Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro: 24oC, warm and overcast.
No exercise this morning, just a long, long walk. Some small exercises in bed before getting up. Then I make my bed and get ready to hit the street. It is 4:50 in the morning, dark, and a little chilly for Cariocas. It makes me feel alive and well.
The colder it is, the more it reminds me of England. Cold, chilly, windy, overcast days give me a feeling of nostalgia. At the same time, it is good and makes me feel alive. It is a climate I am not used to anymore, at least for a short time.
Knowing that I would live in this kind of weather for a long time or forever would be impossible to even think about. In Brazil, particularly Rio, I’m used to warm, hot days every day.
It is currently summer in England. I recently came across a post about someone in England complaining that it was almost 30°C (80°F) and how uncomfortable it was making them. Their clothes started sticking to them, which was extremely annoying and uncomfortable. From my perspective, 30°C seems like nothing.
We are used to 30°C on a normal day in my area. It gets even more interesting in the summer, where temperatures typically range between 37 and 40 degrees, with peaks of 45°C.
Cariocas, in general, complain about the high summer temperatures, but I don’t see anybody moving to cooler places. Fabio and Dudu, who are Cariocas, moved to Sao Paulo to live 450 kilometres south of Rio. Sao Paulo is not a tropical city like Rio; it is colder in the winter and farther away from the equator.
The South of Brazil isn’t as cold as England, but the lack of central heating in homes makes it feel much colder. I’ve experienced more intense cold in São Paulo than in England when inside a house or flat without central heating or a heater, which is quite uncommon. The homes feel like giant fridges or freezers.
I have always told my Brazilian friends that it’s not logical to wear a coat or five layers of clothes inside your own home. When I lived in São Paulo for the second time, I lived alone in a small bachelor pad near Avenida Paulista (the main street in São Paulo). I lived a little far from work, so I had to get up early to be there for 7:00 am.
It was so cold in the winter that I used to get up half an hour before the right time. I would go to the kitchen and light all the gas stove burners and the oven. Then, I’d make sure all the windows in the flat were closed, leaving only the kitchen door open to let the warm air spread through the flat.
After that, I would go back to bed for half an hour so that the flat would be reasonably warm when I got up to have a shower. Having a shower in a cold environment is torture. And to answer your question, no, I never set fire to the flat, so everything was good.
I will return to England in late autumn or early winter. My mother has central heating, so there should be no problem. I am also looking forward to experiencing some cold weather and taking walks along the canals near where my mother lives.
However, living in cold weather is not my preference for the rest of my life. If I were to live in Europe and not Brazil in the future, I would prefer to live in Spain, Portugal, or Italy. Currently, Portugal is my top choice, with Spain in second place. Only time will tell.
I am steadily working on building the websites. I realise that I have taken on a lot of work and responsibility, but I find it rewarding. I am gradually gaining more confidence, and I believe the situation will be completely different quickly.
Nalva arrived home, excited to cook. We ate more than we should, but as always, the food was very good and tasty.
In bed by 11:00 pm.
Thank you.
Thanks for reading this blog post. Please explore my other posts and share your thoughts in the comments section.
Richard
