Out of the wild

Written to Innervisions by Stevie Wonder

Never mind about 1066 William the Conqueror, 1087 William the Second. Such things are not going to affect one's life ... but 1932 the Mars Bar and 1936 Maltesers and 1937 the Kit Kat - these dates are milestones in history and should be seared into the memory of every child in the country.
- Roald Dahl

Lone and the boys left Alfheim for São Paulo on Thursday morning, and I joined them in the world's third largest metropolis that same evening. The next day Lone surprised me with a box of chocolates from Chocolat Des Arts, a boutique in Vila Nova Conceição. Enclosed in the box was a veritable and overwhelming affluence for the senses. Observe the craftsmanship (1, 2, 3). And in case any of you are still wondering, the answer is unequivocal: yes, it tastes as good as it looks. Well worth the price, which is not for the feint of heart.

After a four-hour lunch on Friday, dominated almost entirely by a discussion of Alfheim present and future, Lone and I decided to swap our cogitations of the real world for those of the imaginary, moving forward our plans to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by a day. Esben, Pelle and Brian joined us for what proved to be a most enjoyable cinematic experience. Like the books, each film has improved appreciably in almost every respect. We are even warming to Michael Gambon's portrayal of Professor Albus Dumbledore -after the almost impossibly high bar set by the late, great Richard Harris.

Following two hours in the dark, we reentered the Muggle world and dined as planned at Fogo de Chão (fo-go dèe shoun), where we celebrated Brian's 20th birthday. As always the food was exceptional. That said the price has risen considerably in the three-plus years since our last visit. Assuming Brian is a reasonable proxy for Johannes appetite-wise, a not altogether absurd jumping off point in spite of the difficulty of imagining a world in which there are two bipeds not named Michael Phelps who can consume 12,000 calories per day, the final bill was approx. 75% higher than I remember. On the other hand, there is simply no place like it in Brazil or abroad -except, of course, at one of the 16 locations in US.

Given the inclement nature of the weekend weather in São Paulo, we decided to continue our cinematic odyssey on Saturday and see Public Enemies, starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. The Hollywood Reporter summed it up well when it opined: A missed opportunity to make gangster picture with flesh-and-blood characters.

In scouring for movie reviews, I discovered a fun website called Rotten Tomatoes. The site uses a simple methodology in which users categorize each film as either Fresh or Rotten, resulting in a summary score tongue-and-cheekily called the Tomatometer. In the case of Public Enemies, the Tomatometer was 66%. By comparison, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince earned a Tomatometer of 83%. The weekend's third film, Slumdog Millionaire, which Lone and I watched on Sunday on my Macbook after I rented it from the iTunes Store, achieved a Tomatometer of 94%. In all cases, the Tomatometers were consistent with my own opinion of each film.

Back at Alfheim, construction on the new house raced ahead in spite of the weather; Marcos and his crew were limited to only three days of work because of the rain.

Finally, Lone and I returned to Alfheim on Sunday to receive M.V.Ms.Sc. Leslie Almeida, the homeopathic veterinarian, who we had asked to visit so she could examine the sick heifer. Her diagnosis: pneumonia. She prescribed a treatment consisting of Silicea terra and Ferrum metallicum. While on the premises, she also examined a piglet which appears to have suffered a concussion, probably from being kicked in the head by one of the larger hogs. For this she prescribed Nux vomica. And for all of the animals, from cats to cattle, Sulphur 30CH once a month to strengthen their immune systems, particularly against all types of parasites.