New Years Eve

Among the invites on my first day in Palmas was lunch at Dri’s house. I knew Dri relatively well, after her visit to the UK, so it was nice to catch up and drink good red wine (I rarely do in Brazil, it’s expensive, generally not very nice, and generally chilled).

In the neighbourhood of 2 other of Sonia's friends that I knew from their visit to Europe, we spotted them on their driveway. We were immediately invited in for beers, cheeses and snacks which promptly appeared on their patio.

The evening came, new year’s eve, and thoughts turned to our plans for the evening. In the UK I’m used to weeks of thinking and discussing options and ensuring you are with your closest friends or family, in a place or at an event that is perfectly aligned to the group’s tastes and needs. Here, we just chose one option at the last minute that seemed like it would be fun, then whoever we bumped into or happened to speak to had the option of tagging along, regardless that they didn’t know the host or any of the guests. And of course, everyone has a good time in spite of (or perhaps because of?) the lack of planning.

We decided to go to a friend of Sonia’s who I hadn’t met. I liked his house – the VW Beetle in the lounge was extravagant but worked, and I loved the pool that half entered the house. A sertaneja band were hired, and started soon after our arrival.

It was an entertaining evening, passed with some fun people. I was surprised that few people were dressed in white, as I’d always heard this was a huge tradition. The fun was cut short for me when all the beers (including the 15 I had taken) ran out, although I’d only drank 8. This was fairly typical in Brazil, so many people take advantage of others, many provide nothing but brazenly drink what others have taken.

A group turned up with more beers, and a girl who had arrived empty handed but had a beer in her hand all night was the first to grab a beer from the newly stocked cooler box. We chose this moment to leave.