Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro: 28oC, warm, sunny, and slightly overcast.
Tuesday is the third day of living in Flamengo with my ex-wife. Until now, everything has been OK, and it should still be in the early days. I get up early in Flamengo at 4:30 a.m. and am out in the street by 5:00 a.m. Today,
I decided not to go to the park to exercise but to walk. I wanted to walk around the neighbourhood to get to know and remember where I had lived for twenty years. I walked from Praia de Botafogo up Rui Barbosa, a charming street with its tall, lush trees and imponent buildings facing the Bay and into Praia de Flamengo.
I did not want to walk in front of the beach; I preferred to stay inside the neighbourhood, walking on the pavement in front of the buildings as time was short today. When I reached Rua Barao de Flamengo, I turned in as if making a round trip and turning back on myself. Halfway along the street, a small botequim was already open at half past five.
There were already people having coffee, a Salgado(a Brazilian snack), breakfast, etc. There were three tables in the street in front of the two large opening entrances, so I seized the opportunity to sit and have a coffee outside whilst the sun was beginning to appear. SUBLIME!
I love sitting outside a bar, restaurant, bakery, etc, drinking something, especially in a city like Rio where the weather is propitious to such a simple but profound pleasure as stopping, sitting, and watching the world go by with a good coffee.
Next to me at another table were the owner and friends, men who worked along the street selling parking spaces and were talking and arguing about football and then politics, the two main subjects in Brazil for the last fifty to one hundred years.
We like to talk about the weather in England, but it is football and politics in Brazil, and maybe women far after for Brazilian men. I did not enter the conversation as I just wanted to stay quiet and be alone, to appreciate a good coffee with tranquillity in the early morning hours in Rio de Janeiro. It is so GOOD!
After the coffee, I bought two coxinhas(a Brazilian chicken pastry snack) at the same botequim, said my goodbyes to everyone and continued on my way home. At the end of the street is a prominent 24-hour newsstand that almost sells everything imaginable or possible.
Again, I took advantage of the situation and bought incense. Four sticks of various kinds to your choice for R$10.00. I went shopping at six o’clock in the morning, and besides all this, I was very well dealt with in both establishments.
When I was a child growing up in England, my father had a newsagent that he would open up at five o’clock in the morning to catch the workers going to and from the factories at changing shifts. When I was young, I was not even a teenager, yet I would go and work with him in the shop.
My father was a workaholic; he loved to work and attend to customers well. I think this rubbed off a little on me as I understand the importance of listening and receiving people well, giving the best possible experience without being too overbearing.
My pupils at the school commented many times on how well and unique they were received and how helpful the treatment was. Supposing I am not well received at an establishment in a good, pleasant and professional way, whilst also not being thanked or receiving any gratitude after paying, it is difficult for me to return.
My father had also taught me the importance of quickly adding up in my head. Customers would enter the shop, taking various things simultaneously from the shelves or counter in front of us, expecting us to add up the total immediately and without a mistake.
I would also have to receive the money in cash and immediately know in my head how much change I would have to give, and again, I could not be wrong! Nowadays, shop assistants need a calculator to sum up two items to charge the customer and again to calculate the change. It seems to me that people are even lazy to think nowadays.
When I arrived home, Yasmin and Nalva had already left, so I at least had the flat to myself for the first part of the day; nice. I showered, changed, and gave classes for the rest of the day. Yasmin arrived home from school at about 1 pm, and she made her own lunch, which was quite nice and made me proud.
Moving back to Flamengo has become a culture shock for me from living in Copacabana, but this is not the time to talk about it now.
In bed by 9.30 pm.
Thank you.
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Richard
