30 Jan:

Today I stayed in. I was feeling really tired and eventhough the sun was out and it had ceased to rain, I remained hostel bound. I finally got around to updating my blog and was busily sorting my fotos out when Pascale came over and asked if I wanted to lunch. At that stage I was ready to go out. We went in seach of food and found a per kilo place. Then we set off to find her new landlady. to sort the room out. Landlady never bothered to turn up. However, a friend of the house, Fillou tried to open the door with a hanger, which thankfully, for security reasons failed. Then finally Reginaldo woke up. He lets us in and we had a chat. Reginaldo, no relative of the famous Brazilian footballer, is an economics graduate from Matto Grosso. In his early 20´s and spoke converstational English. He came to Rio to find a good job but with quality of life included. In Sao Paulo, apparenlty it is all work and no play. Hence his choice of Rio. It was really interesting to chat to him. Then arrived, Diego, an amazing character out of a South American movie. In his 30´s with jet black long hair, and black eyes. Looks like he should be a gaucho on a horse with the requisite clothes. A bit of an actor. PAscale said she would love to introduce him to a casting agent. He appeared to understand what we said when we spoke English yet didnt. always. Pascale and I got the impression he could not read or write either. He paints henna tattoos for a livving and was heading off to an Island so he could miss the carnival as he said the madness was too much and he wanted sleep. Then Philippe arrived about 20, he had an american girlfriend a few years back but after a few months she had to move away. He seemed sad at this. but he was bouncy and funny and had only a few words of English as did the others. We were introduced by way of dvd to a Brazilian band with a name that in English meant the thinker. This is a pretty inteligent band that mixes hip hop with ethical politics. The boys and Pascale smoked and we chewed the fat so to speak. It was fun and I learnt a few words of Portuguese. Renata, then arrived. She is to be Pascales Roomate. A tiny skinny brazilian. Pascale bought a little ornament that was very like Renato and hung it up in the room Renato was thrilled. She knew of James Joyce and the conversation took a litature turn. It is amazing that someone that can discuss Joyce is living in such a place.
We finally went back to the hostel to find Alex in a bit of a state. He had been on the beach and whilst asleep, someone had stolen his shorts with his wallet in it. He lost some reals, dollars and his credit card. He cancelled his credit card but before he could do so the thief had spent nearly 1000 pounds. The person he spoke to, to cancel the card, didnt say if he could get his money back, so he was trying to ring the bank. It was a nightmare trying to get the right numbers etc. quite a mess.
We cooked some dinner in the hostel and had some caiparinhas to get over it.