Vancouver, Here I Go.

Sorry for the long time with no posts... life has been CRAZY. Working LOTS and having no time to get on a computer once I am home.

The news are that Mila is now finished school and on vacation and I bought 2 remote control helicopters to play with last weekend. They are just the toy ones not the real miniatures but fun to fly(specially inside the house). Not too sure if my plants are so happy about it as they have been clipped a few times.

My citizenship ceremony will be on Dec 20th close to the stadium at the immigration office. Email me if you are interested in attending ! The ceremony will be followed by a few pitchers at some closeby restaurant... I was thinking of Dix since they have great Nachos and Beer. Suggestions are welcome...

The real celebration will happen on friday night (Dec 22) and the place is still uncertain but the fact is ... THERE WILL BE A CELEBRATION ... keep your night open to it and please suggest places to celebrate. I thought of maybe urban Well at Kits but not too sure it's big enough. Me and Leo will be getting our citizenship together.

I will have quite a bit of time and ABSIOLUTELY nothing to do while there. Milena is coming with me too and we will be staying in Van from this sunday Dec 17th till Jan 5th. I miss the rainy cold weather ! =P

Please email your contacts if you did not get an email with all this info. I may have missed some people as I did not collect all emails before leaving town. Everyone is invited. =)

Please also email me your number if you changed it on the past year.

Cheers,
Sandro

Vancouver New Year's

I finally received the letter calling me to take the oath of citizenship on dec 20.

This means a few things:

1. I will be in Vancouver from Dec 17th to Jan 5th. Looking forward to seeing everyone there. Milena is still investigating the possibility of going with me or traveling to Brasil(I have to spell like we do there). Please let me know of your plans in Vancouver close to new years as I really want to see everyone and I know a few of you will not be in town. My plan so far is to try to hit whistler for new year's eve. Unfortunatelly I will no be boarding this year because of the knee.. (maybe I will have a chat with my doctor and will take it really easy).

2. No trip to Vietnam this year. We are trying to rebook the tickets to sometime in february. Maybe chinese new year's.

3. I will be finally CANADIAN. I am very happy about that and will be a very proud canadian. i have learned a lot with the people there and it's actually quite amazing to be able to be a part of it. Canadians have a quality that I admire a lot and have not been able to find anywhere in the world as much as there: people are fair and honest.

Cheers...

Welcome to the family

This weeks BIG NEWS is the addition of a new family member: Sajupi IV.
My dad just got a new boat. She is a Farr 40 and it will live in Ilhabela.



This weekend my family will be going to the beach to sail on her for the first time being the proud owners. Have a beer for me. I will be thinking of you.

The plan is maybe to take the boat next year to Recife and race the Recife Noronha regatta.

Circle of life

Yesterday was born Gustavo, Fabio and Fefe second kid. I CANNOT wait to go and see him.
He was born with 4.23 kg and it's bigger than Fefe =) . Fortunately it's got the looks of the mother.
;-)

Yesterday I also lost a good friend. It's weird to have two complete opposite feelings on the same day.

It makes me think even more every day on how much we have to enjoy life and the people you love.
How short / long our stay here will be nobody knows.

I so wish we were in Vancouver right now.... miss you all.... wanted to be there for you !

I am back ... Dolphins ...

Today we went to Batam, Indonesia to go swiming with doplhins.
The experience was FANTASTIC. I highly recommend to anyone who's got the chance to go and try it out.



Here are some PICs... I missed posting fun stuff on the blog. This last 2 months were soooo slow to go by.

Happy Life

Today is a happy day as 2 of our good friends in Vancouver are getting married. HAPPY life to the new couple Fred and Fe. Actually they are getting married right now as I type this. Too bad we were not able to attend but our minds are there with you.

Milena is in Rome this week with gal and Edgar I SOOOO wanted to go but I think it's a good thing that she got this break from my recovery and school. It's been really tough for her. When she gets back I will post one of her pictures here.

It's strange for me to see days go by without my usual sports. I have been learning a lot with the experience. Learning patience and studying some 3d which I had not done in a while.

Post Op

If I had only one word to describe it would be " PAIN ". The operation went well except for one of my muscles that may have been stiched with the meniscus. The result of that was a LOT of pain. Nothing like I ever imagined feeling. It was so much at times that I could not control my body and I would go into shock shaking. It was a tough one for the first 3 or 4 days.

Now I am feeling a lot less... I do not feel so much pain and I do not feel a part of my leg but time will bring it back hopefully.

Today my big victory was that I was able to walk again... I mean .. you cannot call that a walk but for me it was AMAZING to be able to not use crutches for those 4 or 5 meters. Every day I will improve a bit and in a couple of weeks I will be limp/walking again ...

My mom being here to help has been amazing and her and Milena have been a blessing for me as I still need help for virtually everything. Gladly my rehab is going almost according to the plan and I am very optimistic of a normal life again in a couple of weeks.

