Five Thursdays

Five Thursdays from today the trip officially starts, but it actually started many years ago, with the first dreams about it. However, the reference start point is today. Apart from the last visit to the dentist before departure, and physiotherapy treatment that still has 17 more sessions to do, all doctor´s visits and medical exams have been done. These are as relevant as a visa for whoever intends to spend some years abroad.

Wake up at dawn. Have a shower. Have breakfast. Dress. Make up. 6:52am. Drive kids to school. 25km. Surprise! No traffic jam. Drop them off there at 7:12am. Drive to work: 20 more minutes. Clock on at work. Leave for physiotherapy. Blue sky; August in BH: a bit chilly. Not a bad day for lying in bed with a heating appliance to help recovery. Exercises. The thought of how lucky it is to notice connections in almost everything. How to explain that? Small electric shocks in loco to help healing the tendon.

Celebrate life with fresh coconut water for R$3 on the way to work. Regrets about having to throw away the pulp due to the lack of a tool to open the nut after sipping its content. Wonder at the chance to wander again on the same route that helped to stimulate the research idea. Get to work. Enjoy the freedom to learn and get rid of the feeling of guilt for having a good life in so problematic a country.

English class: a unique weekly opportunity to talk to a highly educated person. Someone who can recite Shakespeare by heart, chat about ancient and recent history, improve my attempts to write something readable. I park the car in the recently built concrete monster which has recently sprung up beside his house, and which he is constantly complaining about, with good reason. But this kind of monster   isn´t against the law in BH, unfortunately.

Have a coffee at a bakery near the School of Architecture where I studied. Make the most of an hour left at its library. Go to the School of Psychoanalysis. Have an inspiring theoretical exchange with highly experienced practitioners. Leave the place imagining how better our cities could be if architects and urban designers had dialogues of this kind now and then.

Get home at 11pm noticing that it is warm inside and the fire is lit.