23-26 October; Return to Rio

The Windsor Palace Hotel Copacabana was the same as in February but the Wi-Fi has degraded which has made email and blog work very difficult. it is really too slow and unreliable for the  office email system which reacts badly to  low speed internet as a seurity risk.

I spent Saturday doing paper work after a lie in, a good bacon and egg breakfast, watching the Korean GP qualifying re-runs (in Portuguese), walking along the beach for a bit on a fine hot afternoon and then having a couple of beers with an old mate here. We ended up eating in the pavement bar as it began to rain buckets and there was no sense in going anywhere as we were already at a "dry" table under an umbrella. It was 2200 by the time the rain lifted and we went our separate ways. It was really good to meet up again.

Sunday I was awake at 0400 to see the GP live but of course it was delayed by rain and so I could have slept in for another hour or so!  Still it was an eventful race and worth watching, but a bit sad for Mark Webber. Then it was another breakfast and a walk again. The weather was overcast but still 20 degrees and the wind was low. The road along the promenade  (Atlantic Avenue) had been closed on one side to host a charity wlka/race. There were several thousand people involved, all with pink numbers and some with medals  because they had already finished.

The next two days were taken up with work. The seminar group had grown to 42 or teherabouts with drifters - a bit beyond the expected 20-25! Still they were a pretty animated group  and the discussions and debates were lively and good fun as well as instructive, for them and me.
The rain had come back especially at night, so there was little evening wandering for me. Not that it is advisable to go too far anyway.
Tuesday night about 20 of us went to celebrate the end of the work at a big meat restaurant at the waterside in the enxt bay. They carve hunks of really excellent roast beef in different cuts to order at the table. A coupleof caipirinhias to round off the meal and back to the hotel for an early start.