23.11.21 - Mais falso que nota de 3 reais

Halloooo,

Hope all well. This week we've been extensively celebrating Gaby turning 32, including a trip to São Paulo over the weekend, for multiple nights out with friends. I ate my own body weight in pizza and we brought Zila back to stand in for me on washing-up duties while I'm travelling.

On that note, I've been busy researching the finer points of Covid testing and will set off on an epic journey to London tomorrow, starting with 4 hours of buses just to get to the airport - wish me luck, and see you soon!

Oh, and here's another compilation, and a phrase of the week ("mais falsa que uma nota de 3 reais", or "faker than a 3 real note"), which is fairly self-explanatory. 

Ciao for now,

Fred Notice

16.11.21 - Quem com ferro fere, com ferro será ferido

Hallooooooo,

Hope this missive finds you all well - I've been recovering from a cold picked up on the way back from Bahia and preparing my trip to Europe next week, so not much to report here. We've just another bank holiday and long weekend, but since an invite to the Brazilian Grand Prix was not forthcoming we mostly stayed in, except for a rather extravagant barbeque at Claudio's on Saturday.

So I will leave you for now with another compilation, and a bit of tongue-twister of a saying of the week, "quem com ferro fere, com ferro será ferido" - "he who with iron injures, with iron shall be injured", a twist on "live by the sword, die by the sword".

Speak soon!

Fred (Taylor's Version)

09.11.21 - Água salgada, alma lavada

Halloooo,

Hope all well 'n such. 

We're back at home a little worse for the wear after an epic journey home from Barra Grande, a remote outcrop of the Bahia coastline only accessible via chartered boat, after a four-hour bus trip from Salvador - it was lovely and the sunsets and rock pools were amazing and I had an incredible caipirinha in a hollowed-out cocoa plant but on the other hand it rained pretty much constantly, the dirt roads turned to mush and we were left at the mercy of some particularly rapacious local bars.

Then the trip back on Saturday involved 12 hours of non-stop traveling across 8 different modes of transport, with so little turnaround between legs that I only had time to have a wee before boarding the plane because of our heroic and frankly reckless taxi-driver, who whisked us off the dock and across town in record time. Apart from that it was very relaxing and I have brought souvenirs for everyone.

Elsewhere I've made another compilation, and my phrase of the day ("água salgada, alma lavada", or "salt water, washed soul") is a more poetic way of saying "life's a beach".

Speak soon!

Shrimp Fred Rice

02.11.21 - Frango atropelado

Hallooo,

Hope all well. A slightly late email this week because we've been traipsing round sunny Salvador all day. 

We left Indaiatuba after a fraught few days in which a flash flood and a malfunctioning flush mechanism left our living room underwater twice in quick succession, and mad children routinely invaded our kitchen looking for Halloween sweets (this eventually gave way to more organized trick or treating in the neighbourhood, which was quite sweet). On the plus side, we managed to reign in Berry, although apparently she has since escaped under the in-laws watch, so maybe not. And I snuck away to the cinema on Saturday, for the first time in literally years, to watch "Dune" on a massive screen, which was good sandy fun.

On Sunday we went to Viracopos, our local airport, and got the plane to Salvador with the squad of Bahia's #2 football team (not something to shout about according to folks here, but still...), for smoky cinnamon cocktails overlooking the Bay at sunset. The next day we got up at the crack of dawn to raid the hotel breakfast buffet and get a coach to Madre de Deus, deep in the heart of Petrobras refinery territory, where a man and his boat shepherded us around Ilha dos Frades all day. We found a deserted beach, I ordered crab and had to smash it to pieces before sucking the meat out of its legs (quite a grueling eating experience to be honest), and we watched the sun go down in the middle of the bay before heading home, as our cabbie told us about a mad 3-day wedding he got roped into in Angola.

