Sometimes I just want to sit down and cry in frustration!

Paying our rent here in Brazil has been a nightmare since day 1.

First, we could not have a local bank account so we had to pay cash. Yes you read it well.

Alistair was given a card (by his Parent company) which was a sort of Purse card where the living allowance would be paid into. But we could not use it to pay the rent (don’t ask why!)! So every month we had to go round the banks over a 3 days period, to withdraw the amount required then go to Banco Itau and pay the rent.

Now, walking around Rio with a big wad of cash in your pocket is not something I would recommend!

Every month we thought it was the last time, as (surely!) the visas would get approved and we would get a bank account.

So after 7 or 8 month of this joke, and with the help of the new HR girl from Alistair’s company (who works in the London office but happens to be Brazilian) we managed to open a bank account few weeks ago. After all, our visa approval had just been published in the Jornal Official!  Well, Alistair did manage to open an account, I could not be included for some stupid admin reason involving more stupid bureaucracy and admin sh*te.

Anyway, Alistair received his debit card and pin few days ago and we thought “Great” we can use it to pay the rent now, while we wait for the cheque book!

Anyhow, today the rent was due, so I went to Itau (which is the estate agent’s bank) with Alistair’s HSBC Brazil debit card and his pin number. How hard could it be? Well, at Banco  Itau I was told that they only accept Itau cards.

So I went to HSBC, how hard could it be, paying my rent with an HSBC card at HSBC into an Itau account????

Well not so fast. I either had to order the cash, get Alistair to pick it up the next day, and pay in cash to Itau, OR, I had to show a passport. As the card is only at Alistair’s name I had a problem.

Solution: getting Alistair back from work mid-afternoon on the day his company’s MD is visiting the Brazil Office so he could use his card and show his passport!  

Another fun day in Rio.

Internet banking? Maybe one day! This is Brazil, things happen eventually, but at their own pace!

Back to London to pick up our VIPERs (5 year visas) tomorrow. Wish us luck!

Aipim frito

Now there is something you will eat (and love!) when you get  to Rio: Aipim frito (fried Aipim).
Aipim is also called Yuca around South America and everywehere else in Brazil.
In Africa it is called Manioc.
It took me a couple of trials but I cracked it!



How to do it!

Aipim is a root so it is very hard. You need to peel it with a sharp knife and cut in chunks. Leave in water overnight or up to 24h.

Then boil a bit in water until relatively tender.
Put in a colander to dry.

When the aipim is dry, heat oil in a pan. Shove the chunks of aipim in when the oil is very hot and fry until golden.

For a dipping sauce try to do the following dipping sauce:
- juice of one lime
- a drop of cachaca
- juice of chilli mix (made mixing birds eyes chillis + 1/2 vinegar and 1/2 water) or some chilli sauce for spice to taste
- a bit of olive oil
- onion sliced or diced.


Enjoy!

This is what it is all about! :)

Saturday morning, wee get up and have a quick breakfast.
We get in a bus to Botafogo (10 minutes) and get off to go to the Clube de Regatas de Guanabara.

Get on the Regata side, borrow a dual kayak and get off in the bay of Botafogo, all the way to Sugar Loaf Mountain before kayaking back.

After tidying and rinsing the kayak we get to the club's restaurant for a big plate of (dirt cheap!) prawns and few beers looking over the bay! Bliss!

Next week we will borrow 2 single kayaks and go further away!

Time to have fun :)



http://crguanabara.com.br/home/pt/home.html

Post dedicated to all my friends in rainy London!

Breakfast at … err.. the Hookers’ Bar!

Not so much “Breakfast at Tiffany” I’m afraid!

Now we woke up on the 30^th of Dec. and Alistair fancied hash browns for breakfast.

We went for a small walk on Avenida Atlantica and looked at the menu of one Anglo-saxon bar. They have a good menu, the food is actually very good and they have big screens showing football, American football, baseball and all sort of sports attractive to anglo-saxons gentlemen!  For a reason!  We call it “The hookers’ bar”

It’s a nice place, or would be, if it was not always full of hookers and pimps.  

