Well, I thought I'd start off with some random pix.....
....but that's actually a complete lie....due to the appallling connection here,
any semblance of order whilst uploading gets decimated so I end up
gathering stray pix and posting them completely out of any planned order.....
so in fact here are some pix....some are random, some aren't , some are from
the archival depths, some aren't....
And one or two I suspect I've used before....
Well it's my age isn't it....

Before going further, I'd like to dedicate something or other to my mate Sonia's
son Pierre, who died on Sunday, aged only 20.
It doesn't get much shitter than that, really.
He'd been ill for some time, then had been in hospital here for the last 10 days or so...
Sonia ( mostly) had been with him round the clock throughout.
They ran and reran tests and suggested a different illness every day, you know, the usual ones they suggest when they've no fucking idea, like meningitis or pneumonia.
He just wasted away.
Whatever it wasn't, he died Sunday morning in Sonia's arms.
As is custom here, he was buried within 24 hours....in fact he was in the ground by 3PM the same day.
I guess the dedication really goes to Sonia and her daughter Pamela.

Anyway, now we're all morbidly thinking about our own mortality, here's the blog.



Taken by Sonia at Estacao Boqueirao, me and mates Bas and Leandra,
techno heads from Eindhoven....she organises parties and he is chef at my pals Paddy and Colette's Indonesian restaurant there...P & C own the groovy house I rented overlooking the footy pitch...the eaterie sounds cool.....motorbikes hanging off the ceiling and original 50's rock'nroll blasting out......




Talking of chefs......



This is Glasto '95.....with the lovely Anna Joy who brought oodles of , yes, joy, into my life.....
and above is me and her and Hannah and good 'ole Steve Rowboat.

This is a bit longer ago....Mr Higgins class at Didsbury Road Primary School, Stockport....everyone was terrified of him until they got in his class, when he became yer best mate. Brilliant teacher....that was the last time I learned anything (legal) at school.....I coasted the first year of Secondary school on his teaching, then retired age 13 to a life of crime and deception. It's going quite well so far, thanks for asking.

And which little cherub is me you might ask??? Second row from top, second from left.

Cringe.

I dreamt about Judith Fowler last week believe it or not.....haven't seen her since then....1965!!!!She's the blonde third row up, third in from the right....she was "advanced for her age", and after the dream I realised she was obviously iconic for me in that vein. I'm trying to be polite here.

More Glasto '95....the epic Nashers Music Store mobile unit.....
actually not very mobile at all....
Visible are Anna Joy, Caron Elgey, me, Lee Streicher and Sarah,
and ex. Lost in the Mix Clayton.


Ooooooooooooooh we 'ad some fun.



This is me with a drip full of rat poison my first few days in Brasil in 1984,
being tended by the wonderful Polly MacDonald. She then worked as an outreach
worker for the hospital in Ceres, Goias, deep in the interior.
I had a fear of needles before this episode. No problem after. Ditto poisonous spiders.
The drip was treatment for a DVT that appeared after the plane journey, cunningly disguised as a cramp.
A Deep Vein Thrombosis set loose is the fastest way for a human being to die I learnt recently.
At the time of course, I employed a masseuse, which is the fastest way to set loose a Deep Vein Thrombosis.
You live and learn, eh, but sometimes only just.


Ummmm, no link, apart from Brasilness.
My regular barber in Saquarema, who is the leader of the local bloco, ( the Carnaval band)
evidenced by the stack of drums.
Eat yer heart out, Bath School of Samba!

Well herein hangs a tail.....



This carefully and perfectly constructed column was destroyed by, well, by my left big toe.
I caught the level string between toe and Havaiana and demolished the whole damn thing....Fabino and I kept creasing up for a good half hour after.


This is a mosquito I slaughtered. That's it, really.


This is just in case you'd forgotten, as I had, that I have a lovely mezzanine.
I finally ordered the welded steel spiral staircase ( extra wide) and balustrade the other day. Then I'm having french window like doors put in to the ouside wall, and a guard rail, so it's like a not quite a balcony. It'll be a nice spot though, with a view of the street and so on.

I realised I'm going to have to clad the inside of the entire roof too, as the place is filthy within twelve hours of cleaning, and with high winds, burnt off plant waste gets blown between the tiles and the place looks like a bomb site in a few minutes.
So those two things, plus the perimeter fence, are pretty much the last big jobs on the menu.
oh and a couple more guest units....but I have some freaky ideas for those hehehehehhe.
More later.

It's all up to the minute stuff here....
These were taken only a few moments ago....



The service area prepped ready for painting....mmmmmmm!


White, white, for as far as the eye can see....


Well apart from the tons of dirt of course.....more just
arrived so should have turf laid this week....


The view to the pool from the house....
The dirt suggests the landyscaping with a flagged
path leading to the pool steps....mmmmmmmmm!

After weeks of chemical treatment and filtering the pool was finally swimmable weekend before last....



Last Saturday I spent a real "day by the pool"...
Dragged a sofa out into the shade of the unfinished verandah...
Sunbathed and swam.....
Had pots of tea and freshly baked empadas....tiny savoury pies.... bought
over the garden wall from the guy on the bike who comes past every day shouting
"....Ayyyyempadahhhh...."
Took me weeks to find out what it was he was selling, and even longer to
reach the wall in time....


The steps need cutting down, to make them longer,
well deeper in the....oh you know.....


Marble border and groovy non slip tiles on the guest house
terrace....
Just waiting to add bamboo railings and roof covered in shady
rustic stuff....
It's really nice and breezy up there, and it's the only place my
rotten mobile network works.....


View of the works....note the little drainage pipes along the parapet....ohhhh cute!!!!

What, I hear you asking, has he put over the top of the pool pumphouse????
What?
A wooden door?
An aluminium door?
Polythene?
Some old bits of cardboard I wouldn't be surprised....
(I'm hearing this dialogue in an elderly male Jewish accent....)



What am I?
A mishuginah???
I had a steel door custom built?
What else?
?


More with the door yet....
And the banking.....yet with the banking....



What a view!!!!
Make it stop now.
I know, it's Eddy Murphy made up as an old feisty Jewish
guy in "Coming to America".



Don't ask.
OK...this is first wave of experiments with papercrete....hybrid
papier mache/concrete (no.....).....
Ideas for tube shaped building around inflatable former for my guest units....
More to come.....