Argentina!

After the visit to the Dam we were back at the hotel before lunchtime, with the plan of going to the Waterfalls being put back a day to see if the weather would improve. So we decided that we might as well have another trip on the evening rather than just staying at the hotel for the rest of the day, in bad weather. And where else to go but an evening in Argentina, we were so close to the border it seemed a shame not to visit.

As you head over the river the bridge is painted green and yellow on one side and blue and white on the other to mark where the border is. We got to the border point and handed over our passports and I got stamped out of Brazil, Catherine has a temporary Brazil ID card and it was easier for her to travel using that rather than her British passport. That meant that when we got to the Argentinian side, they kindly stamped my passport and she didn't get one! There was an argument that being able to pass the border as a Brazilian citizen was better but I argued that there's no proof that she was in Argentina without a stamp!

We didn't really plan to do much when we got there, it was more just the opportunity to say that we'd been that we were happy about. So we had a wander up the shopping street that the guide had taken us to and went to the restaurant that he recommended. I was told off for ordering Pork chops and not steak in Argentina, but I did try a bit of Catherine's so I can at least say that I had authentic Argentinian steak. After 3 days of getting used to listening to Portuguese it was strange having to change to trying to understand Spanish instead. Thankfully Catherine has been learning a little so we managed to order ice cream before we left.

Belo Horizonte to Foz du Iguassu

This was the start of my Brazil holiday and my 1st of 3 to Belo Horizonte. Catherine found me at the airport and we checked in at the Hotel, thankfully it was fine, if not we wouldn't have looked forward to the other two stays. The first day was thunder, lightning and torrential rain at times, not what I had been promised in Brazil but as it was the first day it didn't matter too much, we spent most of the day catching up anyway so just stayed around the hotel for the day.

It was an early flight the next morning to Foz du Iguassu and we were met at the airport by our tour guide for the week and taken to the airport. Not as nice as the other hotel but then it was a little older so I suppose to be expected. The weather still wasn't too good but I was hopeful for it getting better within a few days. The following day our tour guide arrived to collect us at 8.30, because the weather wasn't so good we set of for the Itaipu Hydroelectric Dam first. Catherine hadn't been so bothered about going to see it but it was part of the package so didn't seem any point in not going. I found it was quite interesting but probably because I was also thinking, Dad would like this! After a short video we set off in the bus to drive towards the Dam. It's located at the border of Brazil and Paraguay and provides about 20% of the energy needed in Brazil and 80% in Paraguay.


The weather still hadn't improved so the trip was almost completely in the rain but it meant that because there had been so much rain that the slip way was open which made for some good pictures - but also meant there was also more spray to wet us when we were out of the bus.

As we did drive over the dam to the other side then we think that counts as being on Paraguayan land so therefore that is my claim for being in another country!

March 2010, the start of holiday

Almost up to date....

So in the first half of March Mum & Dad came to stay for a weekend. We had thoughts of being very busy and almost boarded out the loft and replaced the vinyl in the kitchen but in the end we just replaced the toilet seat :)

Finally it came time for my holiday. I'd booked a hotel at Heathrow for the Friday night due to the early flight the next day and somewhere to leave the car for the two weeks but hadn't booked the Friday off work, which was a mistake. So I worked through til about 1.30pm and left early to get home swap my work bag for my suitcase and set off for Heathrow.

I knew that driving down to London on a Friday night was never going to be a good idea but there wasn't much that I could do about that. Thankfully most of the journey down, although the news reports were full of incidents on the M1 they were all on the northbound side so it was just the M25 to tackle. As expected it was bad and that last part of the journey took about 1.5 hours to get round to the hotel but I thought being in my room by 7.30pm wasn't too bad.

An early start the next morning and I was at the airport for 5.45pm, if I'd arrived half an hour later I wouldn't have had to queue up for most of that time but I managed to arrive at the same time as a lot of others, including a very large party of Japanese who took up all the space at the self check in machines so I managed to sneak onto when they weren't looking. As I was on the same flight as Helga's Mum, Rosa, I waited for them to arrive and check in before going through security and meeting her at the gate. I was a little concerned about the communications problems ( me not speaking Portuguese, Rosa not speaking English) but generally it seemed to go ok. Rosa kept talking to me and I kept saying I didn't understand before getting to the point where I just had to guess at what she was saying and try to give a response. This worked quite well for a while and we managed to pass the 3 hours together waiting for the connection in Lisbon. The problem was once we got to Belo Horizonte, Rosa was looking for the person collecting her and I was looking for Catherine, she went one direction, I stayed where I was and never saw her again. I did get in touch with Helga though and she assured me that Rosa got home safely!

Foz du Iguassu to Belo Horizonte to Montes Claros

After a day of sunbathing at the hotel it was time to pack up on the Friday and head back to the airport and back to Belo Horizonte. Our tour guide from the week took us back to the airport and even though we'd managed to fly there already he left us with instructions of where to go and what we had to do, like we didn't know that we had to check in...

