Long time no see

I know... I have been a bit of a slacker with the Blog.
Life had been good... actually great. Missing Brazil a LOT as usual and missing all in Vancouver as well. It's been almost 2 years I have gone away from Canada and almost 10 away from Brazil.
It is INSANE how life goes by FAST.

Let's see what's new on our world.... Maite is growing fast and we have been following it closely from far away (at least we can do that nowadays)

Mi is working quite a lot. Right now she is in Taiwan and lately she's been to Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand training managers for Fedex... SOO COOL... she makes me proud. =D

I have been working like a mad men as well... CloneWars is the most intensive FX show I have ever worked on and the onde I am doing with the smallest fx crew I was ever a part of. The show is looking great and it is quite rewarding after all the long hours spent on it. Everyone working on it and having a chance to see it thinks it's gonna be a BIG HIT. I sure hope so.

Lately I had a chance to work with some really talented people from ILM. One of the guys there, Joel came here to help and train for 6 weeks and it was a great opportunity to push the fx of the show even further. He showed to be a great professional and friend... Hope we have a chance to work together again in a close future... Maybe I will go visit sometime. :)

It would be a chance to see all in Vancouver and San Fran.

The Monsoon season is here and last weekend we had some AWESOME winds. Spent 3 days kiting in Indonesia for that weekend and got back to some old tricks I was doing before blowing my knee.

Not sure if I mentioned that I am going to start sailing on a TP52 over here... it's an awesome boat and I am looking forward to it ... A LOT.

Anyways ... enough about me for now... Hope to get some news from all of you over the world as time runs fast and we loose touch...

Cheers.
Me

Monsoon Cup Qualifiers

Last weekend I headed to Malaysia to Kuala Teranganu for my first experience match racing.

The team was formed by Iris(main), Alisson(bow/main/tactitian), James(skipper), Ross(trim/pit), and Me (trim).

Only Alisson had experience in match racing and I had no idea how intense and hard match racing is.

By the end of the first day racing I could not move anymore. My hands would cramp, belly, back and shoulders as well ... needless to say I am not on my best shape after abandoning the gym for more than a month and being sick for the last couple weeks. Next time I am going to the gym every day for at least 2 months before saying yes to an event of this caliber.

There were 4 teams representing NZ (the winners), Hong Kong, Thailand and us for Singapore.
We won 3 races from Thailand and lost 3 for them. We also lost 2 races to NZ and 4 to Hong Kong. It was a great learning experience and regatta. The people organizing and on the Umpire (sailing comittee) were world class (even including the guy that called the penalty from NZ on Alinghy on the last America's Cup) and the Kiwis are now going to compete on the Monsoon Cup as a prize for winning this event.



The Monsoon Cup is ran at the same club and it is part of the World Match Racing Circuit where a lot of BIG sailors are... check out http://www.monsooncup.com.my


Meanwhile .... Milena is in Hong Kong training managers for Fedex and heading to Australia in 2 weeks... Her birthday is coming up next weekend and we are not sure yet what we are going to do. Probably going to Trikora, our weekend getaway in Indonesia.... such internacional couple ... =)

Brazil and Amsterdam

Just came back from 3 weeks in Brazil. It was an AWESOME trip. We saw Maite and spent a lot of time with the families. It was so nice to see everyone and meet the little one.


On the way back we stopped at Amsterdam. It was a cool city to see. I will let the pictures tell the story of this vacations. Check the ALBUM




Cheers.

Taipei, Taiwan

Last Thursday I went to Taipei to work with our partner studio, CGCG. I was really impressed with the city and the people. It reminded me a lot of Rio without the bad stuff (violence, poverty, etc).

I had a great time visiting. Spent only 3 days but it's definitely worth a visit. The picture above is from Taipei 101, the talles building in the world until the day I visited it. The next day apparently a building in Dubai became the tatllest. Pretty cool to see the view from up there ... feels like you are looking at a miniature at a movie set. The elevator is the fastest in the world (60 km/h). Cool stuff !!! =)

I saw Demshui, Xiemen, the Ku Kong museum and the area close to the main MRT station. Stayed at the Grand Hyatt and from there I moved to a Hostel International on top of the K Mall... ok place to stay. Next time I think I would look for something closer to Xiemen to stay ... that part reminded me a bit of the Times Square in New York with even more outdoors and visual polution.

