a tramp life

Don’t worry! It’s not an offensive post or some nasty words! I am a really respectful lady with no intension of shocking people here. I was just wondering that since I have arrived here I started looking for some ways of exercise myself-after so many fish and chips + pubs attendances- but the winter + currency+ laziness had made me postpone the "starting up", if you know what a mean.

Postponing until now because after opening the magic Argos.. catalogue - that in my opinion is the best shopping development I ever heard in my life and should be exported to Brazil soon avoiding me to have problems with attendants that insist me to buy something I really am not looking for to buy- and I just spotted the fitness salvation: a mini trampet aka “my personal tramp” to buy. And the best of everything, just costing me a couple of quids! The perfect b-day present to myself, I can tell.



my trampoline muse, by the way




Nothing would be more practical. I need exercise desperately but I don’t want to go to a gym here for a simple reason: currency. Don’t forget that I am a foreign student that shops at Tesco and take an expensive train to Birmingham every day. Poor me, I know. I thought about jogging in the streets of Walsall but I am not tempted to get lost, anyway. Okay, too many lame excuses.




Anyway, I have my tramp(et) now and I don’t need to postpone my exercise series and the best of it all is that I can also prepare my own soundtrack Cds! I am sharing my tracklist here just in case someone else thinks about being the next Olivia Newton John this week. :O(








Tramp #1

1-brimful of asha-cornershop
2-the worst taste in music-the radio dept
3-twiggy twiggy-pizzicato 5
4-born slippy-underworld
5-templehead-transglobal underground
6-40 miles-congress
7-black and white town-doves
8-something about you-jamelia
9-voyage voyage-desireless
10-we do what we want to- O+S

****
Tramp #2

1-pouding-doves
2-skeleton song-kate nash
3-escape-enrique iglesias
4-1998-paul van dyk (binary finary)
5-rebel without a pause- public enemy
6-u got the love-candi station
7-cradle of love-billy idol
8-good vibrations -mark marky and the funky bunch
9-tempo bom-thaide
10-all the way to reno-rem





The cd 3 is coming soon. I do hope getting fit is coming soon, as well.

tescoland

I bet you all think I`m talking about food here. No. I `m not. It`s pretty much more than this, it`s about recession. It`s about culture and saving money and it`s also my passion about british chefs but okay lol


The truth is that since I`ve arrived in Uk I knew one of my main concern would be about expenses. All of them starting with:food. Firstly, I am not keen on "a living on potato" [even it seems always great to try all kind of british creative food ideas] lifestyle.



My freak metabolism just don`t accept this. I wish i could, seriously because there is nothing better than fish and chips once a week. Oh gosh, it is a definitely the greatest combination of not expensive ingredients but i still think that vinegar makes all difference. lol this is my favourite fast-food meal, better saying: best takeaway food of earth. and I`m not missing any other kind of fast food here.


Well, so as soon as I unpacked my stuff I`ve been to the local tesco. The famous one, by the way, because it seems everyone I know shops there. My first visit to tesco had some serious purposes. Firstly, I HAD to get used with the currency quickly and avoid bankrupt in the first week. The prices are quite different in my country as well as food, so i can tell you the first shopping was quite like a sightseeing into the supermarket corridors. Geez!!


But I enjoyed what I saw there: cheap prices and lack of brazilian food. Yes, not that i am not missing Brazilian food. Yes, I do. But I just think I finally found a way of eating better if I`m able to avoid all carbos [ potatoes or everything on toast. JUST delicious!!!!] and cadbury bars.

In Brazil I could have plenty of meat because I am live basically on red meat.OKAY, If you are veggie don`t keep reading because it can hurts. Yes, I worship red meat. I`m carnivore, I`m afraid so. But as in Britain it sounds quite expensive I prefer eating fish which I also love. So, let`s fish!





I am also into salad here. And I really don`t forget to buy my daily crispy salad. And it is also a great excuse to sort my favourite sauces. Oh gosh, yes! I am into spicy food so I usually spend more than half an hour picking my sauces. This country is hot, babe and I just love the combination of flavours and sauces. Thank God Birmingham is a multicultural city and I can find in just one section all chinese, british, french turkish, indian, mexican and thai hot sauce and dressings I do need to live.Wow.


The yogurt weird tastes are just my favourite ones. In brazil we don`t find things such as blackcurrant, gooseberry, rhubarb ones. Not to mention I can learn more english vocabulary everytime I buy a different flavour. Okay, weird food talk moment.


The fact is not just the tesco but also visiting any other supermarket in Uk is a quite enjoyable experience in my opinion. I`m looking forward to my asda 24hs days n Walsall.

Actually I`m that kind of weirdo person that trully believes that supermarkets keeps the pop culture ilive in cetain way and also the best way of get into some country culture, so I`d spend time visiting all of them anyway!


By the way I`ve already picked my favourite pop tv ad in England_food category, of course.

