BWC2014 - 28th May (Day 14 - Melissa vs Godzilla!!)

so so lunch...

I slept for more than 9 hours today!!  Quickly dragged myself up around 9 plus.  Since I would still have plenty of time here, my National Park trip was postponed again.  I took my own sweet time and left house around noon time.  It was shopping time!  I decided to get back to Taguatinga shopping mall to get the two pairs of Melissa and hopefully a third one for another friend.

I reached the mall with ease.  But, first of all, it’s the most important times of the day.  Meal time!  Nowadays, lunch and dinner have been the highlight of my boring and quiet days.  If I don’t start to do something, I would be having empty posts on my blog soon!  Although Divino Fogao was nice here, I wanted to try something different.  Picked one but it was nothing fancy to shout about.  Nevertheless, I always take the pleasure in enjoying a meal very much, as long as it’s not horribly difficult to put into the mouth. 

1g salt which I don't feel
a drop at all!

After meal, I walked to the Melissa shop trying to look for Larissa who attended to me yesterday.  Unfortunately, it looked like she was not on duty.  I felt a little sorry for her because I got the shoes from Christina instead.  Since they don’t have the size of the other pair, I took the subway to Park Shopping and bought the remaining one in my shopping list…..so far!

Finally, it was time for myself to savour a cup of nice coffee!  Felt so much like catching a show today as well!!  Before that, I have checked out the screening time for Godzilla which were differentiated not only by 3D but “subtitled” or “dubbed” as well, and 6pm looked like the only earliest option, since I just missed the 3:30pm show.  I spent the rest of the time enjoying my coffee and the free WIFI provided at the shopping mall.  

an almost empty cinema...

small cinema to watch big Godzilla!

When it was close to 6, I walked to the cinema and bought my ticket for R$19, as expensive as Singapore! Just in case I would get any surprises, I even confirmed with the ticket counter if it was in English.  There was no movie ticket given but just a receipt.  I went into the cinema hall, which was pretty small!  I guessed perhaps Godzilla wasn’t the latest show on screen then and hence the lower demand.  Actually, the movie was like a cartoon to me, minus the animation.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love cartoons as well as animation movies very much.  Perhaps, I was looking forward to a more exciting and unexpected twist like some of my friends revealed earlier to me.  It seems like the “twist” that they referred to was actually part of the plot! I felt bad for concentrating more on Elizabeth Olsen instead of the main cast, Godzilla!

Exactly 22 shrimps in the
noodle!

I was a little regret after catching the show, not because of Elizabeth Olsen’s screenplay was too short, but because of watching it too late.  It was already 8:15pm when the show ended.  I quickly rushed to the food court for my dinner.  Tried the shrimp spaghetti which was pretty good!  Although the shrimps were not in the best condition, but I had exactly 22 of them on my plate of spaghetti!  Couldn’t complain at all.

After dinner, I dashed out to catch the bus home.  Tried many buses but none of them turned left to the EPTG highway.  Finally, one of the bus drivers suggested to let me down on the other highway, so that it would be easier for me to get buses that goes to EPTG from there.  Actually, I didn’t understand him at all in the first place, but just followed.  

As soon as I alighted, I saw a bus that wrote “EPTG” and ran over to catch it immediately.  While on the bus, I wondered what if any of the “EPTG” buses actually turns into some of the residential area along the way before it reaches my place!  Truly enough, I was so “lucky” to hop onto one today!  I had to alight and took a long long walk out to the next bus stop on the main road again.  When the next bus came, I made sure there was no “second time lucky”.  Knowing I was a foreigner, the bus driver was really nice to tell the conductor to inform me where I should get down at Vicente Pires.  I told him I am alright and thanked him when I alighted.

At 10:10pm, I reached home the latest today.  Swiftly cleaned up myself, I went straight to bed as soon as I could!

BWC2014 - 27th May (Day 13 - Sunset at Brasilia!)

my homemade work of
schedule

The research on National Park wasn’t promising.  I planned to find out more again today.  The problem was getting there on public transport is a mystery, let alone coming back!  So, the plan changed. I recalled the third shopping centre, Taguatinga Shopping, where the third Melissa outlet in Brasilia was.  The shopping mall is also close to Vicente Pries, where I was staying.  So I thought,  why not check it out as well!  After which, I could catch the sunset at JK Memorial in town and then have dinner at Restaurante Dragon, as if it was not obvious enough it is a Chinese restaurant, which I found on the internet near the bus terminal!   What a plan for the day! 

