Penultimate evening in Brazil

After four days of training delivery I was rather low on energy coming back to the hotel today. It was tempting to just fall over onto the bed and take a nap. But no! Instead I went to the hotel gym and did 16K on a stationary exercise bike, followed by half an hour of stretching and yoga. Felt very invigorated afterwards! Dinner was on the light side with only apple, strawberries, pineapple and kiwi fruit.

Churrascaria

Had dinner at a churrascaria in Indaiatuba last night. A churrascaria is a Brazilian steakhouse where the meat is roasted over open fire. Rodízio service was offered where passadores (meat waiters) come to the table with large skewers with meat and a big knife and cuts a piece for you right there. 11 different cuts of ox were offered yesterday plus spicy sausages and more.
One Passadore came up by my side and said “Corazón?” Turns out he was not flirting but offering me grilled chicken hearts!!!
Picanha is beef top sirloin cap and it was rather delectable. An evening for carnivores – so tonight I am only having fruit for supper.

Biked 12K and got nowhere!

Today I biked 12K on a stationary bike in the hotel gym ... and it got me nowhere, destination wise. I do prefer biking outdoors on a real bike, the scenery is so much nicer. Although one of the Brazilian PTs was rather cute. Back at my room I did some stretching and light yoga. Went off to dinner with some colleageus and had delicious Japanese food; sashimi and maki and nigri sushi. Now I am ready for bed because tomorrow is another training day in Brazil.
Boi noite!

I want ...

... the fabulous black and white dress created by Arianne Phillips for Julianne Moore's character Charlie in Tom Ford's beautiful movie A Single Man! And if I could pull off the seductive eye make-up that Charlie sports, I'd want that too .... while I keep dreaming of this, you can check out this Review of the movie.

Biking challenge - update week 3

Not a very successful week when it came to biking .... only managed 12K. Still 12K is better than no K, right? And in the coming week I will not be able to add any kilometres to the team's total score as I find myself in Brazil without a bike. Which probably is a good thing considering the many "wanna-be-F1-drivers" here ... Anyway the hotel has a fairly good gym and I will be spending some time there on the exercise bikes.
Now I am off to bed. Time difference is "only" 5 hours but a 12 hour overnight flight and two hours to get through passport and customs when arriving has left me with not a lot of energy. Time to let my head hit the pillow.

Will knitting be a new hobby?

Today I found myself thinking of my friend Cia a lot. So much so that I, rather unconciously, entered into a fabric and yarn store (Fröken Garn on Kungsgatan in Malmö) on my way to yoga class this afternoon. I have not knitted since highschool but somehow today I found a desire to get back into it. I think it was thanks to my thinking of Cia. She has inspired me to several good things before; like lending money via Kiva.org.

Today she is my inspiration for starting to knit. The yarn is German, Schoppel Wolle brand, called IN Silk and colour burgundy (weinrot). 75% virgin merino wool, 25% silk. 7 mm needles and I am planning to make a scarf. The photo is proof that I have started!

Biking challenge - update week 2

This week did not contain many days of biking as I have been home looking after my son for a couple of days. Did manage to bike to yoga classes on Tuesday and Saturday plus a bike ride during lunch one day so my week's total is 40K. That is 5K short of my goal of 45K per week but I am still happy that I do choose the bike even if the weather is a bit autumn-like.

Whiskey meatballs for Sunday dinner

Today I made whiskey meatballs for Sunday dinner. Well, my son had meatballs sans the whiskey (am I quite the responsible mother after all). I got the recipe from Grand Hotel in Lund, Sweden, when we were there for a culinary tour of the city. The full name is "Sten Bromans whiskeyköttbullar" and the creator is Sten Broman (1902-1983), a Swedish musician, critic, conductor, speaker, TV show host with pecular taste and opinions. But I must say he created some delicious meatballs!

Here is the recipe (courtesy of the Grand Hotel, Lund, Sweden). Only in Swedish for now (will translate at a later time for English speaking friends):

1 kg mager fläskfärs
3 dl skorpmjöl
3 dl vatten
2 st gul lök
3 dl vispgrädde
1 dl whiskey (ta inte den finaste sorten, ej heller den sämsta)
Salt, malen vitpeppar
(jag använde även ett ägg)

Låt skorpmjölet svälla i vatten. Finhacka löken. Blanda det svällda skorpmjölet med löken och fläskfärsen. Mata försiktigt i grädden i färsen. Smaksätt med whiskey, salt och peppar. Forma köttbullar (gärna små i storleken) och stek dem försiktigt i smör.
Serveras med det brynta smöret, stekta tomater och gratinerat potatismos.

Mums!

Biking challenge - update week 1

Well, the biking challenge got me biking! Imagine what marvellous things team spirit can do for my overall fitness levels.

My plan was to bike 3 times this week, 15K each time, for a total of 45K. Monday, Wednesday and Friday sounded like a good plan. Monday and Wednesday went well.

Friday however .... hit the snooze button too many times and if I had biked I would have missed my morning meeting ... so chickened out and took the new car to work (vrooom, vroom, it is a nice ride though!).

Felt a bit de-motivated about having clocked "only" 30K instead of the planned 45K, so decided to bike to/from yoga class on Saturday. That added 19K to my total so at the end of the week, I am suddenly 4K ahead of my plan. Sweet :-)

Heading out the bike about 6.30 AM tomorrow (hopefully!). And week 2 begings :-)