The importance of being a "Fish"

Ok so I drafted a blog entry as my last goodbye from Brazil which I worked on on Wednesday (i have had a week off work after getting back from Brazil.... ahh bliss) but something rather more important and very special happened to me on Wednesday evening which I am pretty sure I have told everyone who reads this blog in person about - apologies if not :)

Rich took me out for a very special dinner on Wednesday night to welcolme me back from Brazil and my six week adventure abroad. The venue was perfectly set twenty four stories up a swanky tower block near Liverpool Street and is in actual fact one of Gary Rhodes' restaurants. The meal was totally exquisite and the company even better. Rich acted 'normally' throughout the meal and at the end of it totally unexpectedly asked me if I would marry him. I won't go into details on my blog as I feel it is inappropriate to do so but needless to say that I have accepted his proposal and he has made me the happiest girl in the world. Every time he mentions the fact that I am going to be his wife or he refers to me as his fiancee, I literally melt and the biggest smile crosses my face. I am SO happy and I love him SO much.

I feel at this precise moment that it is important to share a further little detail with you, when I do get married to him I will become Mrs Fish (!) fine by me but as some of you know I have a bad track record with fish of the goldfish kind. I was rather surprised when I got back from my trip to find that we had a little friend sharing our home with us in Stevenage, his name was Sundance and he was a goldfish that Rich bought after winning 'Butch' at the funfair that passed through town last week. Butch sadly passed away after one day but Sundance was a happy little fish until Rich asked me to change the water for him yesterday and I promptly dropped him on the worktop in the kitchen and then in my panic and haste I also dropped him on the floor. He seemed to be ok after I got him back into the tank but sadly this morning Rich found him floating on the surface of the tank.

Geeeeez how bad to I feel? He has been Rich's company over the last few days and I have killed him. I realize that that they were buddies (well as much as one can be buddies with a 'fish') but he was important to him and perhaps he might begin to think that I have no regard for fishes of ALL kinds.......... I think I have some making up to do to him, oh goody ;)

Ps. Our little place now feels very empty without Sundance :(

"The one where she got back home safe and sound"

Well the rest of my time in Rio was tremendous helped spectacularly by the lovely group of people I hung out with in my last four days. Thank you Sabine, Sam, Nathan and Nicola - you were all lovely and I really appreciated the send off from the bus stop. Despite the torrential rain on my last day in Rio they helped me with my bags and waited with me for the bus to arrive so they could wave me off. How nice :)

Well I can't say that those last four days were entirely Caipirinha free, in fact my last proper night out was spent in Lapa (where it seems that all the hot, young and trendy things hang out) underneath the arches of an aquaduct surrounded by hundreds of Brazilians listening to some improvised MCing and drumming which was tinged every so often by the strong smell of urine. You can't beat that kind of atmosphere. I swear that my eyes were nearly popping out of their sockets as I watched in awe and amazement the incredible dancing that took place under the arches. When God was dishing out talent, rhythm, love of life, confidence and sexiness he definitely dished out the largest portion to the Brazilians.

You know if you see someone you fancy in an English Bar and you can spend all night ogling at them wandering if they have noticed you and whether you should go and talk to them. In the end up you leaving the bar in disgust and kicking yourself because some slightly drunker person had the gall to chat to the person you quite liked and you never had the chance to approach them. You swear to yourself that had it not been for them you would have approached them for a chat.....

None of the above applies to the Brazilians, neither men nor women, especially when it comes to a chance to practice their English with a foreigner. They have a great curiosity about tourists and so will approach you for a chat whenever and however they can. This makes for a very interesting evening when you look around and see lots of drunk tourists and lots of sober Brazilians having chats and promptly snogging the pants off each other.

Also what can happen is that you go straight in for the kiss and then realize you can't communicate with one another so you spend the rest of the night getting your friend to translate for you, yeah, thanks Nicola ;)

Anyway the journey back was long and boring and I was desperate to get back safe and sound to Rich and my Mum and Dad. As I was so shattered when I got in to Madrid I went through passport control three times in a state of total confusion as dumb Spaniard after dumb Spaniard sent me the wrong way to get to my check in gate.

Thank you to you all for staying in touch with me and for reading all about my awfully big adventure. You were a tower of strength to me when I needed a little push.

It wasn't until I was back on home soil that I realised quite how much I was worried about staying safe out there. There were a few horror stories that I can share with you all personally if you fancy hearing them but suffice to say I came away from Brazil with a great impression of the country and dying to get back.

