Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 33 degrees, hot, sunny, but slightly cloudy.
It is Sunday. I am with a super cold. I should have had lunch at the Yacht Club, but I was too sick to go, so I had to cancel.
Today, I do not want to do much—a long walk in the morning to try to open up my breathing and respiratory passages. Walking is good for that and probably everything else. It is also low-impact exercise, helps me lose weight, is good for the mind, and, for me, will probably help get rid of my cold.
Rio de Janeiro is so beautiful, even in its uglier places. Walking along the tree-lined streets or by the sea is all good. What also helps is the weather, especially the temperature. Going for a stroll with temperatures between 20 and 30° is very pleasant, whereas a similar walk I took in England would be at temperatures between 5 and 15°, which is not as enjoyable.
I have often raved about how beautiful Rio is, but England is just as beautiful, in some cases even more so, though it is a different kind of beauty.
My mother lives in a small village with a heavy industrial background and history. The whole region, the Black Country, was immersed in heavy industry, principally glass, where my mother lives, but also steel and other industries that originated at the beginning of the industrial revolution.
My grandfather on my father’s side was a renowned glass cutter who cut glass for the royal family. My step-grandfather on my mother’s side worked in a foundry his entire life, never missing a day.
All these heavy industry businesses have gone, taking with them the pollution and grime. Many of the factories have been torn down for other uses or turned into blocks of flats, often preserving the industry that once operated there. What impressed me while I was in England was the close contact with nature.
The number of birds seems much greater there than here in Rio, Brazil. Even when walking along the canal, there were seagulls, 150 miles from the nearest ocean or sea. In my mother’s back garden, a squirrel would come every day to visit and feed on what I had left for him, particularly the birds.
My mother said she had seen a fox several times in her back garden. I have never seen one. I have seen one a couple of times with Julie, either along the canal or while walking around one of the churchyards near where she lives, and badgers are supposedly everywhere and the size of dogs.
I feel that the contact with nature in England is greater than here in Rio. Not forgetting that Rio is an enormous city with a population of almost 7 million people. We also sometimes forget this. I think it is because it is by the sea, and in England we do not associate large cities, common metropolises, with the coast. In Brazil, 70% of the population lives on the coastline.
My mother lives in Wordsley, a small village only 20 miles from Birmingham, but from her house it’s literally 2 minutes by car to the countryside, with fields, woods, sheep, cows, farmland, etc., and not forgetting the canal network that you cross all the time.
Nature is on my mother’s doorstep, and off to the canal, only 5 minutes away, again, nature is there,and it is so.
After spending seven months in England, I’m a bit surprised at how unaccustomed I’ve become to the heavy traffic, litter, and grime of a big city. Even though I lived in the Black Country, which isn’t typically considered the most beautiful part of England, I didn’t mind it as much as I thought I would. Now, returning to Rio, I notice these urban challenges more than I used to.
Temperature greatly influencesour behaviour and the way we live. I love Rio and love walking in Rio, but walking in one of the parks, nature reserves or along the canal in England is truly sublime for me. Theonly problem is the shitty weather.
Everything in life is a compromise. When you are single, you can do whatever you want and go home at whatever time you want. You have that freedom. However, when you are married, you can’t do whatever you want because somebody is waiting for you at home.
There is always a compromise, and one of the ways to be happy and content in life is to accept compromise and accept who you are. If you don’t, you will be eternally frustrated.
Julie and I have not really spoken for some days now, and I think it will only get worse, and we will become more distant. I am here in Brazil, and she is there in England. I am thinking about her all the time, and I know that only time will heal this.
I have a lot to do. The month is coming to an end, and so is the first half of the year. I’m now thinking about my plans and goals for the second half to finish the year well. Before doing this, I want to review my block site, hopefully before the 1st of July.
I need to structure the site more and get it monetised with Google, as Google has turned me down twice for monetising it through AdSense. This coming week is about making it better; it is all a learning process, and I’m trying to improve.
A lot is going on in my head at the moment: Julie, my mother, Brazil, Yasmin, Nalva, and what I left in England. I have to take each day as it comes.
In bed by 10 p.m.
Thank you.
Thanks for reading this blog post. Please explore my other posts and share your thoughts in the comments section.
Richard