For those of you coming to Asia to visit, It might be woth a stop if you have the time.

CloneWars

Some images and a trailer was released from the show I have been working on for a while now.
I am guessing that I cannot put those images here but I can provide the links. Check it out:

Image:
Image from Cover of Star Wars Magazine

Trailer:
Star Wars Website Trailer

Enjoy... Let me know what your thoughts are.

Cheers.

Back to Trikora...

It's amazing how Trikora became a first class resort on the last year.
Wind was not as good as expected and we could not get Mila kiting yet but soon.
Being back in the water was as good as it gets. Short but sweet.

The group (there were about 20 of us) was like a big family... Already booked to go again in 2 weeks... and the countdown starts again...

New Toys

Been out for a while ... SUPER HIPER BUSY with work. 11 hour days and weekends are not really my concept of fun but .... you gotta do what you gotta do right ?

Last weekend I finally had a weekend off and a couple of visitors... It was AWESOME having Marcia and Tobin here. We did some sightseeing with them and had a great time. I do not have the pics yet but will be posting them here soon. Marcia left yesterday back to Perth and Tobin is with us till next week doing a course here.

Finally I have some time to come back to life. I started wakeboarding again and that's been great.
Been a bit tired from the gym workouts so decided to step back with the physio a bit and get back outside on the water where I belong.



This past week I bought a new Kite (monkeykite Griffin 12) and a new board. It's pretty exciting and started praying for wind this coming weekend. We are heading to Trikora for a kitesurfing weekend. REALLY hope it blows.

Yesterday I picked up a new board as well... an 2006 North Jaime Pro (127x39) VERY COOL.



GREAT news is we are heading home on august 3rd for a couple of weeks. I CANNOT wait to see everyone specially the little one and meet all of Mila's family... we are both counting the days.

Maite

Seems like august will be the time to go to Brazil and FINALLY meet Maite. We have been seeing each other only through skype and pictures. I cannot wait. Look how cute she is .. photo taken this last weekend in Ilhabela.

I know ... no posts lately. Not much more than work happening here.

We headed to Pattaya , Thailand, 2 weeks ago for a long weekend but it kindda sucked. No wind for kiting and the place is just a big dump. Definitely not a place I'd recommend for anyone to visit unless they are after prostitutes or just wanna see how screwed up this world is.

Kitting season starting pretty soon. 4 water sprouts were seen from our office today. PLanning on a kite trip next weekend or the one after weather and work permitting.

Tornado....

Look where Mi starts work next week ... =D

The picture above was the tornado seen from our office window.

The following pictures were taken by a friend that lives close to the beach and 2 blocks from us (I marked on the pic above)... Enjoy !

The wonders of living in Asia. ;-P
Ps... I know it's a water sprout but tornados are way cooler and more exciting to talk about. Kindda sad that I was in a meeting and missed it. Frikin meetings .... grrrr

Sibu and BIG NEWS !

Last weekend we headed to Sibu again for a 3 day long weekend. We had a blast there again and did quite a bit of sailing on dinguies(Escapes).I was teaching Mila how to sail and by the end of the second day she was quite confortable sailing by herself doing tacks, jibes and trimming the sail quite well.

Most of the weekend was spent relaxing on the beach, reading books, eating and playing cards. Nice way to relax.

The group this time was awesome as always... Ben Huber(swiss) and his girlfriend Adel(singapore), Didier(colombia/denmark) and Ali(Jordan) with me and Mila ... Unfortunately we did not take any group pics this time.

The place we stayed (Sea Gypsies) was not the best one. The hotel was good but the rooms had cockroaches and the service sucked unless you had an all inclusive package. Next time we are planning on staying on the Sibu Cabannas beside it.

Again it's worth mentioning Sibu does not stand close to Tioman standards in my opinion as the water is not as clean and the options are very limited to the different resorts wich makes the trip a lot more expensive.

Next trip shall be Pulau Aur scubadiving or Pulau Rawa wich is supposed to be an amazing place.

