TOURIST BOAT TRIP ROUND BUZIOS.....

Along with a bunch of Chileans....ok apart from the photo hussle, the overpriced floating lunch hussle, the change hussle and the tip hussle.....the actual boat trip was very nice....


OK I forgot to press a button.....shoot me....


The last time I saw Andy Valentine.....
He was shouting something or other, but for some reason he started gargling at the same time and I for the life of me could not understand a word of it....
Oh, by the way, anybody want to buy a pair of binoculars?
Or a nice Canon SLR. Takes real film!
Or a flannel. Oh, and a toothbrush. Barely been used.

WE FIND THE BUZIOS "BELL" AND MOVE IN......

It's called "Sliders".
What a boozer!!.....run by Ken, an American who's lived over here for more than ten years....a nice guy, a great host and a brilliant chef....
Here we met some groovy people who live here.... a lady who used to go-go dance in clubs around my hometown of Stockport in the late 60's, and a barman from Liverpool called Steve.


Andy here rapping with Randy, a real interesting guy from Michigan, here in the middle of a massive granite-for-kitchen-tops deal....Randy once reared a wolf that teamed up with his giant cat to hunt prey together as a team...
In the background is the house drummer....Ken has live music on every night of the week....


Here around mid-day in a bar in downtown Buzios with Andy and our mate from the Bronx, Phil, another local expat, and his mate, whose name I forget. He's probably forgotten mine too.
Actually, although in Saquarema I'm known as Paul ( I always reckoned for the time being only....), in Buzios I am Nasher again. Much better.


The lovely street...even the streets in Buzios are lovely.....no really, they are....

BOOZIOS, SPELT BUZIOS....

....picturesque bla bla bla....


Statues underwater of fishermen bla bla bla.......


....bla bla bla.....


....and the rest....
Brigitte Bardot came here in '64 when it was just a fishing village....
Now it isn't....
It is beautiful though.....the natural bits and even the manmade bits are nice....
Buzios.

MORE POINTY MOUNTAINS THAN YOU CAN SHAKE A POINTY STICK AT.....

Teresopolis....in the centre the "Finger of God"....allegedly...


In Macbel in Bacaxa....why is everywhere I hang out called the Bell or The Bel or something like that?


Took this about a half hour ago....the concrete has gone in whilst Andy and I were in Boozios, sorry, Buzios, getting wrecked for a few days....


This side will be covered by a charming grassy slope, with a cutting though to the steps, which will be near hidden from view....

OK, PURISTS ARE GOING TO HATE THIS, BUT HERE IS MY NEW KITCHEN, READY FOR SPRAYING WITH CAR PAINTS....


Obviously, not the solid wood outer frame, but the drawer fronts, which are cedar faced ply...and there only to provide a good surface for spraying onto....


I know it looks nice all in wood.....but my design was for a big wood frame with something suspended beneath, not just more wood.....it looks too big and, well, woody like this.....
....so all the drawer fronts will be an electric yellow, courtesy of Toyota...


Honest, trust me ....it will look amazing...I would never have come up with this design for an all wood finish.....


Look....here's the hatch for the trimmings and yuck.....I've used it ...it works....

PANIC AS FIRST GUESTS FLOOD IN....
SORRY, SHOULD READ "FIRST GUEST FLOODS IN..."


A bit of last minute set dressing does the trick.....awww, ain't it cute....
Andy from Bath arrives within minutes of the final touches being applied...


And within hours is drunk and round to Sonia's for din-dins and a first taste of authentic bla bla bla...we left Sonia's for home but ran into a very local bar and ended up a bit shittered.....


My finished gateway complete with ramp.....
all I need now is a car....
Talking of which, Pedro has found me the Baja I've been looking for....


Teresopolis....the mountains at night....the most sticky uppy one is called "Finger of God"....they are all visible from the centre of town.....nice town, nice area ....well worth a visit....we went with Pedro, who has a small house up there....climate is sunny but cool....very pleasant...

SOMETHING ENORMOUS IS BLOTTING OUT THE SUN.......

My pool arrives....


Three out of every eight of these orange trees are mine.....the lady is another happy investor....


The guest house looks slightly cuter with eyebrows....


....although the view still leaves a little to be desired....
Alright, alright, I'm working on it.....

"SAVE OUR SONIA" UPDATE!!!!
Um, no news is good news?
At the moment we are awaiting news from a member of the local council (and more significantly, local bar proprieter) as to whether Sonia can swap her mountainous and far distant plot of council land for a plot quite nearby here.
The original plot is served by only 3 buses a day and they finish at 6pm....which means work and college become an impossibility for her and her daughter.....otherwise it's a fifty minute walk in the dark from the nearest bus.
So a piece of land here in Boqueirao would be much better, and near her friends too. The council guy says there'll be no problem doing a swap.
As usual, it's not what you know, it's who you know, and the conversation took place more or less by chance in his bar here in Boqueirao.
So at the moment we are in the state called pending.....
Thanks to those of you who have sent or are sending cash....
I'll let you know as soon as there are further developments.