Having cold showers in January is not what I expected to be doing in my 56th year! However, there is nothing better on a hot steamy night in Rio!

We've had rain on and off since the family left after Xmas. Pity those many poor souls living in sub-standard housing. Heavy flooding has been a problem in some parts of Rio state but we haven't had that in our part of the city though there was a very large clap of thunder that woke us up in the middle of Friday night! We came out the cinema last evening (Saturday) to a downpour again - but we scurried to a restaurant for a meal - and caught the bus home.

The downpour meant that the 1st bloco (street party) of this year's Carnaval was a bit of a wash-out but judging by the noise in the street far into the night, not everyone was deterred. It certainly feels like excitement is mounting - in Rio at least, Carnaval seems a much bigger event than Christmas did.

We were out 'celebrating' our first anniversary in Brazil by going back to Filé, where Kirsty took us early on, still a nice place to get a simple steak! When we add up all the plusses and minuses of being here - the former come out on top! Living in a foreign country pushes the boundaries. At our time of life it's been a great opportunity.

Work for Patrick has picked up apace since the new year - next week we should be preparing samples and might actually get some data soon. Whilst there are no major successes yet this year there is a lot in the pipeline. Fingers crossed and 2013 should be a whole lot more productive than 2012 (when all my time was invested in building the links).

We went to see Lincoln yesterday - in a v middle class cinema in Leblon. We were impressed that the large audience were - as we were - totally enthralled, particularly as most of them were presumably having to follow the often lengthy verbal machinations by means of subtitles. It made me want to read the Gettysburg address and check out Abe Lincoln on wikipedia! The story has a message for all politicians - it would be interesting to be a fly on the wall when Obama watche-s(-d) it!

Hugo has been couch-surfing his way down to South Brasil. We are meeting up with him at Porto Alegre next weekend for Kate's b'day weekend (more of which in the next blog). He's been to Ilha Grande, Paraty, Sao Paulo (Great!), Curitiba, Florianopolis and always seems to find a bed and good company!!

Well I went off to see if I could find Liverpool vs Oldham in the cup and hope it goes the right way (unlike poor Andy Murray's defeat to the Djorkovic this morning). I didnt find anywhere so i returned - Liverpool soon 3-1 down!

Kate is hobbling round the flat today .. She stubbed her little toe! She might add a little of what she's up to so over to Kate now! As Patrick says, January has been a bit of a flat month after the excitement of having everyone here but with Carnaval round the corner, it's difficult not to get infected with the rising buzz.

Many Rio people use Carnaval as a time to escape the city but Hugo's keen to experience it so we'll be going for a second time. Just to illustrate how much more confident we feel this time around, I went to Sambadromo itself this year to buy our tickets (as opppsed to using the online Gringo site) and paid less for 3 tickets than we paid for 2 last year - and we plan to get there and back by public transport!

I was definitely in two minds about getting involved in ex-pat activities again post-christmas but I've found it difficult to extricate myself completely. It's looking as if our english teaching programme is going to start again in March with a different group of students and I went last week to check out the NGO they work for. More on that if and when it gets off the ground.

The monthly International Club talk for January was all about Carnaval and the speaker had brought along a girl who was going to be taking a leading part in one of the parades at the Sambadromo. She brought her costume with her and demonstrated some of the samba routines she'd be doing. While it was fascinating to see the elaborate (but v skimpy!) costume at such close quarters and to watch her shimmying away, it really brought home to me the insurmountable differences between our two cultures!! And there had I been, thinking that, after a year, Brazil seemed less 'foreign' than it had done when we arrived.....