Beautiful day, fantastic voyage on the Balcutha, a historic ship on San Francisco Bay that is a floating museum and shows the history of salmon canning along the Pacific coast. Abraços!

Balbachevsky's Heritage

Ricardo Setti has started a very good genealogy research at MyHeritage.com which already has an amazing amount of pictures of the Old World Balbachevskys... Stuff I could never imagine! Hooray for the Internet and Networking... The Balbachevsky family originated in Poland and later settled in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia. Alex Balbachevsky went to Brazil and married Eva Landahl Oliveira.

As his work will soon include the Landahls too it will be even more interesting. Fact is, it is quite clear that the Balbachevsky family is really networking with Ricardo from places like Russia, South Africa and more to fill in the gaps...

Outrigger canoeing in Urca

Praia Vermelha, Saturday Nov 21...

Thomas made me wake up early today, so I could benefit from the Saturday opportunity of getting some exercise, as well as learning a bit about Outrigger Canoeing...
This meant a small trip to Praia Vermelha, the beach next to Sugar Loaf in Urca, Rio.
Although it is summer, at 7AM, there were still few people on the beach. The crowds eventually did arrive.


I'm told the participants of these outriggers will row out to Copacabana, the Cagarras Islands and Niteroi, destinations not so close! The outrigger is arm-powered by men and women of variable strengths and ages. Thomas tells me there is one lady in his group who is now 72, and she goes along 3 x a week. Even if her rowing technique is more 'choreography' than push the group is happy to have her along!










The canoes are owned and managed by the Praia Vermelha Va'a Clube.

Today's excursion was more for fun and pleasure but still gave plenty of exercise opportunity during its 3 hours duration. The group was very happy when they came back.







Although some of you may try wikipedia to find out more about outrigger canoes - originally developed in Hawaii, Polynesia and Tahiti, I found Gary Dierking's blog more informative specially considering that Thomas is finishing his Industrial Design studies. The blog has plenty of designer angles in it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PHIL!!!!

GRANDE ABRAÇO,

Oliver, Re e Isadora

Nick's exams...

It was good to see Nicholas in great form... Not only did he pass his Cuong Nhu belt examination with Master John, but also works on his maths at night... He's already a big reader (Portuguese AND English), and has a great sense of humour and direction... So, I'm supposed to be the GIS expert, but Nick was the one who took me around the hood in time to get me to Eliana's house for my ride to the BART/ SFO Airport in time... Thanks Nicholas!!!!!

The Last Cookie

While learning about Momentum, its importance to G-Cars and the effects of cappuccino on global warming, Rita was quick enough to document our last attempt to find one of the delicious cookies of a local SF coffee shop... Needless to say, nothing was left... Still it was a good time to sit down and relax in one SF's groovy neighborhoods after our stop at the Oakland DMV, where I applied for an ID, and registered to vote! Obamanos!

KINDLE

This has got to be one of the greatest advices given to me by Michael and Cecilia.... So, I've 'invested' in such contraption... Now I can carry around several thousands of books in this lightweight piece of technology, saving on money and shelf space as well as reducing the load of my backpack and briefcase.... You guys really have to check it out... It's also a great thing as ita has preloaded news sites online and works in roaming mode. That means I can download a book wherever there is a good cellphone network anywhere...Plus, its easy to read under WC conditions...! Don't take it in the shower though...

G-Cars

I'm kind'a scared with Michael's driving around San Fran. He uses the G-Car (Gravity Car) approach, aka driving with the car engine off and in neutral gear at every minimally downhill inclined part of town and/or when approaching red lights.... However, not being REALLY sure of how much we are diminishing our Carbon Footprint by this very sketchy alternative style of driving, I decided to check out in Car Talk on the efficiency, and reasonability of this 'style'. Lo and behold! a complete discussion on the topic ! (http://action.publicbroadcasting.net/cartalk/posts/list/2131561.page)... Whatever your conclusions are, the site is still hilarious, and has some good advice... Michael, Be careful! Save CO2 emissions some other way!

San Fran Bikes...

Whilst in San Francisco, checking out on the local Scotts (Michael, Rita and Nicholas) I could not help but note the prevalence of the 'eco-friendly' transportation options available, i.e bikes. That took some actual walking about to do and eventually I found this interesting bike with the kind of solution Thomas is looking for in his Industrial Design last-year-project at UniverCidade in Rio de Janeiro. It includes something that looks like a used skateboard, and two side carriers. The result is rather bizarre, but does get a point on my list, and I posted other pictures of similar bikes and carry on solutions on my Facebook page under 'bikes'. Check them out.