What's this all about then?

 This is all about me. About how, in my late 30’s, I had finally and happily settled in the UK after years avoiding the place.  Then I left. On Christmas Eve, 2014, I moved to Brazil. To a life of samba, beaches, carnival and caiprinha. Throngs of models in thongs, and singers with fruit baskets on their heads. Pele, Neymar and the beautiful game. Right?

Well, not quite. I moved to Palmas, Tocantins. 1200km from the sea (that’s about Land’s End to John o’Groats). It is fair to say Palmas is a different vibe to the traditional image of Brazil. It’s a city where I am conspicuous wherever I go. Where few foreign tourists tread and fewer stay. 25 years since it’s conception, Palmas is an unusual beast, and one that will take time to understand and longer to tame.

Why Palmas?

In short, it’s where my wife is from and we decided to swap things around and make me the foreigner after years of her living in the UK.

What’s going to happen?

I honestly have no idea. I will miss the UK. I’ve never been one for missing things, much less the UK, even in the years I spent travelling and living overseas. But I know I will miss the city I’ve made a home, my family and friends. I’ll miss the pub, the cheese selection and Match of the Day.

There will be many things to love about Brazil – the friendliness of the people, the spontaneity, the easy-going culture, the breath-taking scenery, the weather, the barbeques, the swimming pools.

However, I’m also at a different stage of life to when I would happily leave the UK on a one way ticket and revel in any and every cultural difference. There will be things that annoy me about Brazil. There will be recurrent themes as I use this blog to vent my spleen about the drunk drivers, the cost of every day goods, the constant noise, the blatant corruption, the bafflingly violent culture...

I expect a period of transition, I expect a lot of frustration. I expect I will be complaining. I hope you’ll bear with me to see how things work out in the end. It promises to be an adventure and a huge challenge.

This is one of my favourite quotes from Bob Dylan.

I guess there are 2 ways to interpret this – once you are born you are only waiting for your inevitable death; or, as long as your aim in life is to constantly grow, learn, develop and challenge yourself, you continue being born. Once you stop growing, intellectually and spiritually; once you close yourself off from new experiences, you are no longer being born, no longer living.

I prefer the second interpretation, and this is a great opportunity to continue challenging myself.