Category Archives: Girly

Apr 17

Haircut

I’ve been trying to find a way to explain to hairstylists, for a while, that I want my hair to be SHORT, REALLY SHORT. “I want a pixie cut”. “Trim here”. “You can cut it really short”. Nothing worked, and I have been disappointed with my last three haircuts. Thankfully, my hair grows fast and I can try a new cut just a couple of months later.

Today I decided to explain NOTHING and play dumb. I went to the salon and said “HIIII I WANT TO LOOK LIKE EMMA WATSON“. The stylist even had a picture of the haircut and said she loooooved doing it!

Man, if I knew it was that simple!

Feb 6

Montréal mon amour

Fuck Paris, whenever I want to have great food and drinks, I can book a 5 hour beautiful train trip to Montréal. I did that on January’s last weekend – not coincidentally, my wedding/dating anniversary – and I am still in love with the city. I have been there before, just by the beginning of 2010′s Fall, and this year I had a more winter-ish experience. Boy, it REALLY snows there, but it’s so beautiful.

The only problem is combining lots of snow and good food – this makes you fat. But if you get over your weight paranoia, travelling to MTL during winter is lovely – just don’t forget GOOD SNOW BOOTS, otherwise walking will be a challenge. This was an atypical winter and wasn’t cold at all, so I could walk a lot and see things. And eat. Oh yes eat. Always.

I absolutely love it there, if you’ve never been, you have to.

Dec 13

Coffee Standards

yummy!There are plenty of good, even amazing coffee shops in Toronto. I’m not a coffee enthusiast – I am a tea lover – but caffeine is more of an addiction. So, for someone who doesn’t really like coffee, it’s even worse when coffee tastes REALLY BAD – and north americans, believe me, are experts in the art of making badcoffee. I don’t really know why people go for coffee at chain coffee stores – those who shall not be named – when there are so many indie coffee places to get your daily coffee fix.

For instance, around my office, I have a Seattle-based chain coffee shop*, and Jimmy’s Coffee. Everybody knows the Seattle cappuccinos are just meh, and Jimmy’s staff offer me very good coffee drinks! Makes me happy.

In my neighbourhood, I have a couple of options: the OUTSTANDING The Good Neighbour, seriously, a must visit even if you don’t go to the west end that often. There’s also Crema, which I think is seriously overrated (I hate their service, but coffee is ok) – I hate their service SO MUCH I tend to go to their neighbour from Seattle, seriously.

A problem I see with indie coffee joints is their “organic” “natural” “healthy” approach. This sometimes means they won’t offer you anything but agave nectar and raw sugar and almond milk or whatever THEY believe it’s best for you. Listen: I DON’T CARE. I want ARTIFICIAL SWEETENER, SUCRALOSE, because I LIKE IT, and SOYMILK because I LIKE IT. YOU ARE NOT MY MOMMY. You are a COFFEE SHOP, and I AM JUST YOUR CUSTOMER. So, please, offer me what I like. I don’t want to be taken care of. This is creepy. And, honestly, If you’re selling me scones and muffins, you’re not really concerned about my health. So, give me a break.

But, as I am lazy and don’t like brewing coffee when I wake up, I just bought an automatic pod machine – one of these – and, although it’s not awesome, it makes pretty decent coffee in 30s by just pressing a button.

*Forgot to say: the Seattle coffee company tastes MUCH BETTER in Brazil than in Canada (I wonder why…). ESPECIALLY the pastries – their espresso brownie in Brazil is something I really miss!

P.S.: Don’t miss Bulldog, great coffee and amazing Latte Art. Unfortunately, not so close to me.

Update: Found another coffee close to my office. La Mercería is an argentinian café, good food and good coffee. Go for the Café Caramelo – with Dulce de Leche.

Jan 28

ELEVEN!!11

I know dates are complicated and nobody understands them. So I’ll try to explain.

Jan 21 2000 – Girl meets boy at the bus station in Belo Horizonte, with a group of friends who are traveling together. They make bad geek jokes. A few hours later, they kiss. They spend the weekend together.

Jan 28 2000 – One week later, back in Rio, girl and boy decide to call it a relationship. They are just having fun.

Jan 27 2007 – As they are still having fun, they get married.

Eleven years have passed since we decided to call it “a relationship” because “it was fun”. It’s been tons of fun for so long, we’ve done so many things together, we’ve moved to another country! I can’t think of NOT celebrating my eleven years with Fabio, because I feel like celebrating every single day I spend with him!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! WE ROCK!

Jun 2

Out of Valentines

I’m not the default romantic girl, but I find myself attracted by some romantic gibberish, like celebrating my anniversary and I really enjoy Valentines Day.

So, it came to my attention that this year I’m not celebrating Valentines for cultural reasons. In North America, it’s celebrated in February, and I arrived here in early March (exactly three months ago, hooray!). In Brazil, probably for some Catholic reason, they celebrate in June 12th, the day before St. Anthony (who is supposed to be the saint associated with weddings – there you go!). And I’m already here on June, thus, no Valentines for me this year.

I obviously can do my own romantic dinner whenever I want, candlelight and stuff. This lovely springtime (well, now it’s raining…) invites you to romance and whatever. No need of a Valentines Day when you have blooming trees, crazy running squirrels, singing birds. I suggest ordering your lunch take out, then ask your partner out for a fast picnic on a neighborhood park. Ah, the spring!

May 19

Next stop, Nassau Street, Kensington Market!

It’s been very hard for me to buy clothes in Canada. I usually like black/gray or red/purple tones, and I just happened to find out I’M TOO SMALL FOR CANADIAN STANDARDS.

Women’s sizes are like 0,2,4.. and there’s this extra, extra small size, the 00. You guessesed, I wear the 00. Obviously, not all stores have the 00 size. I’m also considered “petite” – I’m too short – and finding a brand that sells BOTH petite AND 00 is almost impossible.

Because I live in this clothing wormhole, I have to find alternatives. It turns out that I can wear GAP‘s “ultra skinny capri” – the smallest of the smallest – as normal, decent jeans. But the REAL problem has been finding “businesswear” – you know, button shirts, this kind of thing. All my button shirts look alike.

Some people suggested me Banana Republic and Pacific Mall. Banana Republic is very nice, but pricey, and Pacific Mall… well… I hate shoppings, and I would never travel to Pacific Mall just for shopping. A solution I’m yet to try is Kensington Market / Chinatown – I may not find exactly what I’m looking for, but surely I’m gonna have some fun there.