The flight this time went via Rio de Janeiro, the only landmark that I'd wanted to see there was Christ the Redeemer (Big Jesus on a hill) I spent all the time we were descending to the airport trying to find it and not succeeding and then it was too dark when we set off again to keep looking. Will have to go back to see that one another time. We got back to Belo Horizonte and to the same hotel again, this time it was just an overnight stay and then to the smaller Pampulha airport in the morning for another early flight. It's either an 8 hour bus journey or a 1 hour flight to Montes Claros and I'm so pleased we did the latter.

We were met at Montes Claros by Sara, an American from the college, so it was nice to be understood again and not to have everything translated for a journey. We unpacked back at Catherine's and had a quick look around and met a few people. The Brazilians like to hug people so when they were introduced to me they looked a bit hesitant - having met western people who aren't quite so keen to hug strangers - before Catherine would say 'she's happy to be hugged' then I'd suddenly have arms wrapped round me.

We weren't sure whether to go out in the evening as Catherine was feeling ill from the flight but decided we would as it was her friend Lizete's birthday. There were nine of us including two children and the joke on the way there was that with three nationalities and three languages between us all, we still couldn't find our way! We made it to the burger place we were going to for food and I've never had such a good burger. Everything comes in the bun, meat, salad, sweetcorn, crisps, sauce and it tasted good. After we went to the shopping centre for an hour, it seems to be the place to go to on a Saturday night - and definitely worth a trip for some ice cream!

February 10

Either not much happened in February or I didn't keep my calendar up to date. I'm hoping it's the latter and not that I didn't have anything to do.

I do remember going over to the Lavers after a Huddersfield work day mid week and finding out that we were all going to be up in Stockton at the weekend. Mum & I went to Northallerton Saturday morning to order picture frames and then met Dad for lunch at the lovely Roots Farm Shop. Saturday night Vicky, Charlie and I went out for drinks, in true old woman style we also had chips and were home by 10.30pm!

At the end of the month we went to see Beauty and the Beast in York. As always with York Light Opera it was well done, it's not one of my favourite on stage musicals but I did find myself singing along to a lot of it and the actor playing the Beast was really good.

And that was February.

January 10

As there had been so much snow in December it stopped me visiting the Lavers to meet Isaac when he was born, despite my attempt to get there after 3 hours driving in the snow I decided the more sensible option was to turn back home. So I re-planned my visit for 2nd January and again the snow tried to thwart me! This time after a quick call from Charlie before setting off we changed plans and I went to get the train instead which was definitely a better idea than driving. It was a lovely day seeing Isaac, building snowmen and throwing snowballs up at the house.

Most of January was tied up with working, from December we had recruited someone temporarily to cover my day job for me so that I could work on the planning for the restructure, ready for announcing the first part at the end of January. It made it much easier for me to be able to pass everything else over and just work on the restructure.

At the end of the month I managed to get a day off to get down to Sal & Rob's for the weekend. I'd booked to fly down as it seemed probably the same cost as driving but a lot less hassle. By the time I was on the plane on the Thursday after a day at work I was again pleased not to be driving so much. It was a lovely relaxing weekend, we had some house things to do, wait for deliveries, view all the plans for the decorating and watch films in the cinema room downstairs.

In January I also had my injections in preparation for my trip to Brazil. For all the travelling that I've done I've never had to have vaccinnations for anywhere that I've been, which meant that I had to have all the booster shots as well. So I went for most of them on one day Tetanus, Diptheria and Polio in one shot in one arm, Typhoid and Hepititus A in the other. Then a few days later Yellow Fever (for a price) that was the only one I was worried about but of course the actual injection was no worse than the others and I didn't feel too ill after it. Now just to get to March for the holiday!

Christmas 09

I finished work on 23rd December this year and because of the snow decided to get straight up to Mum & Dad's that day rather than wait until Christmas Eve. It was definitely a good decision as it snowed again overnight and was much worse for travelling in.

Christmas Day was just going to be the three of us but with various visits to church, Sandra's and Joan & Albert's with all their family, there wasn't much time when it was just us. Boxing Day we went for another dinner at Bill and Margo's then Sal & Rob arrived on 27th from the Lakes. We had a visit from Sarah and Jon one afternoon before Sal & Rob headed back to Southampton to their new house, having owned it for 2 weeks they'd only spent less than 24 hours in there. I had another couple of days catching up with people, crashing Mark & Carlie's House Group Christmas Dinner and seeing Joanne and Catherine.

Robert and Laraine arrived to stay for a few days over New Year and I took until New Year's Eve to decide that I would stay another night and spend the evening at the Toops. Definitely my kind of New Year's, food, quiz, games and home by 12.45am.