Brazil part 2

 Later I succeed in buying an international telephone card from a lottery kiosk. It took some time and the aid of two or three assistants who were desperate to help me. I paid knowing that it  probably wouldn't work.  It didn't. A young man had pointed to a phone but after several attempts I gave up.

I am now sitting in a  supermarket hot Amarillo, delicious. I look outside. It is raining again. I it has rained for two weeks-since I arrived in fact. I was told to bring warm weather clothes, beach clothes in fact. I have spent one afternoon on the beach. The waves are too big to risk swimming and the under current  grazes and bruises ones body as it drags one over the coarse sand.

I have bought lots of traditional rubbish but never expected to that I would have to buy an umbrella.

A few days ago I heard Robbie Williams song Angels over the Tannoy in a supermarket. At the moment I can hear "New York City".

When I return to the apartment we will watch the daily diet of soaps on TV interspersed with adverts which are given more time than the actual programmes.

Yesterday when I was looking at underwear and nighties a young man asked if he could help me. he spoke English but I really didn't want a young man helping me to choose knickers.

The women here are beautiful and obviously frequent the many beauty salons which are as prolific as pubs in England. I noticed the fashions subtly accommodate the women's stomachs. There doesn't seem to be the same desire to look like a stick insect that I have noticed in other countries. The young men spend their days and evening either in the sea surfing or on the beach playing football no matter what the weather. Oh and the footballers are mostly barefooted.

Last Saturday I went to a wedding. It was the wedding of a couple who had been living together and had a child. So there was a wedding reception and a fourth birthday party for the daughter. It was held on the terrace bar of a football club. By hanging over the balcony I could see two local teams training - all bare-footed. I think I could see one pair of boots.

There was the biggest display of balloons I have ever seen and sweets, smarties, marshmallows, chocolate ladybirds and wrapped toffees heaped and piled in patterns. There were heaps of barbequed meat too with a serve yourself salad table and a metre square cake.

The young people set up a sound system - I say sound system because what I heard barely resembled music, not music as I know it. The sound became louder and louder.

A smartly dressed but stern looking woman was placed opposite me because she spoke English. She said, "How are you?" then turned to my friend and rattled away in Portuguese.

Jocara said, "Why don't you talk now that you have someone who speaks English?"

I thought why doesn't she speak to me. Eventually she looked down her nose at me and said,  "What would you like to say?" So I politely Asked her where she had learned English and had she been to England. She said that she had travelled all over Europe, her father had worked for the German government he spent 3 months every year there. I asked her again how she had learned English.

 She replied," It is very easy for me to learn. I read newspapers and children's comics, it is very easy for me."

I ask her again if she has been to England.

"No the English are very cold."

Why do people find it so easy to insult me. I am never knowingly rude to people I meet here.

"Have you been to France? " I asked.

"I would love to go to Paris, it's my dream to go to Paris."

"Why do you want to go to Paris?" I asked.

I burst out laughing. ( Was that rude?)

"Are you interested in Art?"

"Not at all".

How can I communicate with this woman.

The music gets increasingly louder, the wind blows across the terrace. I have no warm clothes. I am freezing. I try to think of a plausable excuse to leave. Just as I am composing a sentence in French to speak to Jocara to say I am leaving they send in the clowns. Really. A young couple, and I mean young. Like policemen are getting younger are clowns too?  They appear from the toilets.