Entries by tomlemes

A MASSIVE leaf

It’s at times like these that my wife gives a long-suffering sigh and shakes her head as if to say “How did I get mixed up with this strange guy?”. Well I’m sorry, but I had to show you this massive leaf! Amazing isn’t it? These things are littered all over the place and even after […]

Lemon-Lime confusion in Brazil

Back in my England days there was one thing you could almost always rely on: somewhere in my fridge you would find half a lemon. Always half a lemon. When you have a whole lemon, there are all kinds of uses (for half of it) – squeeze it over some fish, slice it for drinks, […]

Happy Birthday to…

Today I would mostly like to say a big Happy Birthday to my Mum! It’s at times like this that I feel the downside of living in Brazil. The sun and adventure is all very well, but it’s tough to be away from so many loved ones for such long periods. I have also just […]

Using food to steal from the starving

They say that anyone who actively wants to be a politician should be prevented from being one on principle. It’s a cynical way of looking at things, but then it’s not exactly breaking news that politics attracts its fair share of dishonest characters. If we take the example of the UK over the last decade, […]

Doing business in Brazil

Those of you who’ve been paying attention will know that I started a new job recently. A simple version of the situation is that I am employed by a British company to provide services to a client of theirs which happens to be a good-sized Brazilian company based in Rio. It was a fairly demanding […]