Muller dairy + Nina Simone rulez :O)



ps_did you get yours for free at victory square? lol


But I am afraid to say there is the bad side of the till as well.I really don`t believe cheap food can be all good and I had my pennies wasted when i bought a chilli meat and rice pre-cooked meal once last week and I`ve learnt my lesson.

Not all mixed flavours work at all. Gosh, that lack of salt in that Indian rice just make me believe Brazilian rice is the best one in the world. Just a matter of taste . ;o)

No to mention sometimes I just dislike the taste of things with no particular reason so I am avoiding to try TOO different tastes with weird names on it such as "horseradish" sauce.


We also can`t forget that cheap food in recession time is pretty much a good deal and it`s definitely a way of saving money. But after watching so many food programmes on tv about food I do believe Britain knows the value of its food very well. So it`s also better to be sure your shopping list has plenty of healthy options on it. I just wish the price of fruit and vegetables were cheaper.


leaving the supermarket and going to restaurants i still think eating out is an expensive experience in Birmingham. I fancy chinese food badly and I enjoyed going to the brummie chinatown once. I` ve been to the big wok last week and i still think it`s a good option of buffet meal that can be a weekly treatment even. But not for a student`s pocket. :O(


And there is so much more about british food to talk about but I prefer to learn some recipes before going deeply into the issue!!!

ramdom words

dear not brummie ones,

I am studying/living in Uk since late December, as you already all know, and I..ve already written 100 pages of thoughts about this experience.


Unfortunately, it`s all in Portuguese and I don`t have any intention of translate it so soon, I am afraid. But as I also feel particularly tempted to write a diary about my days here and share all my gaffes [ good word lol] so why not posting some stuff here?

I have to confess I feel a bit influenced by my AMAZING teacher Katherine. She is BY FAR the best English teacher [no redundance here] I have ever had
and the fact I am learning English with a british teacher makes TONS of difference for a foreign geeky learner like me.

I know it can sounds prety boring for you all but I really dont care.lol To me it is like a lottery prize. Naaaaan, better.Whatever...

Mrs Katherine is also very keen on our person improvement of the "language skills" so I feel totally prepared to use the present perfect tenses, conjuctions
and prepositions in the right place here. Geeky but true.

And yes, perhaps it`s going to be pretty boring of reading and I trully don`t care lol because I am learning so much that I feel like I need to spread the words. I am afraid.

It`s priceless!As Katharine is doing me a big favor "teaching me how to teach English" I feel I have to "make most of it" day by day.

But let`s talk about how I am dealing with the culture and differences of living here and to live in the Pele` s city.

Well, this is the first time I experienced the real winter in life. A challenge, by the way. The great thing about live in an "attic" room is that you don`t have windows, you have a roof window and you really can`t have idea of how the weather looks like and I can`t tell you it made me "first snow contact" so much more funny. Firstly, it was also my first day at school.


Anyone that knows me also understand that I could be completely lost in the streets of any city walking by myself. So imagine myself opening the front door of the lovely 17th century house I am living in facing the snow coming from all directions. Nice!That particularmoment I just didn..t find out I would be lost but also blind.

And yes,to find Broad Street was a nightmare but it was also the first contact I had to the kind brummie people even the talkative bloke who gave me the direction to find the school sent me straightaway to a pub of the same name of my school! Maybe it was the first contact with the british sense of humour. By the way its another topic to be mentioned here soon.

So, after face my first snow storm and realise that snow is water indeed because I was completely soaked after 10 minutes walking lol I have found my school and the pub of the same name on Broad Street but it was too early to drink...ish.


What else have I learnt that monday ? That I should by a hat as soon as possible. Those were the coldest days of my life. I ve been in London long time ago and I remember the -4 temperatures but there is nothing like snow blocking your vision while you try desperate to remember what side you should look at before crossing the streets in Britain. I didn..t want to be squashed by car or lorry [ oooooh, the use of british vocabulary!!! Sorry America, lorry is so much charming than truck lol ]in my first day at school. Shame on you Simone!

I..m immersing myself into the culture. Pretty much indeed, by the way. Even I am not able to understand the traffic yet or find the perfect balance between the cold and hotwater before washing up or taking a bath.Wasn..t easier to have a "warm water" option? Geez!The fact is, I..m getting used to the differences and it..s issue to another post here soon.

And yes, I slipped over in front of the house I live in the second day before going to school and another lovely brummie tried to help me lol She..s the neighbour that always say"are you okay?" when she spots me trying to walk in the slippery pave path every single morning lol In fact I..m probably also known in the neighbourhood as the one who doesn`t know how to switch off the house..s alarm bringing all edgbaston`s attention to lee crescent road some weeks ago. i know...


written in january

brum chinatown by a looney brazilian

brummie chinatown by a loonie brazilian

I really know my "making videos skills" are not quite impressive lol they are not the best ones but you can have a laugh, definitely. it was a january video.

Nono garantees you are going to learn something about birmingham life on it. its is just a global view of the city lol or what should you expect of chinese, spanish, french and brazilian people together visiting the brummie chinatown ? lol

blimey ! glawdys ( in red) is going back to france today! time is flying.