Rio De Janiero

Day 3

Woke up early as I was still on London time, fortunately Brazil is only 4 hours behind the UK so the jet lag wasn't too bad. We had to be out of the hotel at 6am to catch out flight to Rio. We met Isabel at the local airport and discovered out flight was delayed but only by an hour. The flight itself was empty, so I sat on the right by the window to get the best view flying into Rio, and what a view it was. Now it's famous for a few things but two of them are the statue of Christ that overlooks the city and Sugarloaf, the place with the cable cars. We flew so close that I we almost knocked his head off and I was surprised that he didn't spin around with the wind rush. Then flew as near to Sugarloaf and started to fly very close to the water just as I thought we were about to hit it, the runway appeared and we landed.

Rio is beautiful.

We checked in to the hotel at around 10am, as I'm due to be there all weekend I got a room with a view. From it I could see the Paode Aqucar (Sugarloaf) and football (soccer) pitches which they play on all through the day and night. At 4 in the morning you can look out of the window and see Brazilians playing football, it's no wonder they won the world cup, they don't just love supporting and watching the game, they love playing it too. We had an appointment to meet the Executive TV producer, Soninha, at the cinema at 11.30 so we pootled over there.

At this point I'll take some time out to tell why I was in Brazil in the first place. We were doing a tri-media production on tobacco, on radio, on TV and online. My job was to get the audio from the outside broadcast back to London using an ISDN and satellite phone. Which meant the total amount of actual work I had to do was about three hours worth. There was other work, this involved be social and going to meetings to discuss things but I don't count that as real work, although really I should. So I had just one job to do and that was the sole reason for the BBC paying for me to be there.

My main fear was that I wouldn't be able to see a satellite, you have to have line of sight with these things or they don't work, so I got out my compass the one I got as a Christmas present when I was 7, and had a look at the map with the satellites on it. Both of the satellites that I could use looked like they were going to be behind buildings but I couldn't be certain it was a case of cross my fingers until Monday. I checked out the backup line, which is a very low quality ISDN type of device that uses a normal phone line, which after ten minutes of persuasion worked. So then it was off to lunch.

We had lunch in a big almost Victorian style place, which have lift operators and huge mirrors it felt like eating in a different century after coming in off the hustle and bustle of the street.

On the trip to the TVE studio Soninha and Isabel were joking in Portuguese about matchmaking me with a girl called Marcella, and ask her to show me around Rio at the weekend, as otherwise I'd be alone in the city. And sure enough they did, when we got to TVE they introduced me to her and she promised to show me around Saturday afternoon.

That evening Lucio took me to Copacobana on the subway, where we had a drink in a bar and marvelled at the amount of prostitutes that were sitting in restaurants with hideous old men.

Having got back to the hotel, I was just getting ready to sleep when the luggage arrived, finally a proper shave.

Day 4

The weekend to myself in Rio, I went for a stroll along Flamingo beach in the morning, and met up with Marcela in the afternoon. She took me to Ipenima beach where we sat and ate cheese on sticks sold by a man with a portable stove. The thing about Ipenima is there are cool parts and not so cool parts to hang out on. We were of course in the cool bit which was really crowded, other parts of the beach weren't, but then like going to your local bar cause you know you'll find your friends there, it's much the same with parts of the beach.

After that we went to just below the Corcovado, where there was the most beautiful view of the city. I then went back to the hotel for a knap.

Now don't get me wrong, Brazilian food is gorgeous, not quite as lovely as Brazilian women but good nonetheless, but although my taste buds liked the food my digestive system wasn't quite as keen, so I ended up having dinner in McDonalds just to give it something it could recognise.

Now I know I'm in Rio but being on London time I had an early night, so you'll have to forgive me.

Day 5

Sunday morning I woke early to catch the tour bus to take me to Sugarloaf. It's the place where Jaw's jumped from one cable car to another in Moonraker the James Bond film. On the tour were Valerie from Paris, Tod from Kansas, Maria from Mexico City and four Japanese business men, all of us were in Brazil on business with the exception of Tod but they were a good crowd and it was nice to share the experience.

In the afternoon I was going to go and sit on Copacobana, but the subway was closed so after going for a quick walk along coast and passing a camera crew filming a very scantily clad lady, I just sat on Flamingo beach and enjoyed the sun. After dinner in the restaurant I just went to bed.

Day 6

Finally the day that I was actually in Brazil for was here. At breakfast I bumped into Ana Bosco from BBC Brasil in Sao Paulo who was there to assist with the production. As it was her first time in Rio we went for a stroll along the beach and I showed her a few of the sights. We then had a meeting at TVE including Isabel, after which we three went shopping.