The BIG NEWS now are ..... (drums).... Milena got a job as an Industrial Psychologist at Fedex here. The job seems really cool and it's one bloc from my office... we are both very excited with the job and think it's an awesome step for her carreer.

Uncle San...

10th of April has to be one of the happiest days of my life. Maite was born ! Isn't she cute ?
Both Juli and Maite are doing great.
=D

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I have been very busy and trying to find time to post is not such an easy thing. I was working on Mila's site for a while ... check it out at http://www.milenadalmeida.com/

LINKS: Go Uncle George Go !

The new Forbes list of richest people is out.
George Lucas weighs in at $3.6 Billion at #70 richest in the US.

Why not give a raise to everyone ? =)

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/54/biz_06rich400_The-400-Richest-Americans_land.html

LINKS: Interesting posts.

I figured I will start using my blog to post some interesting links and videos too. Nothing to do with my trips and life but some links in case you have some time to kill. It also gives you another reason to visit my blog . =)

I will add the header LINK so you know it's a link or just a part of the story of my life.

Here is the first batch..

Nintendo Commercial (btw I already bought a Wii)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsoyZmtS_nA

World of Warcraft SouthPark
http://lofish1972.imeem.com/video/t2E1aadd/south_park_warcraft/

Enjoy.

The park next door

This is a park here in Singapore close to a Reservoir. The monkeys are wild and just walk around you on the trees and don't seem to be afraid of people at all.

Vietnam

What a week... We have spent 9 days traveling a bit of the country.
Our first impressions were really good. We arrived on Friday night (Daniel, Milena and Me) and met with Huber, Jaq and Pedro at the Hotel in Hanoi.



Hanoi is one of the craziest places I have EVER been to. Motorbikes are EVERYWHERE. I will post a video here so you can see. There are no trafic lights and even when they are phisically there, they do not mean anything. People drive their bikes through sidewalks, wrong way streets and intersections in such a way you can believe they are not doing anything wrong or unusual. Crossing the street is like this:
1- Stare to where you wanna go on the other side of the street
2- Walk slowly towards your target and hope not to get hit (Pedro and Daniel did get hit)
It is INSANE.

The next morning we departed to Halong Bay.








This was quite a place and experience. We rented a 6 room boat and had a BLAST cruising Halong bay for 3 days and 2 nights. The trip cost us $130 US each with food. We had quite a lot to drink in the boat too. Halong Bay is one of the most beautiful places I have been too.




Huge Cliffs surround you as you cruise on the green waters and visit the islands and caves. Here are some Pics.


Coming back from Halong Bay we headed back to Hanoi (getting tired of city by this point). We spent a day there and Pedro, Jaq and Ben left to go back to Singapore. Our plan was to get a train to Sapa but we ended up missing the train due to a fight with a vendor that sold a jacket to Daniel that was too small... We ended up fightin the stupid lady for 15 to 20 min to get the money back with mimics, wrestling and a lot of screaming. BEWARE, NEVER give your money until you are centain you want something in Vietnam... They will not return your money and will try to push something else or more expensive goods to you instead.

Well ... after missing the train we headed back to another hotel (Youth Hotel) that I do not recommend as the rooms smells like cigarretes. Rooms in hotels cost about 15US$ a night and are normally pretty clean and easy to find. BARGAIN for cheap rooms. Bargain for EVERYTHING actually.




Next day we took of to a place called TamCoc. It is a place where you ride canoes on the middle of rice fields and go through some really nice scenery. Before TamCoc we visited some temples and that was a bit boring if you have traveled around thailand and Cambodia as they are not even close to as impressive.








Coming back from TamCoc we decided to try Sapa but no trains were available anymore so after some quite problematic decision making and some tears we decided to head to Ma Chu, a minority Tai tribe on the interior about 3 hours drive from Hanoi. It was quite a cool place with rice fields and we got to sleep on the stilt houses where they live. It was a nice 2 day tour with a VERY HARD bed to sleep in but still worth it.




After that we headed back to Hanoi and spent a couple more days there before coming back. It was a cool trip. If I were to do it again I would book my train tickets in advance and make sure I have the trip more planned so I hit the places I wanna hit. The group could not be better.

