The curves have it

...and if you've got 'em, well, why not display them to full advantage?

It's probably not at all PC to post this shot, but I couldn't resist a surreptitious snap as we walked back from lunch. She may have been all in black, but the shoes, bag and general presence made her a colourful figure, with oodles of pizzazz.

Andy and Rose took us to a farewell lunch at a restaurant we've passed a thousand times, without giving it a second glance. Big mistake - it's attractive inside, every table filled with people obviously better informed than us, the food was excellent and the prices very reasonable. And the Portuguese-Angolan owner was a mine of information, so much so that we were late leaving and A & R had to take a taxi to the airport instead of the bus, as originally intended. I couldn't drive them, because farewell lunches involve drinking - and anyway, I had to get back to work, concentration level slightly diminished.

The awful panic that had gripped Rose since last night, when she discovered her engagement ring (which was her mother-in-law's before her) gone, was thankfully dispelled when she returned to find it mysteriously sitting on her bed, under her clothes. This takes the suspicion off the pousada where they spent the weekend, but casts a worrying shadow over our relationship with Hurricane Maria, our twice-weekly maid. We're very fond of her and I'd hate to think she might have been responsible for its disappearance. I had told her about the loss this morning, laying on the pathos, and asked her to look under bed, cupboard etc, thinking that if she had been responsible for it jumping out of its hiding place and bounding off, it would give her an opportunity to 'find' it. However, she said it wasn't her that found it, so the doubt remains. Disturbing.

By now Rose should be in the air, and Andy's probably sitting on a slow bus back to Copacabana. Patrick has gone off to spend the weekend with his girlfriend, seeing as much of her as possible before he returns to the UK next week. And I haven't made much progress with my work - blip does that to one.