December 2008

[Sweder]

A rubbish end to November and a poor start to the last month of 2008.
No running to speak of (or indeed at all) since my last missive thanks in part to a heavy travel schedule but mostly to an even heavier cold. Bugs lurk in the trapped-air biolabs that are international jets, free-falling into gaping, snoring mouths to invade and infect the weary traveler. Ugh.

Sao Paulo is a monstrous, sprawling landscape of high-rise opulence and grime-soaked shanty towns bound by rainforest. It's tough to find the heart of the place, it's like the internal organs of the city have been thrashed in a powerful blender, the top flying off to scatter the bloody contents to all points of the compass. The people are soft and brown and incredibly friendly, though the constant reminders to 'never walk alone' have a good deal more to do with personal safety than a misguided fealty to the premiership leaders.

Despite the lack of exercise I did manage to track down some staggeringly good wine at the Cafe des Arts last night. Santa Faustina Malbec, produced on the higher reaches of the Andean foothills, is a seductive mistress, stroking your throat with a warm velvet glove before crooking her elegant finger to draw you in for more. I was assured by one of my local dining companions, a passionate arm-waver quick to extol South American virtues at great volume, that when taking on a Faustina one must ensure the grapes were harvested from the upper slopes. I took his word for it. Like EG of this parish I found the fall-out involved a bleary-eyed assault on the chocolate content of my mini-bar. Incredible as the wine was I can say with great assurance it accompanied the finest steak in this lucky lifetime to date. There may be great rivalry between Brazil and Argentina on the football field but there's no danger of animosity interfering with the celebration of fine cross-border food and wine. To die for.

OK, back to work at the Transamerica Expo Centre, where wifi appears to be served via the tried and trusted medium of two coke cans connected by a rotting piece of string. Selah!