'It's been a hard day's night and I've been...'

This strong chap is coming off the Copacabana Beach after a long day's work in 38C setting up one of the beach places where people hire beds, sunshades, beer, sandwiches and much, much more. With Carnival just around the corner, the tempo will only increase and the takings as well. I'm sure in the great scheme of things he does not too badly for a lower economic class Brazilian, but he will have sweated long and hard for every last 'real' of it.

In other news, we spent most of the day buying new sockets for our studio out in Barra where we used to go to get all the stuff during the renovation three years ago. The drive there is spectacular along the coast passing islands and untouched jungle on either side of the road. All went well and we are hopeful of a successful change over of plug points! The only hassle was the checkout system going down for 40 minutes as we and many others waited in line!