Next time i'll take Rich with me though.

No more Caipirinha....... please?!!!!

YUCK. Today I have had only three hours sleep. I got in at six this morning and woke up at 9.30 with a text message going off in my ear - thanks hun ;)

Well needless to say that I have been suffering from too much alcohol and too little sleep today made slightly worse when i was advised by Hokin that Coconut water was the best cure for any hangover (this was good advice but what I saw on my way back from the shop was BAD). I promptly went next door for my ´fix´ and bumped into a very unconsious Luke (the other half of the couple i met in the Pantanal) who was being carried in by two people from another hostel on our street. At first glance it looked like he had been duffed up and to my horror his lovely wife was nowhere to be seen and their room mate insinuated that he had been beaten up and she had been kidnapped and held to ransom. My heart literally fell to my stomach and i felt really sick (for other reasons other than too much alcohol consumption). I asked if she had come home and he said that he hadn´t seen her - the muppet (as he shall now henceforth be called) went and checked their room and lo and behold she was there fast asleep.

I later learned that when I went home at 6am they went off to the beach got even more drunk, one of the two Irish guys went into the sea and nearly drowned as the sea here can have really strong currents. Aisling went in after him whilst Luke signalled for some help from the road. He was rescued and took his very sorry self back home whilst the remaining three kept drinking. Aisling went home another hour later (9am) and the other two promptly passed out at the bar around the corner. ANYTHING could have happened to them as it was they got off likely when some passers-by merelly rubbed their lipsstick all over their faces, hence why I thought they were hurt............ bloody hell!!

Out of a very frightening and hungover start of the day for me I then went on to interview someone for my dissertation and i also went for a tour around the national library which is an utterly divine speciman of early twentieth century architecture.

It is now 10pm and I am off to bed - oh and guess what on my back from town I saw Luke and the two Irish guys.... they were on their fifth or sixth beer. Some people just dont learn do they?

Lucky Stars

Well these last ten days have been really great fun, hence the lack of blog posting!!

Having arrived from Ilha Grande just over a week ago i feel like my feet haven´t touched the ground. First there was the offer of staying here and working at the youth hostel full time, something which i of course kindly refused as I think Rich would have been tempted to come over here to kill the Swedish hostel owner himself....... :)

Then there was the evening of Forro - which means ´for all´ and is a really good type of Brazilian music to dance and listen to. Well when they say ´for all´ they cleary didn´t include me because as much as the Brazilian guy tried to teach me that it was two steps to the left and two to the right my body would go one to the lfet and one to the right.......... aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh! How bloody embarrasing. And to make me feel worse he would just step away from me show me how bloody easy it was and then I would still get it wrong.

I also happened to arrive when the weather was really hot - so of course to make up for the fact that the weather has been pretty average everywhere else i have been i have bought myself a Brazilian bikini and tried my best to get a tan. Unfortunately I am not one of those lucky people (Laura Church, Helen Marchant and Naomi Marsh) who just have to look at the sun and they go brown so it has been a delicate process over a few days. The weather turned nasty at the weekend so no more beach for Tania (apart from today when it was hot!).

I have also been doing some studying and making contacts with people for interviews etc. and i have been to the theatre and ooohhhh i have also been shopping. Quite a lot of shopping in fact but hey what the heck - you only live once right?

And on Saturday we decided to go to a concert in Lapa, THE place to go out in in Rio. The location is underneath the arches of a bridge and the place is teeming with hot young things and lots and lots of vendors selling caipirinha...... that was my downfall i think. I dont remember much of the concert, i do remember how good the fifth or sixth caipirinha tasted and I shockingly remeberred the next morning that i got the bus home on my own whilst in a slightly emotional state, i do remember getting a taxi after the bus ´cos the bus went past my stop still feeling a little sad and i do remember telling the security guard how sad i was feeling and that I really missed Rich........... so that is the effect of the caipirinha. Ahem slightly embarrased, but not as bad as the girl and the guy i was out with, one slept in the wrong bed and the other was sick on themselves. Lovely. Maybe too much detail!

So Rio is FAB and I am definately coming back here again to Brazil with Rich. Definately. Especially if he does well in the gameshow tonight. Good luck baby, I am with you all the way :)

Red Sun, Red Moon and Party Time!

On my super long journey from Campo Grande to Ilha Grande via Rio we saw the most amazing red sunset but what was even more breathtaking was that it cast its light onto the moon so that all we could see once the sun had set in the dark sky was the full moon and it was bright red........ wow!

