Divide Brazilian Prices By Three . . .

. . . to get to euros (or by four to get to pounds sterling). On the face of it, it looks accesible in local places such as this but all the prices have gone up here and its onerous on the locals and also on the tourists in the up-market shops and restaurants.

I managed to get all the Christmas letters posted choosing priority over normal service to get a 15 day delivery over one of a month plus. The wee post office near where Briocarioca lives has a super service relieving me entirely of licking the stamps. I got the usual 'high' walking onto the street knowing the manual production job had been done yet again and pressing the empty plastic carrier bag into my pocket.

It was then off to have Dd's expandable watch strap repaired. I did a Duke of York impersonation as I went to the eleventh floor of the building in question as directed by a main street jeweller only to find the repair shop wasn't there. Someone said it was on the third floor, so off I went. Another person on the third said no, it was on the ninth floor. No luck there either. So I went down to the ground floor and asked the concierge (yes, Dd, I should have done that in the first place) who directed me to the tenth floor and bingo! Got the repair done for R$10 in ten minutes. You can now work that out in your own currency thanks to the wonder of blip!