The funny thing about shopping in Brazil is the way as soon as you enter a shop one of the assistants claims you as their own, asking what you'd like, you then having found your purchases have to find this assistant in order for them to take it to the register, where someone else takes your money while someone else bags your stuff and this happens in every shop including record shops where all I want to do is browse. Lucio had the best story about shopping in a bookshop...

"Can I help you?"
"Do you sell books?"
"Yes"
"List them all"

They soon walk off after that.

So having brought a few CDs which were stupidly cheap, we went off to meeting the TV people at the cinema at 3pm, of course being Brazil they didn't turn up until 4.30pm. I then had to wait for an hour and a half for all the TV stuff to be set up before I could begin my own process of setting up my own equipment. Bare in mind we were due to be on air at 7.30pm. This is where all the trouble began. Try as I might I couldn't find the satellite, first I tried the balcony of the cinema, no signal, then the roof of the outside broadcast truck, no enough signal for an ISDN line, only enough for a voice call. I was beginning to think that this equipment which had finally turned up Friday night and which I had dragged halfway around the globe wasn't going to work, and that the sole reason I was there was going to be a huge waste of time and money. I then went up to the cinema's projection room and tried to get it out the window there, not enough signal again. The trouble with sat phones is they need line of sight, and they also have to be off the ground away from people or they irradiate them. With a last desperate attempt I climbed up this very narrow ladder on the outside of the cinema to where the letters ODEON shined out to the street... no signal.

The sat phone by this time could wait I had 45 minutes until we were on air so I had to get the backup working. I unpacked the Scoop from it's bag climbed into the OB truck and after some conversations translated by the very same Marcela who had shown me around Rio on Saturday I got the power, audio and phone line I needed for it too work. I plugged it all in a turned it on, it didn't work, it wasn't initialising, shit. I just stood there smiling at the Brazilian technical crew, while turning this thing on and off hoping it would work and it did. I dialled threw to London and it connected. Thank bob. We had the backup. But as the backup was appalling quality I thought I'd try the sat phone one last time.

Time 7.05pm, I climbed back up on to the roof of the truck. When I say climbed I meant it, there was no ladder I had to climb onto the door off the cab, from there onto the roof of the cab and from that onto the back of the truck. I sat there and set the sat phone up again, still not enough signal strength, sod it, I'll try for the satellite there's just no way I can see as there's a damn big building in the way. I pushed it right to the end of the truck and turned it towards the hidden satellite, and there strength started to rise and rise and rise to just below where I needed it to be. Ever hopeful I plugged the ISDN in dialled and crossed my fingers.

"Hello Bush control room" came back the friendly familiar words.
"What's the time?" I said back.
"Eh?" came the reply.

I then explained that for the last hour and a half I'd been trying to get this thing to work and that we were on the air really soon and needed to know the time.

"11.15pm" good that meant I still had fifteen minutes. I shouted down to Marcela that I needed power and another feed of the audio and I needed it up here on the top of the truck as soon as possible. There was no way I was moving anything as I'd got it working so I was going to do the transmission from the roof of this truck in the middle of a square in Rio. And I did and I just sat there with a smile throughout the whole transmission, with Brazilian crew just looking at me thinking I was a completely mad Englishman. The backup scoop line failed to work at all needless to say.

Afterwards everyone thought I was great and there was a small party, I could relax, it had worked and I'd proved myself. We then went off to dinner, bizarrely in the taxi back to the hotel afterwards, a song by my favourite band that I never heard on the radio ever was playing and Ana said "Ooo I like this one". Odd

Day 7

Went to Sugarloaf again in the morning, only this time with two beautiful Brazilians, Ana and Paula. Paula had to buy some flat shoes first as she'd only got heals with her and was in agony. This time it was a clear day and as it wasn't tour we could just sit and enjoy the view.

Then it was off to the airport for the twenty hours of travelling home, Rio to Sao Paulo the flight was empty. I said goodbye to Ana and she gave me really big hug. Lucio and I then jumped in a Taxi and drove at high speed across Sao Paulo to the other airport. There we managed to claim back our $50, although they gave it to us in Brazilian Reals which you can't convert anywhere other than Brazil. We then checked our bags for the flight home, Lucio was staying in Paris to meet his wife so used the excuse of them losing our luggage on the way out to get his bags off the plane in Paris, I just checked them all the way home, as you can't lose your baggage twice. The plane was so empty I had 4 economy seats to myself, so slept most of the way. At Paris I said goodbye to Lucio and waited for my next plane, it was delayed of course. During takeoff I had a nosebleed. And on arrival my baggage didn't, it was stuck in Paris again. Although it was on the next flight in 2 hours I wanted to go home so filled out the form and went and met my parents.

Brazil was fun, the people are lovely, and I'd like to return.

The baggage turned up the following day safe and sound. Don't ever transfer in Paris.

The End