Saturday 29 September 2012

Sufferings of frequently occurring Offline Existance – or: Internet in a small Brazilian town

Internet in Brazil is like an annoying neighbour: if you don´t need it, it´s always available and stopping you from doing your work but as soon as you urgently need its help it´s either busy due to a lot of people using it or not available.

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We like to think of Brazil as one of the leading nations. Economy, wealth, development.

Unfortunately I am forced to say that Luanda (capital of Angola) has more reliable internet providers. During my time there, the internet in two private apartments as well as the internet cafe never failed (only when we had some of the occasional electricity failures but then again, it wasn´t the internet providers fault…)...

Working mainly through the internet and online masterboards, my husband and I have been fighting our way through at least 4 different internet providers. Two mobile stick internet options (claro and vivo, incredibly expensive and incredibly slow), radio  and cable internets (affordable, but totally unreliable). We will hopefully soon be able to try out the last remaining, expensive option called Velox (unfortunately we do know from relatives using it here in Porto Seguro (region Bahia) that even this option has similar failures although it seems to be the fastest and reliable of all). So what do they all have in common?

Wednesday 19 September 2012

Farofa de Frango e Cenoura

Another typical quick Bahian lunch: Rice with Farofa de Frango e Cenoura (Farofa is manioc flour mixed with fast-fried vegetables and other ingredients, this time it was yellow manioc flour mixed with chicken, carrots and peppers. Yummi!

Friday 7 September 2012

My favourite London radio programme - the Vanessa Feltz Show

When I am not in London, it doesn´t mean that I cannot listen to London radio shows whenever I feel like it.


My absolute favourite is the Vanessa Feltz show, part of BBC Radio London. She discusses anything concerning enjoying and surviving life in the capital, current hot topics of the various London boroughs.

This week she discussed Londoners´ thoughts on the Paralympics, exaggerated beauty regimes of many UK kids and Christians fighting for their right to wear their crosses at work.

The show goes out Mon-Sat from 9am-12midday on 94.9fm. You can also listen to the best bits in the podcast section:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/vanessa