New Year's Salutations

Hey everyone

Time for a quick update which is LONG overdue....you probably thought I'd fallen off the planet again. I'm back from Brazil now and suffice to say, had a fabulous time. Sadly I didn't really get the time to do any more blogging updates as internet access became kind of tricky once we left Uberaba... Xmas in the sun comes highly recommended though! The resort we stayed in over Xmas and New Year, Porto Seguro, was lovely and the temperature was in the region 30-35 oC - amazing! Sitting on the beach, taking a dip in the sea and sipping a cocktail on Dec 25th was quite an experience, I can tell you and on several occasions I couldn't help thinking about the freezing cold conditions you were all enduring back home...heh heh heh. In fact, Brazilians actually celebrate Xmas officially on Dec 24th, so on the evening of Xmas Eve we had drinkies, gave and received presents and had a big slap-up meal (the latter happened at midnight! Weird, I bet you're thinking....) The next day mainly involved recovering from one's hangover.

Unfortunately after the journey home proved to be a bit of a nightmare. One of our connecting flights was cancelled at very short notice, which led to a domino-type effect that meant we arrived home about a day and a half late. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's waiting around at airports and not knowing if you're going to get onto the next flight or not is even worse. We did manage to have a quick look around Lisbon (Portugal) in the process (well the Vasco De Gama shopping centre to be exact) so that was kind of a bonus. But I just couldn't wait to get home and to my bed. I don't sleep well on planes either and one of the flights we were on had the worst reclining seats ever... By the time me and Gustavo got back we were totally knackered and worn out. To add to that, on getting home I then proceeded to pick up an ear infection and stinking cold/cough!! Was this God's way of telling me that I should have remained in Braaaaazil? Or punishing me for being nasty about all the freezing millions of people back home?? Could be! Fortunately I'm feeling better now, but it's been a shock being back in this v. chilly climate as you can imagine...horrid, in fact. Ho hum. Back to life, back to reality, as Caron Wheeler once said.

I've since managed to catch the two-part Dr Who finale, courtesy of my very nice Mum recording and posting it to me. Enjoyed it on the whole: David T was on great form and enjoyed an excellent rapport with Bernard Cribbins, John S was (relatively) more reigned-in than his previously OTT performance and actually had some good Masterly-moments, I loved the revisiting the past companions bit in the last 20 minutes or so too (even if was a bit hard to stomach that the Doc could "hold off" his regeneration for so long) and Matt Smith looks engagingly zany, but also kind of sweet, from his initial introduction. Less satisfying was all that stuff with the Time Lords - well, Timothy Dalton was very imposing and impressive but I just didn't get the whole storyline with them - found it too hard to follow - am I being thick? I would have liked to have seen better interaction between the Time Lords and the Doc/Earth people too - all they really did was stand in the Eternity gate thing and spout some dialogue.

Well I best go but I will try and put up some pics of my Brazilian experience soon and come back with some other posts...

And before I forget, I hope you all had a totally excellent Xmas and a Happy New Year to all of you!!

OC xx