I finally scored my first goooooaaaaallllllllllllllllllllllllll in Brazil. Better late than never I guess, specially with the added weight around my belly. I keep telling myself that I need to accept it as a fact of life and not try to fight it by going on a diet. The stomach is indeed more stronger than the mind ;)
Who knows maybe I'll be a decent football player yet.
And tomorrow I get to play football on an island wohoo!
One of the toughest things about the traveling job is eating alone. You can endure the hours in the hotel via working ... working but when you have to eat your dinner and you don't have a another person to go out with it s**** big time! A couple of days is fine but doing it day in an day out sucks your energy. Some days I just prefer to skip dinner - My mother would say that is a good idea seeing that I don't seem to lack in the mass department! Which made me glad when I had a couple of dinner buddies the other days. They were off the street and maybe needed a shower and a pair of new cloths. Other than that they were in a similar situation as me ... they had company but no money, I had money but no company and voilà it was a perfect fit. It was heavenly to see the smile on our three satisfied faces. The best part : I don't speak Portuguese and they had no idea what English was, though we all wore clothing with holes (I having paid for it as fashion, while they wearing it out of necessity) . But we understood food very well. Some people may say that love is the only thing that does not need a language. I beg to differ, I think food has no language too!
That being said I would have preferred the world to have been a little more kinder to them. With epidemic drug and gang related violence in Brazil, the best solution is to get these young kids off the streets and in a more productive environment. This shouldn't be just the prerogative of the government or the well heeled but also us common flock who can afford more than two square meals a day.
So whats the most commercialized day in Brazil ? No not Christmas ... and they haven't there are no turkeys running around ... apparently the Brazilians think more of their mother than anybody or anything else. The most astounding part is that certain prisoners are let out of the jail for a day to go see their mothers. And the craziest part is that 98% return to their cells!
This is one part that I really don't understand about the Brazilians right next to their two hour lunches!
I finally got to travel by Business class last weekend, thanks to my wonderful colleague Nicolus Castro. Even though the client wouldn't pay for Business, he upgraded me on his personal points; what a way to travel. If anybody says that there is no social divide in the world needs only to hop into a long distance flight and it would hit him like a ice storm on a hot day. To start it off you get better silverware than the commoners (Coach/economy), you get three times as much leg room and to top it all off the American carriers finally treat you like Human Beings (Common in Asian airlines).
But the food still sucks on the US carriers ... they need to get some training on such things from Singapore airlines. If you all ever do get to travel business you should try it on Singapore Airlines. Even if I have only traveled coach on it, I could see how the upper classes get treated.
Brazil had a parting gift for me, just so I could experience all that it had to offer ... My car got broken into. It wasn't at gun point but it still cost me (rather my company) some serious money.
I am glad that they only decided to steal the GPS and the spare tire, costing me 2000 Reals and not the car itself! To compound all this, the rental agency apologised to me as they told me that the insurance does not cover, inspite of me taking the full coverage. I don't know why I bought the insurance as it doesn't seem to cover anything in Brazil!
Other than this small pin prick, driving was fun in Sao Paulo. All you have to do is watch for the two wheelers that wiz by and the not stop at red lights in the night.
The car is the one in the picture!
