Things you don't learn by just going a week on holidays

At the beginning I thought that I had lost my coordination because of being in the southern hemisphere, but no: the cutlery is slightly smaller in here!
You can see straight away that glasses are a lot smaller, but the most annoying thing are forks being slightly narrower that what I am used to ... and I end up spilling most of the food all over the place every time I eat :-(

The fuse box

Just another post about the electric installations in this flat (... and in general ...). This is the main fuse box: note the amount of insulation tape on it and the amount of live bits of metals you can easily touch with your fingers (not to mention that the protecting door itself is metallic and not earthed at all) ... but it works and there are no reports of thousands of people getting electrocuted every single day.

It may sound strange but it seems that here in Brazil despite not having that many health and safety rules/laws forbidding you touching electric cables ... people don't tend to do it anyway! :-)

The shower

I am sure everyone was wondering if the new flat's shower would be "better" than the one in the hotel ... well ... judge yourself!
The main differences are that this one has some Duck Tape (insulation tape) to connect the electric cables ... so ... it is better "insulated" in that sense! :-)

Note that the bit that hangs down from the shower to the cubicle itself is not an electric cable ... it is a mini directional water sprinkle thingy for feminine hygiene.

New flat

At last I have internet again! So, as promised some pictures on the new flat ... not that you are going to see that much as it is completely empty!
As you can see the decoration is still a bit on the 70s side, but the kitchen is pretty big (for Brazilian standards in that type/size of flats) and is quite spacious ... but not as big as it seems: remember the flat is completely empty!
The location is quite good as well: in front of the Parque da Redenção (Parque Farroupilha), so, close to the centre and I have almost all buses stop in front of my door step ... and I found a place to dance salsa at 2 minutes walking distance :-P

  
  

Finally managed to find a flat!

I am moving from the hotel today ... so I won't have internet for a few days. (internet, phone, tv ... I don't think there is even electricity right now ...)

When I am back on-line I'll post a few pictures and stuff. I Promise!

Mosquitoes!

Zillions of mosquitoes come out every night to suck the blood of anything alive. I think I have lost a couple of gallons already. Dracula: take good note, you amateur!

But if that was just it, I wouldn't mind that much because judging by the vast number of mosquitoes around I haven't really been bitten that much (the picture here is just the tip of the iceberg) ... The annoying bit is that having the entire metre seventy of me fast asleep, lying helpless in bed and not moving ... then why, oh why, do they have to fly past my freaking ear every single time?!?!?!?

I am sure that there is a secret organisation somewhere that trains them specially to annoy and to wake people up at four o'clock in the morning ... so then we are all half slept the entire day and we don't realise of their furtive moves to take over the world ... or maybe it is the coffee producer lobbies that have devised this cunning plan to increase their revenues ... bastards!

Welcome to the adventurous life of a computer engineer

Most of you must be wondering why I haven't updated the blog for about a week ... well, I am a computer engineer: nothing of interest has happened on the past week! :-) I spend most of the day at work talking about such interesting subjects as object oriented programming, dodgy scripts, microelectronics and football (in the later case just listening to the conversations as I don't really care much about football). At night when I arrive at the hotel (note that I haven't said anything about having find a place of my own yet) I try to learn Portuguese by watching such interesting TV programs as debates about if being a transsexual is a illness or not ... about the police handling of an hostage taking situation that ended up with the victims shot (one died later on), or my favourite one: haunted houses ... probably no the best thing to see before going to bed ... :-)

The only "interesting" thing that has happened to me recently is putting my bank card in probably the only cash machine that was eating them at the time in the entire country (and is not that small) ... on a Friday afternoon :-( ... oh well: yet another weekend without drink, drugs and prostitutes ... :-D