I walk the dog past it several times a day and you can see the hookers trying to get the attention of the usually only male customers, with the pimps observing from the bar. It is rather seedy.

Anyway we decided to get our breakfast there around 9am. Unfortunately it must have been a busy morning for “the meat trade” as the only customers were many very loud hookers drinking beers with their pimps. Teh 2 white male customers who arrived later on got surrounded by the hookers pretty quickly!  

That put me off my breakfast somehow. Not sure I will go back.

However if you want to have a laugh or are brave enough you can visit. Usually Saturday and Sunday lunch time it is busy with tourists (but still can see the hookers and pimps around – funny!).

I would not eat there again, as (some of)  the maids wearing dirty stained shirts would put me off my food even without the hookers around!

Here is a view if you fancy:

http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=pt-BR&q=avenida+atlantica+1400&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=468l6443l0l6708l22l14l0l6l6l0l390l3339l2-9.3l17l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1366&bih=564&wrapid=tlif132586727051010&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl

Anyhow, things are starting to look up after a few depressing weeks.

The visas are ready and I am looking forward to few days shopping in London and catching up with my friends.

After that I will be able to concentrate on my Portuguese and maybe try to find work. Although it is not sure I will be able to work. Apparently I may not be given a work permit, only the 5 year visa. I am not sure how I can get a work permit after that! We’ll see. Now we know that in Brazil, it is all about Jeitinho!

I can’t wait to get my container with my motorcycle gear. I plan to get a BMW again. I know, I said I would never buy (ever ever ever again) a BMW… I eat my hat… but as I said, all in Brazil is about Jeitinho. BMW bikes are expensive enough that only top earners can afford them. By joining then the BMW motorcycle club, it would give me access to influential people, hopefully! That’s my evil plan bouaaahahahahah!!!!!  (“mad laugh”). As you can see, there is a method to my madness! J

There are few investment banks branches in Rio and apparently lots of “niche” hedge funds in Leblon. Maybe I can get some contacts via the BMW MC club…. Time will tell.

In any case the Beemer will be my travel bike, in 5 year’s time, when we go round the world. Yes that IS our medium term plan: motorcycling round the world. Surely, if you know me you cannot expect I would forget about that. I spent 2 years learning Russian to cross Siberia and Mongolia! I “bloody” WILL use it!!!  ;-P

Alistair will get an F800GS, it is a good one. I want to get the G650GS (which is pretty much the old single Funduro 650 revamped). I know that bike inside out considering how many times we had to repair my old one when travelling round south America!

So lots of things to look forward to. I like plans J

Happy New Year everyone, and I hope you have lots of cool plans too!

Trying time...

It's been a long time since my last post. A lot happened but nothing I wanted to talk about.

The never ending saga of our visas... An email with bad news, a rushed return to England... a funeral... that's life.

The day day before we came back from the UK, the friend who was looking after the dog in my flat contacted me to tell me that the electricity had been cut in the flat. That was nearly the last straw.
"What the hell are we doing (in Brazil)" was my 1st thought. I was so stressed with everything by then.
Anyhow, we came back on a Saturday morning and we went through the bills. They were on direct debit with the owner until about 3  weeks before, when we switched the bills to our names. I then paid the November bill at  the bank but we assumed (wrongly) that the bill for October had been debited.

Anyhow, it was not and hence the electricity was cut off! We spent the weekend using candles and most of the food in the fridge was binned or eaten. Too hot to keep.
The following monday morning by 9am I was at the nearest office of "Light", the electricity company. I asked to pay October's bill if it was due and why on earth it was not added to our November bill?
Well they don't add the bill to the next month. Typical of Brazil, I could not pay the bill at their office because some machine was broken (that happens a lot around here!) so I had to queue in the sun for a bank to open at 10am, pay the bill, then go back to Light to get the electricity reinstated.