I know my blog normally is a lot more upbeat but I guess we all go though ups and downs in life and even though we are very positive about what's to come, this phase is not joyfull. It's something to get through and we will do that with the head up.

I had some bad news this week of a friend that is very sick and this has been a lot bigger for me than my own pains and disconforts. I hope he can find the right path to his life from now on and spend a lot of time with his family and friends.

I will write again as soon as I have news... life's been slow inside an apartment for 9 days.

Casamento da Juca e Dud's

Some news

I have been stupid busy with life and had absolutely no time to write.

Let's see what's new:

My Mom is coming to visit next week. I am very excited to see her and be able to show what our life has been like this year.

Last thursday I turned 30 and had an amazing dinner with Mi on Mt Faber. I was an uneventfull birthday as we are still adapting to the new life and friends. i am pretty sure that if I was in Vancouver, the party would have been HUGE but for this time in life, I think I had the best time I could ask for.

I am operating my knee in 2 weeks on sept, 1st. Next 6 months will probably be one the longest in my life. Lots of physio to come.

2 weeks ago we went to the Night Safari on Singapore Zoo with Kyle and Leigh. It is very touristy but quite an experience where you go inside a cage full of bats and they can fly right by your head. They were HUGE too. Very creepy.




I went sailing again last weekend on foxy lady and got back doing some triming. 2 races and 2 first places. We had winds up to almost 30 knots and had a blast. Today there is a party on the dock after the ragatta and we are thinking about heading there for a beer.

This pic is from Last night on Manuels place before going out to a wine bar. These are some of my good friends here. Manuel (German) and Mimi (India), Kyle and Leigh (Canada) ... something tells me I do not need to say who is who. =)

I will try to find more time and get back to my 1 post a week thing.
Cheers....

Krabi

Yet another trip that I have a bit of a hard time deciding what pictures to post. I will try to do a full report sometime this week.

Krabi is FANTASTIC ! Company was AMAZING. It was PERFECT !

Thank you all involved.
(Mila, Ben, Joshua,Julia, Snowy, Kyle, Leigh, Gulaya, Fernando, Auntie and Ivy)

Advice...

"...Be kind to your knees ... You will miss them when they are gone .."

I have been thinking a lot about this song lately. It's actually a poem that was recorded as music and I have heard it so many times. (click here for lyrics)

Life has been a crazy this past 10 days. I did all the possible exams and found out that I have thorn my ACL , the anterior ligament of the knee and damaged my meniscus.

As usually I post a picture, here it is... My ACL !

What this means ? I am now on recovery for quite some time. No more kiting, rockclimbing, windsurfing, sailing or any crazy sports until I recover from the surgery I will have to do in about a month. I should be back into everything by next year hopefully.
:-(

Crazy to think how fragile we are. After all the abuse I put my body through all the time, I take a little fall on soccer and see my knee fall in pieces. Now I am on to 6 months of recovery and a lot of physio.

It's been a bit depressing for me getting used to this idea but it's starting to sink in that it's not THAT bad. Mila has been AMAZING with all the help and support. Maybe I will take her on a date sometime. =)

Anyways, this weekend we are heading to Krabi, Thailand with a bunch of friends from work. I will post pics and a report next week...

Cheers all and remember to take good care of your knees !

Slowing down

This week I was supposed to play on my first soccer match but destiny was against it.

On the training session on wednesday I took a big fall and hurt my right knee pretty bad. I visited a doctor next morning and after an xray I found out that either the meniscus or a ligament was thorn. So now it's lay back and relax time. No more sports for a while.

Hopefully I can get better this week as I was planning to go to Trikora again but I kindda have the feeling it will take a while to heal and I really want it to heal properly ...

Maybe that is the only way to slow me down. I already started reading a book (Deception Point by Dan Brown) and fixed my guittar. Maybe now that I will have more time I will learn how to play it.

Foxy Lady ...

This is foxy lady. A Sidney 40 I am crewing in Singapore. Last weekend I raced on her for the first time. I was also a bow men for the first time on a big boat. The last time was on Panique.. a Martin 242 (24 feet).

We went out on saturday so i could get used to the position and it was pretty frustrating as I made a LOT of mistakes. Sunday we had 3 races and we did okay (1 3 3). After 2 races I started making my own system to how to manage the lines remembering some tips Marcia gave Fabio and it all started to fall into place.

This coming weekedn we race 1 race sat and 3 sunday. Should be more interesting now that I have a better idea on what to do.

The Foxy lady team is great ... nice people... good sailors.

One FREAKY event was that sunday moraning while heading to the race we were very close to being hit by a lightning bolt. All the instruments on the boat were gone with the discharge and we could all feel the electricity on the air.

