re just not spending enough time together.

So from now on my husband and I are going to concentrate on spending more time together and making our relationship rock solid.