Now, few comments if you plan to rent a flat in Brazil: best to keep utility bills at the owner's name. As my neighbour told me, it is so complicated to get them back to the owner name when tenants leave that it is probably best not to change anything. Utility companies have bad reputation about stuff like that! Crazy bureaucracy again maybe???

You may be surprised that I go to the bank to pay my bills? Well, we cannot put the utilities in direct debit, as, without a permanent visa (of at least 1 year) you CANNOT open a bank account in Brazil.
If HSBC bullshit you on their wonderful Premier Account "Ideal for expats", it is a lot of lies and BS! No visa of  over 1 year, no bank account... unless of course Jeitinho... do you know someone high up in HSBC Brazil that can arrange this for you? One of my friend does, and despite the fact she has no visa, is not leaving here, does not meet any of the requirements to get a Premier Account... she still has one! Jealous me?!

The thing is, everything is very difficult  to get done in Brazil but nothing is impossible.. If you know the right personne in the right place. Jeitinho. You will hear often this word in Brazil. It's all about who you know.

Anyhow, we finally got some godo news yesterday. Our visas (after about 3 months of incompetence by someone not to be named here) have finally been approved! We can go back  to the UK in January to pick them up! at least some progress. We  can then get our container shipped to Rio. That, again, I fear will be quite a  saga... for what I've heard from other expats it is a real racket business run by custom. And stuff often get stolen as well.
We'll see. I keep saying, we live in hope! :)

Happy Xmas anyone!

What happened to our visas??????????????

Well that’s what we keep wondering!

We were supposed to go back to the UK on the 26^th of October to pick up our visas but… someone along the line f**cked up seriously and for what we understand the visas application had to be cancelled and redone.  With friends like these….  Well colleagues really, people who should be able to do  their jobs but seem incapable of such a thing, once again!

So we delayed, and re-delayed our flights booking. We were supposed to leave on the 15^th of Nov. but then again we had to cancel that. We did a provisional booking for 1^st of Dec. although there is no guarantee that the visas will be ready by then. But in another hand, flights between Rio and Europe are so full that you have to book well in advance!

It will be a year by the time we get our container! I don’t expect it to arrive before March /April.. so yes a year for Alistair as he arrived here on the 5^th of April.

Talking of container, our friend Adriano who is Brazilian and, after 10 years in the US relocated to Rio, finally got his released by Custom, after a looong time!

Now here is the funny thing about importing appliances from overseas.

If you import from Europe the 1^st hurdle will be that in Europe it’s 220V/ 50Htz while in Brazil it is 110V/60Htz.

Don’t gloat if you are North American. You may get the voltage right but there is still another issue that just happened to Adriano.

Well you see, unless you have a big fat expat deal that pay zillions for your accommodation, the chances are, (even like that!) that you end up in a small flat. Kitchens here are tiny. Adriano finally got his appliances but could not get them in his kitchen. He had to demolish a wall to get them in….

Of course the alternative is to buy Brazilian electronics…hmm…

Then you have to find furniture, and hey! Flat packed furniture is cheaper…  Well I can confidently assure you: It ain’t Ikea!!!!!

We bought a flat packed Wardrobe from Ponto Frio. It came with 66 bits of woods of various sizes and HUNDREDS of nails, screws, bits and pieces including glue…. It took a full Sunday and a bank holiday afternoon for Alistair to do it! And we were still left with unidentified bits of wood! ????

The pleasure of that is, you must love jigsaws! You see, the pieces of woods had numbers in the instructions, but none was printed in the individual pieces. Nice game of guessing what is what.  J

best teacher in Rio for Portuguese!

Vivi is GREAT! I studied with her 4 weeks intensive course where the 2 last weeks were on a one to one basis. I learnt a lot and had great fun. Also the stories she tells you about daily life in Rio will immerse you into the Brazilian culture and way of life! Gripping anectdotes too! Ask her about the BOPE invading the favela near to her house! Jaw dropping!

http://portuguesewithvivi.wordpress.com/