New post, new location

So here I am, in Rio. What a novelty to be posting a blog not from the kitchen counter in Bethnal Green, or in the computer room at the Institute, but from the sixteenth floor of an apartment block in Leblon. You can’t get more chic than this – alright, maybe Ipanema

If I lean slightly to my left I can look northwards, to the statue of Christ on the other side of the lagoon and beneath it the clipped course of the Jockey Club. All around are hills, full of green – the vestiges of the jungle that once dominated the area before the Portuguese arrived. I’ve got the glass door which leads onto the balcony open and I can hear the traffic bustling below.

At the moment the top of my head feels like it is 2 metres higher than it should be, while the ears are partly blocked, the result of an almost 12-hour flight from Paris which got in this morning. And as most joureys go, it was relatively uneventful. Which is even more annoying, especiallysince I anticipated problems. Last time I brought a lap top into the country Customs wanted to charge me import duty. This time I was prepared, with a receipt and a bill proving I don’t live here just in case. Instead I just got waved through.

Typical.

Part of me feels I should get cracking with arranging interviews and organising who I’m going to meet and – more importantly – where I’m going to stay in Fortaleza when I head up there on Sunday. But with a brain as fuzzy as mine, I don’t think i’m good for anything. Instead I’m going to potter down to the beach and maybe wander over to Leme to check out exactly where Marrom’s capoeira academy is (after my non-appearance there two years ago I think I should try and go at least once this trip).

But before I do all that theres’something which has to be done first: a burger and an acaí at one of the quisoques on the street corner here. Or maybe a bargain ‘comida a quilo’, where I can load up on buffet foods, including some much-anticipated (and cheap relative to the UK) steak. I’m going to have to economise, but I think I’m entitled to at least one splurge.