Happy Birthday Will!! Your birthday always makes us think about who we were, what were our thoughts, what were our concerns and what we were doing 27 years ago! In Holland parents get equal billing on their offsprings' birthdays. Whilst it is definitely YOUR birthday - it's a very special day 'ook voor ons'!
This should be our last weekend in hotels so we're spending today by the pool on the rooftop. This morning there's been a swimming race across the bay from one end of Copacabana beach to the other - about 3 km. How about it Ruth & Jess?! Air temperature 29 & water 19 degrees. It seems to be the local equivalent of the marathon as hundreds of people took part. The fastest guy did it in 40 mins.
Next weekend is easter & we've been invited by Leo Borghi (P's equivalent at the uni out here) to join him at his house in the hills 80 km north of Rio and then (fingers crossed as nothing is ever certain here till it happens) we move into an apart-hotel for up to 2 months & get a bit more independence.
Anyway, what have we been up to since our last blog? Quite a lot as it happens so I'll try to keep it brief(ish!).
I've been on a morning's course about teaching English to kids from favelas and there was an (unexpected) assumption that we (5 of us) were all up for getting involved without further delay. Watch this space!
I've also had my first experience of visiting a favela when I accompanied 3 women who organise kids birthday parties in conjunction with the Luta pela Paz group (now of Prince Harry fame). This was a group of 13 unpacified favelas which are still run by drug lords, all of whom had apparently been told of our visit but we still had instructions to open the car windows, take off our seat belts & put the lights on inside the car once we entered the favela. We were told it's OK to look around but don't make eye contact. The visit passed without incident & I now know what the inside of 1 favela looks like & what capoeira is!
I've been to an interesting talk on Brazilian culture by a Professor of social anthroplogy which touched on many of the areas that we'd already noticed as being different in the relatively short time we've been here.
We've also done a bit more exploring in Rio. (Photos in the March photo album). Last weekend we went on a walking tour of the sights of downtown Rio & yesterday we caught a bus to Pao do Acucar & spent a happy few hours walking a nature trail, watching the cable cars & rock climbers, exploring a new residential area (Urca - nice views & pleasantly low-rise but a bit out on a limb) & having lunch in a local restaurant that cost us a fraction of what we pay in Copacabana/Ipanema!
We ended up visiting Parque Lage, near the botanical gardens,which has hiking trails up into the Tijuca National Park (an area with conditions close to jungle/rain forest within the boundaries of the city). In theory we could follow a trail up to Corcovado but it's quite a long & steep trek so not even to be contemplated while the weather's this hot!
Patrick spent an informative 3 days this week at a Schlumberger technology Forum - impressed at what the industry can do now compared with 35 years ago - still only 35%recovery on average!! In a week where leaks at North Sea and Brazilian platforms impinge on my activity out here - and a reminder how eager everyone is for petrol at the pumps - our society does have a love-hate relationship with the 'devil's excrement'. Met more BG-Group colleagues and feeling ever more like part of their team. My office at UFRJ got a clean and tidy up and with the HWU flag up seems quite homely. Getting a second local mobile phone working was another accomplishment achieved this week! Things are moving forward on the flat front - fingers crossed as K has said!!

If you've managed to keep reading to this point, thanks for sticking with us!