Thanks all ... Mi, Daniel, Pedro, Huber and Jaq... you made the holidays a LOT more enjoyable.

Cheers.

Pictures now

I started using Picasa and decided to post my first album here.
"A vida eh feita de momentos" .... Good times.

Hope u enjoy it. I am thinking about backing up all my pictures online.

A vida eh feita de momentos

Sailing Weekend

2 full days racing and some very good wind and waves ...
Saturday was 1 race day going south into Indonesian waters and back. We had the line honors but got 2nd place on corrected time due to a swan 50 (I think) getting 1st .. it was a good and long day sailing.

Sunday was a good day and we got a 4th place getting line honors again but the swan got us again and a MUM30 (that sailed really well and had perfect conditions) called Panic.

Both days we had about 20 knots of breeze with big swells on saturday and some good surfing moments.

It was great to be back with the crew in action.

Next saturday we sail again. I will try posting a video (as soon as I get it) from saturday that one of the crew shot. Looks pretty cool !

Here is the video:

Almost back to LIFE

I am back. Let's see what's new...

It seems like a lot of things are getting into the right place lately and that feels good.

My sister is pregnant and I get more excited everyday about being an uncle. MAITÊ is her name. . . I cannot wait to see her and Juli as a mom. It's been very hard to get images from her pregnancy but I can only hope it will get better with time. I think I may have to break in and install some webcams in their place next time I am around.


Tomorrow I get my 3rd passport... I know .. kindda old news since I mentioned this so many times but I think the passport kindda represents the end(or beginning) of a big journey that started in 1998 with my 23rd birthday going to Vancouver... seems like yesterday and at the same time ages ago.

Tomorrow I also will finish my surgery payments wich closes another chapter, this one of not so great experiences. I will have to repeat one more thing here... TAKE GOOD (VERY GOOD) care of your knees.

This week also marked something very important to me. Milena learned to kitesurf. I cannot wait for her to be back here and we can start sailing trips together.



This saturday I finally get back to my sports.... I AM SO EXCITED. I am sailing a regatta called Horsburgh Challenge (http://www.safyc.org.sg/horsburgh/ ) onboard Foxy Lady, that Sydney 40 I posted a few times here. It will be awesome to be back in the water with the crew. It will be a very long day with a 69nm (nautical miles) race. We pretty much sail from one end to the other of Singapore passing a mark in international waters so we have to do immigration before racing at 5:45 am (ouch !). If the wind holds up to what's been doing the past weeks, we should get about 30 knots... and it will be a blast !

Countdown starts to our Vietnam trip... the group is set and the boat is rented, but that story will be for another day.

PARABENS !!!!

Pinao, PARABENS !! Todos os dias eu paro pra pensar na sorte que temos de ter uma familia maravilhosa como a nossa. Eu nao poderia desejar ter como meu irmao uma pessoa mais maravilhosa que voce. Voce eh o melhor amigo que qualquer pessoa pode ter.

Te admiro muito e te amo demais !

That was a message for my big brother that turns 32 today.

After a long time, I will start blogging again. I will try my old once a week post but cannot garantee anything.

Soo ... where do i start ? We headed to Vancouver on the new year's ... it was a lot of fun to see all the friends. We really REALLY miss you all a lot. Actually it's the thing we miss the most about Vancouver. . . the people.

We spent most of the time in Vancouver ... went for Xtmas with Marinho's family and after headed to Jaci's place where a bunch of other friends were.

New year's in Whistler was cool except for the fact that I could not board. The snow looked awesome and the day we left they had 70 cm of snow. CRAZY! Never saw that much snow even when I lived there for almost 9 years.

Now I am back and Mila has gone to Brazil to visit her family ... lucky one. Since someone's gotta work, here I am... Tomorrow she starts kitesurfing lessons and hopefully by end of february we will be ripping waves together .. =)

It was strange to see what the weather was like in Van. I guess we get used to anything in life.

Happy 2007

After a long long wait, it's finally here, My certificate of citizenship. Full report on new years Vancouver trip coming soon...