All well in SazPaz; I've been ambling around a fair bit, including a stroll up the Avenida Paulista while Gaby got her eyebrows plaited (or something), where I found an awesome bookshop, featuring a giant suspended wooden dragon and a reading area filled with beanbags. Apparently it's quite famous, and I unwittingly wandered into several high-profile books signings while I was there. I stocked up on local guide books - including one called "Comida de Ogra", about all the places in town where you can "eat like an ogre" - and plan to put my insider knowledge to good use in the near future.
Then on Saturday morning we went up into the mountains for the wedding of one of Gaby's friends, which took place by a lake with rose petals and koi carp and a string quartet, and was so excruciatingly lovely that Gaby now wants one of her own, never mind that we're already married (NB: there being no small children in her family to be ring-bearers, she has asked that we import/people-traffick Siobel, Roisin and/or Ossian to do the job).
Proceeded to drink many a caipirinha, meet up with the stag do survivors, who took to calling me "Harry" all day (in reference to either Prince Harry, or Harry Potter, or both), and feast on meat and cake at great length. At one point the bride and groom burst into an elaborate dance routine, heralding the boogie section of the party, and everyone dispersed around 6 after a rousing live-band version of "Smoke on the Water", to stagger home and eat leftovers. Twas most fun - photos to follow, no doubt.
The next day we went en famille to an amazing ex-church, decked out with brigadeiro displays, photo montages and soundsystems, for a surprise birthday party thrown by Susy et al for Gaby's grandma. By the fifth course all the food and drink started to blur together, but I remember it being rather awesome.
We're having a dinner here tomorrow for Adny's birthday, and also to celebrate Gaby getting the job (which, by the way, means we're going to the States and coming back slightly earlier than planned, and spending the last weekend of September in New Orleans, eating oysters and shouting "STELLAAA" into random windows, before moving on to Alabama...); I hope to get properly signed up with the Sao Paulo DMV (the worst place on earth) at the third time of asking on Friday so I can get on with learning to drive; and we're already planning our next culinary raid of the city next weekend. There will be brunch.
My titular phrase of the week was suggested by Gaby, and translates roughly as "sowing green to reap mature", meaning to ask someone questions in a hinting kind of way, in order to get confirmation of something you already suspect. I still don't entirely understand the concept, even after numerous examples, but apparently it's fairly common here, so make of it what you will.
Thus concludes my weekly missive; let us chat tomorrow, and celebrate with the slaughtering of a hound.
Love,
Fre(ebir)d
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