As usual, I walked to the main road and I supposed there should be a lot of buses that goes to the Taguatinga Shopping.  Truly enough, I confirmed with a youngster when the next bus came very shortly.  Taguatinga is a busy district.  The bus cut through the heart of the residential area where shops and restaurants were everywhere.  I caught a very gigantic Brazilian flag on one of the alley, and thought I should come back to this place again and have a walk.  Following the Google Map, I reckoned it was time to alight.  The shopping was just across the road.  

The little lady fingers were
marvelous!

Fancy a game of Bluffing
over beer?

Taguatinga Shopping was much bigger than I thought, for a neighbourhood mall.  There is even a cinema too.   I went up straight to the food court to first of all satisfy my huunger!  Sometimes I wondered, how could there were so many stalls when most of them were basically selling the same food!  I walked by this Divino Fogao where you pick your own dishes, like an economic rice stall back home.  There were many variety and looked pretty good!  I went for it and picked two pigeon eggs, some broccoli, my favourite lady fingers, some beef in gravy, a slice of fillet beef with onions together with white rice and beans.  Also ordered some kind of sour orange juice, which I learned from my neighbor later that it should go together with sugar.  Nevertheless, the lunch was marvelous, especially the little lady fingers!!  Love it so much.  And for the first time, I saw people drinking a tower of beer in a food court!  In fact, patrons with beer in a food court was a common sight here!

After filling up the stomach, it was time for “work”, and that was patrolling all the stores inside the mall again!  Personally, I preferred this mall, because the design was a rectangular shape and this made it easy to cover all the stores without missing one!  If you asked me, why wouldn’t I want to miss any stall when one can find easily what’s available from the directory, I also couldn’t answer you!  This was probably what bored people do.

Protesters at the bus
terminal!

Coming down from the 3^rd floor slowly till the 1^st level, I was just about to go through every stalls and wondered where was Melissa.  The last one I had yet visited indeed!  The shop attendant, Larissa, was really nice, trying to find out, if they have all the different models I was looking for.  When she finally did, I had some colours issue to reconfirm.  Hence, I told her that I would be back some other day and that was when she told me her name, probably to make sure I look for her again for the commission.

Protesters moving to the
main road!

It was about time to go downtown.  I grabbed a McD ice cream cone and walked to the nearby subway station.  The station was a few stops further away from Shopping.  I reached Central, where the bus terminal was, and saw a demonstration just started.  They were heading probably towards the stadium, occupying the main road, and blocked the traffic.  Later, I found out from Fernanda that these were mostly Indian's protesting a new law that reduces their land.  There were also other protesters, including those against the World Cup gathering together.

 

Sunset at Brasilia!

It actually looked better
than in photo!

I took a bus to the JK Memorial and passed by the stadium.  There seemed to be some event or celebration held outside the stadium.  I walked passed JK memorial and came to an open area called the Cruzeiro Plaza, where there was a cross in the middle.  At 1172m above sea level, the cross was the highest point in the urban area of Brasilia.  No wonder this was the best place to "catch" the sunset.  Seems like there were really people gathering for that purpose!  I checked my watch and the compass on my Iphone too.  Somehow, the sun set at northwest in Brasilia!  More people came as it got closer to 5:30pm.  Some started to take pictures.  It wasn’t really fantastic because the view was pretty much blocked (hence the "catch" in inverted commas) But, that was probably the best you could ask for in a city like Brasilia.  The sun went down pretty fast in the final minute.  By 5:40pm, it was completely gone.

JK Memorial...

A lame effort to capture the sunset!

I took a long long walk back to the bus terminal.  Thought of passing by the stadium to check out the event I saw earlier, but unfortunately, it has already ended.  Instead, I met with lots of heavily armed policemen around and eventually realized they were actually confronting the protesters right in front of them next to the main road!!  A guy walking along with me, turned his head and talked to me in Portuguese.   He probably suggesting we should walked faster and get out of there soon!  As we were getting closer to the protesters side, a middle-aged lady walked passed while pointing her finger at me!  I was still wondering if she were trying to entice me then!

