Finally my friend Dani is on holiday for 2 weeks, so my days are now filled with hanging out with her, walking Woody, meeting up with friends, going to the beach and fitting in some skating.

Christmas Eve we went for a long walk in the morning to the street market for fruit and veg and we ended up chomping through a whole packet of ‘Globo’ biscuits, which aren’t biscuits at all. They are like doughnut shaped Watsits but without the chemical flavouring and made of corn flour, so gluten and wheat free. They are also filled with air so make a great shopping/beach snack. Here I am a few days ago having my manicure.

We spent the afternoon at the beach which promptly started emptying at about 5pm as everyone left to get ready for Xmas dinner, which in south America is always held on Christmas Eve. Thta’s exactly when we had our celebratory Caipirinha. Chrsitmas Day is not the big celebration here. In usual Asha and Dani style we left the beach late in order to come back and cook our Christmas dinner (for her mum and 2 friends) consisting of baked cod, mashed ptatoes (but an incredible variety of potato called…. which is more like a sweet potato and yam cross but highly delicious) with a huge salad.F ruit salad and home made grape frozen yogurt for desert.

Dani’s cleaner Isa who is part of the family and works in the house 2 days a week was there to help us. She is from Salvador and loves the fact I have a stronger Salvadorian accent than she does (after more than half her life in Rio). She is an example of an eternally happy woman who is grateful for so many things in her life and chooses to focus on the positive side rather than the negative. The 3 of us in the hot, hot kitchen, raggae blasting out, dancing around eachother, peeling, chopping, stiring, mixing. It was beautiful. Except when the guests arrived we were still in our bikinis, sandy from teh beach and totally not ready (although the food ws nearly there). The champagne went straight to my head and the meal was fabulous.

Christmas Day will consist of the day at the beach before an evening dinner with Dani’s great aunt who is still spightly at 83 years old. She has won many national prizes for cooking and specialises in deserts. I am fasting all day in order to be able to indulge in tonight’s spectacular food.
Merry Christmas to all and Happy Birthday to my friend Robert-Louis.