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Happy Birthday to me :) Unfortunately I didn't sleep so well again lastnight and ended up having breakfast at 2:45am as I couldn't sleep. When I got up the second time I was wished Happy Birthday by Leo and then we headed down to the farmers market - which is held infront of Leo's apartment every Wednesday. Leo had been telling me about this delicious pumpkin and coconut slice a man at the fair makes - so he brought some of that and some very typical cane sugar and lime juice. We headed back to the apartment and I enjoyed my second breakfast - the pumpkin and coconut slice was out of this world - incredibly sweet with a soft pumpkin texture and the juice also super sweet but the perfect compliment to the slice. I then had an appointment to meet my new nephew via Skype - after some slight technical difficulties we managed to connect and I go the best Birthday present anyone could ask for: meeting my new nephew and seeing and speaking to my family. Little Jay is gorgeous and I could see straight away how much joy he had already brought and will continue to bring to my family. It's not very often I get to talk or see my family so its times like these that I hold close and our very small family has just grown by one, they all wished me happy birthday, told me about the birth and shared my special day with me. It was soon time to say goodbye and although this was a little sad I really hope we will get to connect a bit more from now on and that the new addition to our family will bring us all together and maybe just maybe my parents might suprise me with a flight ticket home one of these days to meet the little guy. On a real high now I decided not to stress about having no plans for my day and simply head to the beach, enjoy the sun and think about how lucky I am. For lunch I stopped at the farmers market and brought some fresh vegetables and took them back to the apartment to cook. I spent a few hours relaxing at the apartment before grabbing Leo's bicycle and heading down to the waterfront for a ride along the coast. Like I have said before I am not a huge fan of bicycling as it hurts my legs but there is no denying it is a far quicker means of getting places compared to walking. I headed south towards the city - a new route for me and seen the sunset from a new point which was a real treat. Feeling energized still I decided to walk the bike back along the beach instead of riding. When I got back Leo had just arrived so we ate some fresh fruit and chatted a bit before he headed of to the shops to buy a few things to make tonight's dinner. I had 100s of happy birthday wishes, emails and messages to answer which was a little overwhelming but always one of the highlights of my birthday. Realizing and remembering all the wonderful people that have come into my life in the last 3 years of travel made me so thankful for this day and this life. Around 9pm Leo started on dinner and what a concoction it was going to be with all kinds of vegetables, meats and grains. I kept him company whilst he cooked and we discussed the current situation in Rio and Brazil on a whole. Leo loves his country and I can tell he is very unhappy with a lot of the things happening here at the moment. Dinner was served: Angu (polenta with bacon) alongside a tomato salsa mince meat and steamed spinach and snow peas - and the conclusion - delicious!! but hey we could have been eating cardboard; in such good company and in the heart of Brazil and with such an amazing day I still would have been smiling. And if you are reading this a huge Thankyou for sharing my journey so far - this next year I feel an exciting change coming and many more wonderful people coming into my life and many new experiences, tastes, sights and sounds!
OBSERVATIONS:
- Angu - Brazilian corn meal polenta dish
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