Awful dinner!!

I wonder how, I wonder why
Yesterday you told me
'bout the blue blue sky...

According to the map, the Chinese restaurant should be next to the bus terminal.  I crossed over to the other end and followed the Google Map, but when I reached where the map pointed to, it was a quiet building with no restaurant at all!  Then, I tried to follow the map I downloaded from the web, which showed it should be exactly at the Hotel Nacional.  I found the hotel in front of me and moved over to check out the area.  After circling around twice, there was no sign of any restaurants, let alone, Restaurante Dragon!  Shortly, I came back to Boulevard Centre and gave up my Chinese dinner.  Walked to the food court at Conjunto Nacional shopping mall and by then, my legs badly need to be sent to the ICU!! After the great experience this afternoon, I went for the Divino Fogao again!  It was a terrible mistake! The dishes were probably leftover since morning and hence wasn't fresh at all.  Even the taste of my favourite little lady fingers were way too far off!!   

It was 8:30pm and there were fewer buses.  I had to wait for a while longer than usual at the bus terminal.  After showered, I thought of catching the NBA on TV, but NHL was shown live instead.  I switched to Roland Garros but only after a short while, I could not opened my eyes any longer and went to bed at 11pm!  Today, Fernanda’s mom showed me the honey that her cousin brought for her from her farm!

BWC2014 - 26th May (Day 12 - Failed attempt of catching the sunset)

Very nice homemade
chicken rice for lunch!

Had a good run this morning.  I am slowly improving and hoping to get back to my usual distance and timing again soon.  Another lazy day.  Since I had already been to the Paranoá Lake, decided to skip it until Aldo and I arrange to go there again for SOP (Stand On Paddle)!  He said you can do windsurfing at the lake too, but best to be done in August when the wind was stronger!

Graffiti at Boulevard Centre.

Ok, so what’s the plan now?!  The ultimate plan for the day would be to catch the sunset.  Aldo suggested somewhere near the JK museum is the best spot.  Found out from Google map that it was pretty close to the stadium too.  But, sunset only starts at 5:47pm here!  

More graffiti at Boulevard Centre!

I guessed it’s time for me to chill out and read my book at a café.  I let the next bus to decide if I should go to Park Shopping or the mall near the bus terminal.  Fate was having fun with me.  The next bus was written “Park Shopping” and “Rodoviaria”!  It stopped at Park Shopping.  I eventually settled with the latter option and headed straight to the terminal.  Along the way, we also passed by the Zoo and caught some elephants, giraffes and a zebra for free!  So, if you are planning only to see these animals, you can save on the admission fees!

Very old comic books!

Very old book stall!

At the terminal, I noticed the other side was actually a different complex, called the Boulevard Center.  Took a walk around the place and saw many local restaurants and lots of graffiti too.  Browsed through an old book stall and a comic shop, before going to a café at the Conjunto Nacional Shopping mall.  I brought my laptop today and spent a couple of hours updating my blog instead.  And of course, now and then, there were some distractions here and there on the internet.  But at least, most of the time, it was put on good used to check about the National Park in Brasilia.  After reading some review, it looks like the public transport doesn’t bring you all the way to the park!  One comment in Tripadvisor even said “...avoid coming by taxi, and if possible, let your brazilian take you ;-)”!

A news presenter
bumped on street!

Cool guy with his cool PC!

Around 4:30pm, it was time to leave for JK museum.  The bus ride should be less than 15min, but including waiting time, it should be the right timing.  Just when I stepped out of the mall, it was one of those rare drizzling days again.  In fact, this was only the second time so far since I arrived at Brasilia.  The sun has always been amazing!

Cafe Latte with pepper...
no I mean brown sugar!

Self-made popcorn!

I could only turned back to the mall and went for my early dinner instead.  After that, the drizzle advised me that it was time to go home!  Heavy traffic as usual during this time of the day.  An hour or slightly more was common nowadays to get home.  I walked to the supermarket and did some groceries.

Did more research on the National Park before catching the Roland Garros highlights on TV.  The NBA Western Conference Final Game 4 was live tonight as well.  Before I could finish the game, I was already drowsy.  I gave in and went to bed in the end at 11:30pm!