Anyway after 32 very long hours we finally arrived in Ilha Grande which at the weekend is full of Brazilians taking some time out to enjoy the sun (as if they don´t get enough) I mean it is winter here now and on the island it was at least 32c, wow!

Just to give you some background to the island - no cars are allowed on there apart from emergency vehicles, it is also protected against over construction - so bulidings are limited. It used to be leper colony and in recent times was a prison for the most dangerous criminals in Brazil, naturally because of these reasons the island remains relatively unspoilt. Apparently Mick Jagger has holidayed here and on my second day I walked two to three hours through the rainforest to get to one of the world´s top ten beaches. It was beautiful :)

On the way back it was deserted and we were greeted by the tiniest and most tame monkeys I have ever seen, i and the group have some great photos.

Anyway I had to tear myself away from the island and also the great people i had spent a week with, thank you to Luke and Aisling, Mette and Christian. Hope we can meet up again real soon - shouldn´t be too hard as Mette and Christian are Danish and have invited us all over to Copenhagen to visit them, of course Rich has to some too as they all feel like they know you already!!

Back in Rio now for some studying and I am off to the sugarloaf mountain this afternoon in time for sunset, ahhh what a life.

Before I forget Rich and I would like to invite you all to our Brazilain themed Housewarming Party on the 30th September, we hope you can all make it. The cachaca will be flowing as will the rice and beans :)

Tchau for now xxxxxxx

George and Tania in the Jungle!!

Well this post is named after Marty´s comment (see my last post)!!

Well the jungle turned out to be an incredible experience. Having arrived in Campo Grande to pouring down weather and news of the ´storm´ that had hit this region I was a teeny bit worried about what my adventure was going to be like! After a very long journey to the Pantanal (where we witnessed the storm´s devastation and saw lots of trees in the road) and having been rained on sitting on the back of a truck with no suspension on very bumpy roads we got there and it was FREEZING! We then found out that we were sleeping in hammocks! I kid you not.

Three things that are important when embarking on a trip of this kind, a sleeping bag, a rain coat and some mosquito repellant. I had none of them........ luckily they had blankets, i borrowed a raincoat and it turned out to be even TOO cold for the mosquitoes so in the end i was ok in my hammock. Great big spiders dont like the cold either so it was lucky for us that it was our last day when one the guys in my group discovered the biggest spider I have ever seen nestling on his sock where we all slept. I have photographic proof when I get back if anyone is interested!! It was so big that another guy was convinced it was a tarantula.

Anyway the Pantanal is a great big march area close to the Bolivain border. At the moment it is winter but it is also the dry season and therefore all the wildlife can be seen by the small ponds that are still left before they completely dry out. To name but a few I saw anteaters, monkeys, armadillos, macaws, racoons, giant lizards and iguanas and my personal favourite lots and lots of jacares - to me and you caimen also known as crocodiles. We went horseriding, pirana fishing, walking and boat riding and it was all incredible. The horseriding was my favourite activity - we were allowed to gallop with the horses and the guide even asked me how much experience I had at horseriding as I did it quite well. Personally i think my grandmother´s genes rubbed off on me as apparently she was an extremely profficient rider.

After 10 pretty lonely days it was really nice to hook up with some people and after our three day trip we decided to head off together to Bonito to do some snorkling which had been highly recommend. It was incredible - we floated in wetsuits for two kilometres down a river which had the clearest water I have ever seen and it was just like swimming in a giant aquarium! Massive fish swimming by and little pretty fish and WOW! Apparantly there are even some anaconda´s in the water but luckily i didn´t swim into any of them! We were also told that the earlier group had spotted a caimen lurking about by the side of the river - perhaps I would have not gone in had i known that there was going to be a some small crocs joining me on my little jaunt down the river.

Anyway Rich I am safe and the worst that happened was the bad weather which on our second day got better and discovering that nasty little ticks were burrowing into my feet. I think they are all out now, at least I hope so anyway!!

Now we are all five of us (two couples and me) heading back to Rio and then to an island for the weekend. Think of me on the bus for 24 hours and then think of me on a sandy beach - I can´t bloody wait!!! Please please let it be sunny :)

Oh well at least i have some company now :). Also just found out that my boy will be on TV show which means that if he wins we could come here and do this all over again.

I am having a great time, but sharing this with him would make it best trip in the world.