Oh, the rain. The Lovely Rain!

The rain has finally arrived, thanks God! It had been so fucking hot the past few days that it felt like it was summer all over again. My windows are now open, I’m not wearing a t-shirt and I’m actually feeling cold. I had almost forgotten how nice this sensation is! Hopefully it has arrived to stay. I really don’t want that hot weather anymore. At least not for the 2 or 3 months to come. Let winter be winter, for God’s sake! But, you know, with the whole global warming issue, we never know what the future holds for us.

The internet is awesome, isn’t it? Torrents are even more awesome! I spend hours downloading and then watching TV shows from the very early 80s, stuff that I used to watch when I was a child, and I had nothing but flashes of them on my mind. Some things are not as nice as I thought they were and some are just as cool as I remember. Memories, they are indeed a wonderful thing!

Tomorrow is a holiday again, therefore nobody will work on Friday. Bloody lazy country! Have I mentioned how much I hate this country before? Well, I’ll be home again and think about stuff, and you know what happens to me when I think about stuff. Well, bad things will come… :-/

Feeling…

I’ve been bad lately. Not only depressed, but feeling tired, feeling sick, feeling old, feeling only God knows what… I’ve bought one of those multi-vitamins & mineral pills to make me feel less tired and willing to do stuff, but to be honest it’s not working. So, I really think it’s something mental, you know what I mean? Not in a mood to do anything, really.

The cave is cozy. It’s warm, there’s lots of food, music, tv, lots of downloaded films and series (btw, have you watched the last episode of Lost aired last thursday? OMFG!). What else could I ask for?

In my cave

I’m still too far from being ok. It was a holiday yesterday, and it will be another holiday tomorrow, so no work today because everybody in this country, specially in this bloody city, won’t work between 2 holidays! I’ve been at home since last Friday doing nothing but thinking how shitty my life is, how uninteresting I am, and how come I have nothing to do besides being home in front of my laptop. I’ve never imagined I would miss work! Well, at least when I’m working I’m surrounded by (sometimes nice) people and not thinking about things.

When I’m depressed I like to cook. And that’s what I did today. Spent lots of money on good quality ingredients. Since you’re willing to cook a nice meal, enjoy eating it and therefore putting on some weight, there’s no reason to do it without quality products and the most important thing: passion!

I haven’t been on msn messenger for more or less a week, so I haven’t been talking with anybody. I’m stuck in my pseudo cave saving me from the outside world. There’s one thing I still haven’t figured out how to do: save me from myself! Am I my worst enemy? I guess so…

Me, myself, without Irene (the day after)

Left work, took my car, faced a huge stressful traffic jam to have a fantastic night! And am I feeling good? Not really! I’m pretty down, actually.

Half an hour before the gig I stopped at a restaurant to have dinner. Ate a very nice pasta as fast as I could, coz I was getting late for the gig. An interesting fact about this fast pit stop at the restaurant was the waitress. Not because she was cute or hot, but because I was wearing a Helloween t-shirt and she said: “Are you going to the gig?” And I said: “In a matter of fact, yeah, I am. I’m a bit late actually. I kind of need the meal asap.” The fact that she actually knew who Helloween was, is great!

Anyway, I arrived at the venue 30 min after my meal and 30 minutes before the gig. The venue is under a mall, so since I was alone, I decided to go for a walk in the mall to see if I could bump into someone I knew. I couldn’t find anyone, so I decided to enter the venue. As I put my feet inside it, I bumped into Sylvia, someone that I know from the music studio where I often hang out. In fact, we just said hello and she didn’t seem very excited to see me, so I said bye bye and told her I would talk to her later (I was lying, of course!). Some minutes later I saw 2 guys who I once knew from a galaxy far, far away. So, I pretty much didn’t talk to anybody during the whole gig, nor during my way back home. Actually, I only talked with someone when the phone rang this morning and it wasn’t for me!