Today we were bundled into a minivan and shown around Salvador itself, along the Carnaval procession route and the bohemian neighbourhood, to a series of forts and coconut stalls, followed by the main covered market and up the Lacerda Elevator, into a church literally covered in gold, and on to a restaurant where I had a whirlwind tour of Bahian cuisine, through the Michael Jackson square,  cocoa nibs ice cream, then home. We said "mum would love it here" at multiple points throughout the trip, for what it's worth. And bits reminded me of Antibes! Particularly the forts.

Tomorrow we're off bright and early across the bay, then down the coast by bus to another remote island, then back again on Saturday to get the flight home. Hopefully speak at some point before then! 

Ciao for now,

Ilha dos Freds

PS: have eaten lots of amusingly-named dishes so far ("acarajé", "vatapá", etc) but I have my eyes on something called "frango atropelado", literally "chicken that's been run over [by a van]"...

26.10.21 - Mais ignorado do que a última fatia de pão

Hallooooo,

Hope all good witchu. Over here we've been holding down the fort, putting up more fences to keep the demon cat in (which obviously still need work, as I had to rescue her up on the roof yesterday), learning pool maintenance, warding off  insect swarms and poisoning warrens, exploring Indaiatuba in between rainstorms, and prepping for travels to come. 

Elsewhere I've made another mixtape, and my phrase of the day - which translates to "more overlooked than the last slice of bread" - means, well, overlooked. Apparently enough people skip the last, and perhaps even the first, slice(s) of bread in the bag for this to be an acceptable phrase, which is a sorry state of affairs indeed. 

That will be all - speak soon!

Fred Card Offence

19.10.21 - Falar groselha

Halloooo,

Hope all well, and looking forward to heading over next month! Over here we've been keeping busy with work, cats, gardening, pool-filtering, trip-planning, books-balancing, course-running and general life admin. 

On Saturday we went to São Paulo for a whirlwind tour, during which we met up with multiple family members, handed out gifts, ate platters of sausage and whisked Zila back to ours for a birthday lunch the next day. I also got fully vaxxed, have jabs will travel, etc.

I've made a new mixtape, and my phrase of the day means to "speak gooseberry", or ramble on about nothing in particular. I like it, and intend to use it more often in conversation...

Speak soon!

Would Have Got Away With It If It Weren't For Those Fred-ling Kids

13.10.21 - Uai

Halloooo,

A rather late update this week as we're just back from a long weekend in Minas Gerais, the next state over, visiting long-lost cousins. It was a lot of fun - torrential rain basically every day we were there, but we made up for it with endless board games and an extremely aggressive approach to offering food, which I'm told is par for the course there (I was basically never not eating). Plenty of material for my humourous Instagram account.

Rain aside, it was hard to coordinate so many people, and the one journey we made into Belo Horizonte ended in ignominy as we accidentally left Patricia at a covered market, then went to see a big lake in the dark but had to pull the plug when we nearly got hit by lightning and I was almost apprehended by a police sting operation (long story, which we will no doubt chuckle about in the years to come).

BUT, yesterday we packed up and set off early and managed to visit the historic, extremely hilly city of Ouro Preto, via some wild foggy scenery straight out of Middle Earth. No rain, a lovely meal and plenty of photos later we got in the car and drove through the night (turns out Minas is absolutely massive), getting home to some very anxious cats around 4am.

In other news, I have booked to come to the UK on November 24th and fly back from Nice on December 5th, which will hopefully be enough time to see everyone. Gaby has decided not to travel this time, because of work issues and also a fear of being turned away as a Brazilian with no pressing need to be in the UK... but we're working on it so we can both come over for longer next summer. Looking forward to seeing you soon!

Oh and I've made a new compilation, and my phrase of the day is a fairly meaningless interjection they say a lot in Minas, and is (probably apocryphally) attributed to the English coming over to build trains, mine for gold etc and asking everyone "Why?" a lot.

Ciao for now,

Ouro Fred-o