I think I need to stop reading Yahoo! news headlines. They make my blood pressure rise.
I've found a fantastic little resource for singers who are lacking pianos or accompanists: YouTube. There are tons of videos featuring accompaniment-only versions of classic arias and art songs, in a variety of keys. It's perfect for taking up singing again, in the comfort of our apartment...
Our bonsai tree is brown and rather sad looking. Which is a problem, because it was an evergreen. :(
Last night we celebrated our first month anniversary at our favorite Italian restaurant. They always seat us at the same table and we seem to have a knack for being the only people in the restaurant...but by the time we're nearly done with dinner, there's barely an empty seat in the place. We shared two lovely veal dishes, a ravioli in a tomato cream sauce with mushrooms, and a tagliatelle that was simply dreamy, and of course, finished up with tiramisu and a lovely shot of homemade limoncello, which like all good things, is absurdly overpriced in Brazil.* The maitre d' was kind enough to share his personal recipe for the limoncello (though not the chef's!) and I'm off to look for the oh-so-elusive grain alcohol and real lemons this week. If I'm lucky, I'll also find some tiny glass bottles and maybe some vanilla bean pods, for making my own vanilla extract. Yum!
Listening to an interesting Gershwin cd recommended by the Slacktivist and ABBA today as I get my morning off to a start. (What would I do without iTunes?) We've got refrigerator cleaning, paperwork sorting and other household administrative tasks on the schedule, as well as some article writing and brainstorming for a quirky story that's taken hold of my brain.
Oh, and the rain stopped. There goes winter!
* Probably due to import taxes. A lot of online commentators on restaurant review sites seem to think they're being taken advantage of because they're tourists. Expect to pay nearly 3x the US or European price at a Brazilian restaurant for a bottle of wine. Unfortunately, that's just the way things are here. Either you learn to like cheap wine and cheese, or suck it up and pay the premium!
3 comments:
is wine as expensive if you buy it to take home, from a shoppe? considering the stereotype of Rio high-life, reckon the gov is making good $$ from all the wine bought and consumed.
Congrats on your month-a-versary! Many many many happiest returns!
It's still pretty expensive from the grocery store...a 6 euro ($9) bottle of Italian goes for R$40 ($27). I guess that's already 3x, huh? I was never good with math... :) But we tend to stick with Chilean and Argentinian, which have less distance to travel and are more affordable for weekday dinners...but still jacked up when you go "out."
Thanks! It was a fantabulous month-a-versary.
Not just import tax, all the others as well, ICMS and the whole lot. Occasionally groups of retailers will do 'tax holidays' in certain cities in Brazil so consumers can see just how much of a product's cost is due to taxes. It's shocking.
Post a Comment