Rain in Rio

Another day of rain, pretty much all day!  

Bb had an online meeting in the morning and I took the chance to get together the pages I need to print off for my test item writing allocation for January. I say 'need' because for each test item I write I need to check it against several things and I find it so much easier to have these pages printed off.  After emailing them to the wee printing shop round the corner, I headed off to be there when they printed them off. Times like this is when having some Portuguese really helps, although there was quite a bit of negotiation of meaning took place! 

Because of the rain, we decided not to venture too far from home and walked up past the Hotel Santa Clara, where we based ourselves while doing up the studio 12 years ago.  We have very happy memories of there and their simple breakfasts served in the room on the balcony, of relationships with the staff (including Hugo, who does our check ins, check outs and cleaning for us here, plus other things) and of their willingness to store things we'd bought for the studio while it was being renovated. Bb stayed there for a month on his own when I left to run a month's course in Frankfurt and then return. Anyway, it's closed down.  Sad, and a sign of the times. It happened about 8 months ago. Late lunch in Stop Here Pontinho, just round the corner from the hotel. A bit of film watching at night, which I'll comment on in my next blip. 

My blip is of our street, walking down the way towards Barato Ribeiro.