I started playing some soccer in the office and this week we have our first soccer game on this coming friday. Will post more if we win. =)

Ko Phi Phi Finally

Last weekend we went to Phuket to meet with Flavio and Roberta. We are long time friends from Vancouver and now they live in San Francisco... It was great to see them again and it could not be a better scenario. Ko Phi Phi - Thailand. I have been dreaming of visiting this island since I first came to Asia in 2005. It raised a lot of expectations and they were all met.

Phi Phi is sure one of the most amazing places I have ever been to. For this reason I could not post less pictures. I also figured most people come to my blog to see them anyway so why not post a few since I am having such a hard time trying to decide what to post.



We flew to Phuket where we hung out at Kata Beach, known as one of the most beautiful in the Island. I went surfing while we waited for Flavio and Roberta. The next day we took a ferry from Rassada pier and arrived in Phi Phi. The ferry ride was cool and Phi Phi Don (the main island) is beautifull but a bit dirty. Lots of garbage on the beach and some rubble still there we assume from the tsunami. That night we organized a boat trip for the next morning for PhiPhi Ley, and that is the one to see and where "the beach" was filmed...





what an incredible place. We took the boat at 7:30am and all the group tours leave at 9am. This was the best thing we could have done. We arrived at the island and we were the only people there. It was one of those moments of joy in life where you feel fortunate and lucky to be someone that can enjoy this. It is very hard to describe it and I wish I could put into words better.




Today I feel very happy that life has presented itself to me in the way it did... I was awarded with everything I need... family, love and friends... =)

Unfortunatelly we did not have more than a day in Phi Phi but for sure we are going back. Rock climbing looked fantastic and Pri and Tate have to come visit to see. It's unbelievable the rock formations above the blue waters.



On the way back we stayed in Kata one more night and me and Flavio went surfing... fun stuff.

On the to visit list we still have to go to James Bond Island ... well next time ! Who is coming next ?

Now to some more pics...

Trikora - Indonesia ...

Kitesurfer's paradise just an hour away...

We spent the weekend in Indonesia ... will elaborate more on it tomorrow...

Home sweet Home Episode II

Canada was great. It was awesome to be able to se most of the friends and spend a little time with them. Sorry for all the new home owners (Paty, Ricardo, Pri, Tate, Fred and Fe) that I had no time to go visit anyone. I promiss next time I will ... and it should be very shortly.

Lately we have been spending a lot of time in the apartment trying to give it a bit of the home feeling.

This is what the apartment is looking like now...

Cheers,
Me

World Cup time ... and Going to Canada

Hi all ... Here we are again at world cup finals. A VERY EXCITING TIME !
Yesterday Brazil played an okay game to defeat Croatia on a 1x0 score. Let's hope Brazil shows up on the next game playing the soccer we all know they have.




I went with Mila yesterday and we bought a projector to watch all the games. It was really cool to watch the game in the BIG SCREEN even though it was 3am when it started.

This weekend I will be flying to Vancouver on Sunday for a quick visit. I will be getting in this Sunday, June 18th and will be going straight to Jericho Sailing Club upstairs at the bar for beers around 5pm. I do not have many emails and will not have a number while in Van so please come by if you read the blog. I will only be in town for 3 days and 2 nights and would LOVE to see everyone there. Please tell anyone that does not know already.

This coming friday we will be having a house warming party so the apartment should be ready before that. Expect pics very soon !

Cheers.

Mi and Me

Milena has arrived and we have been working in the apartment a LOT to try to convert it into our place. My boxes have arrived and I don't think I would ever be able to fit evrything I had in that apartment on Beach Ave back into an apartment of the same size. Not sure what happened but I think my stuff has grown on the move.

We have been unpacking for close to 2 weeks now and have not been able to go through it all.

It's been very cool to live this together. Sometimes we sit at the couch late at night and look at the achievements of the day, being a sculpture we put somewhere we really like or a wire we managed to hide and we just stare at it for a few moments and we realize we are actually enjoying this a lot. I never thought of me enjoying staying in on a sunny saturday to work on the house. I hope this feeling goes away soon and we can go play outside again. =)

Last weekend we took sunday off and we headed to Bintan, Indonesia for the day. It was a great adventure. We arrived there and rented a 16 feet catamaran and went sailing. The wind was pretty strong and after 10 minutes, the jib halliard gave way and the mast came down.



My only concern was Mila and the fact that she had no idea of what's going on or the dangers involved. For my luck the Jib held the mast for a few more moments and gave way a bit slowly which gave me time to make sure we were safe. Then the jib ripped and the rig came down. We got rescued and headed back out with another cat for a couple hours. It was an AWESOME first experience for us sailing a catamaran. It was blowing about 15 to 20 knots and we had only one hull at the water multiple times. . .



This week we had an unexpected visit from Ricardo (Vancouver / Bahia ) that showed up and we had an awesome time with him for the 3 days he was here. He was supposed to go to India but did not have the Visa so he ended up stuck here with us.

Well .. that's all for now ... hopefully now that I have computers and internet at home I will keep my blog updated more often.