Back on the Block

After a rather interesting 5 weeks abroad, it is wonderful to be back in Sao Paulo with both feet on the ground. The constant humming of helicopters overhead, the pollution, and the wonderful crusty bread. Oh how I have missed them! My 35th birthday was spent at a golf course between SP and Rio, at a St. Andrews Society function. The aging and extensive grounds of the club were a curiosity in themselves. I had a flashback to Thailand in the quantity of livestock roaming around at leisure, but the quality of the animals was certainly Brazilian. Geese, ducks, preening roosters, and the occasional vain chicken were on the loose, as were a number of magnificent parrot-like birds and of course dogs and cats. The hotel rooms were located in freestanding rectangular bungalows containing strips of ten rooms apiece lined up in "bunkers" at seemingly random parallel locations. Instead of walking out onto the lawn or terrace, the sliding door at one end of the very plain rectangular room was closed off with a lean-to of concrete punctured regularly with small portholes. Although I found it strange at first, (almost prison-like), the effect was rather nice. The patterns the portholes made against the plain interior as the sun moved through the day was actually lovely. And so Oscar Niemeyer redeemed himself in my eyes. Indeed, on the very plain wall of our humble room was a plaque stating that we were staying in a little piece of history. A building which Niemeyer (famous Brazilian post-modern architect) had designed in the 1950's. Cool! Wish I had taken a photo to show you.
Next year perhaps....