Well, I did open my mouth! I just didn’t open it to talk, but I opened to sing all the songs, hehe! I also shook my body in some occasions hehe! As for the gig itself, it was AMAZING! I already knew Gamma Ray was able to deliver a very energetic gig! Energy was something that lacked Helloween in their 2006 gig, and that was the reason I was a bit, let’s say, not so excited about it. But, it was a surprise after all! Helloween is a band again! It appears the’ve finally gotten over all those internal problems and the new (not so new anymore) members are totally integrated with the original band members and the fans! The Helloween ’spirit’ is alive again! It was the best Helloween gig (considering stage, setlist and band ebergy) I ever saw with my very own eyes! Even better than the 98 gig when they supported Maiden. Oh, and I was almost forgetting to mention the fact that Kai Hansen went on stage to sing/play the last 2 songs with Helloween. Kai left Helloween in 89 to form Gamma Ray, so watching him on stage with Helloween was a dream come true. It was a chilling moment. I actually got the chills for more or less 5 minutes! Amazing!

And now I go back to the first paragraph of this post. I’m feeling down. Really am. Not having anybody (colleague, friend, relative or girlfriend) to share this special moment is very depressing and sad. Instead of being a nice and talkative (full of comments about the gig) drive home with friends, it was a long, cold, and silent one.

Me, Myself, without Irene!

No real reason for me being absent for all this time. A lot has happened in this meantime. My brother came with his girlfriend to spend 10 days here, we went out almost everyday and we even went for a short road trip towards the mountains region of Rio. We had a nice time, I only wish we could do this more often, but you know, it’s kind of difficult when you live more than 2.000 km away from each other.

Not so long after he went back to his hometown, Recife (northeast of the country), I went there! In fact, I was going to my father’s house, which is in a city called João Pessoa, 120km away from Recife. So, I took a plane to Recife spent the morning there and went to my father’s house with my brother by car. The real reason for this short trip to a distant place was a surprise. A surprise for my father, who was going to be honored at the City Hall. He received a very important title for improving the industry of tourism in João Pessoa (yes, my father works with tourism!). Anyway, the surprise actually worked! You should have seen his face when we arrived there. He had no idea we would be there! Really, really nice! Anyway, the ceremony was good, simple and fast. I was a bit worried, thinking it would take lots of time and lots of politicians would speak for ceaseless hours. But thankfully, I was wrong. After the ceremony, we went to the hotel where my father works for a very nice cocktail that lasted a few hours. I spent 3 more days there, enjoyed my little brothers, went for a swim in that huge swimming pool, and some other stuff. It was a nice time to relax, I needed that.

Came back to Rio two weeks ago, and since then I’ve been working. A guess that’s what normal human beings do, right? They work! Anyway, nothing much has been happening in my life. Well, actually there’s this new girl at work, she’s not Monica Bellucci, but she’s interesting, cute, the type of girl I like, you know? And I’m tottally terrified of talking to her, of presenting myself. Jeez, what happens to me? I’m a lost case!

Tonight Gamma Ray and Helloween will rock Rio! Am I excited about this? Not really! I’ve been going to Helloween gigs since 96 and although they’re my second or third (really don’t know) favourite band, their gig is not new to me, so I know what to expect: I’ll go there, watch the gig, enjoy the music and I’ll leave the venue very satisfied. And that’s it! Now the Gamma Ray gig is kind of interesting. It’s their second time in the city. I went to their first gig (2004?) and they rocked! Watching Kai Hansen on stage was totally worthy it! I haven’t followed Ray’s career since ‘Somewhere Out in Space’, but I know their material is good and they will play 2 or 3 songs from ‘Land of the Free’, so no doubt it will be awesome! And what is THE most important thing: Gamma Ray + Helloween, (one band that originated from the other) are playing together for the first time after years of fights and accusations in the press. Seems things are ok with them now, let’s hope it stays like this for a long while. One thing that is bothering me is the fact I’m going to the gig alone! alone again! Or should I say alone as always? A few people said they would go with me, but at the last moment they gave up with different excuses. I really don’t give a damn if the excuses are true or not. They’re not going and that is it! I’ll do what I do best: enjoy a nice meal, enjoy a nice concert, enjoy a nice drive by the coast back home, all by myself! Me, Myself, without Irene!