26.07.22 - Se não tiver confusão não tem graça

Hallooooo,

Hope all well! We are shacked up in sunny London town after a 24-hour odyssey from Brazil followed by a whistlestop tour through the Fens and beyond, and preparing to move on to the Côte d'Azur!

Our flight over went about as well as it could have - the only delays were caused by our inability to read basic information, and following the crowd into a huge customs line instead of actually going towards our own gate, but getting out at Gatwick was a breeze. We had a bit of trouble getting our hi-tech all-bluetooth hire car working without much in the way of working internet but were soon on our way to Huntingdon, where we stayed the night at a friend of Gabi's and stocked up on English delicacies like pork pies and raspberries.

The next day we took a while hitting the road due to more technical snags but eventually got to Bungay for a pub lunch / Sunday roast with grandpa, then on to Brenna & Callum''s for an intense trampoline workout, song recitals and a crash course in Brazilian TikTok. We then gave Ossian and Callum a lift into London, returned the car and headed to our Airbnb in Finsbury Park, which is basically a basement but a very well-stocked and well-located one. 

Yesterday we were in Camden for lunch, then Gabi hit the shops while I stayed on technically working, and we met up with Ben in the evening before heading to our old haunt Pappagone's for a pizza - not 100% sure what the plan for today is yet but food is a central concern as always. 

In the meantime I have a new compilation which I found down the back of the sofa, and my phrase of the day means "if there's no confusion there's no fun", which seems to apply so far.

See you soon!

Frod Hull

19.07.22 - Só a capa da gaita

Halloooo,

Hope all well. 

Over here we are, as they say, "só a capa da gaita", or "just the bag of the bagpipes", after an exhausting week of herding builders around and fitting everything into our new flat, jigsaw-style, all while trying to hold down a steady job and stop the cats from weeing everywhere in protest of their newly-confined state.

I also went to my first ever kid's party in Brazil (for Heitor's first birthday) at a dedicated soft play venue nearby, and went into town on Saturday to do a big shop, get a top-up shot of AstraZeneca and become reacquainted with the big city. It's good to be back, but suffice to say it's time for a break, so it's just as well we are off abroad on Friday night!

Oh, and I made a new compilation. Speak soon!

Fred

12.07.22 - Arroz de festa

Hallooooo,

Hope all well in the sunlit uplands, we'll be heading there soon so it had better be! In the meantime we have finally cast off the shackles of rurality and have moved back to the Big City. The move itself went about as swimmingly as a gruelling three-day process could have gone, but the flat is a) exponentially smaller than the house we moved out of and b) not finished yet. 

None of the rooms have doors yet, for example (not even the bathroom), I was almost burnt to a crisp by exposed wiring and there was no functioning kitchen sink until yesterday. The builders, with whom we are now essentially coexisting during working hours, are bafflingly slow but hopefully now we're constantly around to tell them exactly what to do, they'll pick up the pace (out of awkwardness if nothing else).

Having said that, now that we're past the scariest part (Saturday morning, when the movers filled up almost every square inch of the flat with furniture) and have made a significant dent in the cardboard boxes, it's looking pretty cool and, crucially, rent-free. It's also a massive relief not to have to look over our shoulders for fleeing cats anymore, even if Berry seems a bit heartbroken by the lack of a back garden. I reckon it should be fully liveable by the time we leave for three weeks in late July.

No compilation this week for obvious reasons, but my phrase of the week is a good'un - people who are seemingly present at every social gathering are referred to as "arroz de festa", i.e. "party rice", a nod to the tradition of throwing rice at newlyweds (which is a thing outside Brazil, right?). A harbinger of a newly revitalized social calendar for Gabi and I, hopefully!

Speak soon,

"Life is a Fred that someone untangled" - Fernando Pessoa

05.07.22 - No frigir dos ovos

Halloooo,

Bit late with the old weekly email today, there's plenty to be getting on with as we enter the combined moving house & Eurotrip endgame... 

On Thursday the men in white coats are coming to box everything up, and take everything to São Paulo on Saturday, so we're going to be in limbo for a few days. We're in two minds about leaving - on the one hand it's nice and warm, and the neighbourhood had a jolly "Festa Julina" shindig and bonfire at the weekend, but on the other hand our running water has been cut off for the past 24 hours, so I don't think we'll be too sorry to see the back of the countryside for a while. 

Elsewhere I've made another mixtape, and my phrase of the day means "at the frying of the eggs", which basically means "when all is said and done", or "when the chips are down". I have never heard it said out loud, but I intend to bring it back into fashion. 

Speak soon!

Fred Red Wine