Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Riccardo Sileci

What are three things that happened in the month of May that were pretty exciting?

* I turned 45. Can't say it's exciting, but it's something that happened in the month of May. Another way to think about it is to say that I started my 46th year of life. Gee, it doesn't make it better, does it? I was 18 when my father was 45, and I can't really remember if I saw him as an old man or not. What I know is that my own kids do not see me as a very young guy, although they never called me "old". That's good, I guess. But to those who do (I'm sure Christine is one of them), I quote a Brazilian writer, Millôr Fernandes, who says: "Velho é todo cara com 10 anos mais do que eu" or "An old guy is anyone who's 10 years older than me".

* Having turned 45 caused me to have to renew my driver's license. The new Brazilian laws require senior citizens to go through new written and medical tests. I passed the medical test easily (I'm in better shape than Sue, who happens to work out twice a week with a personal trainer), and scored 95% on the written test. I then needed a 3x4cm suit-and-tie picture for the document. I didn't feel like wearing a tie just to take a picture, so I used one of my old pictures, image googled "suit and tie", and photoshopped the picture I now have in my new license.

What worries you about the month of June?


School will be out, which means the kids will renew the rental DVD delivery membership and start watching TV from 7pm until much later. I will not be able to fall asleep on the couch watching movies I've watched over and over again, but never remember.

Is there anything in June that looks pretty darn interesting or fun?

The family will probably be invited to go to one of the "Festas Junina" in town. We'll dress like hillbillies, dance the "quadrilha", drink "quentão", eat "pipoca" and "paçoca", play with "bombinhas" and have a lot of fun with lots of little kids running around us the whole time.


Is there anything else you’d like to share with the entire Banman family?

Pope Benedict XVI came to Brazil and canonized the first Brazilian saint! We're all praying that the saint performs a miracle and drops a bomb on Brasilia, the country capital, where an average of one corruption scandal per day pops up.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

yeah, dad, you're old.

=)

Anonymous said...

Yeah, you are old and you still can't smile normally for a photo!

Anonymous said...

Your MOTHER can't smile decently for a photo. Ummm, who is your mother?

Anonymous said...

Ooohh, I KNOW you aren't really insulting your mother-in-law on a blog spot!

Anonymous said...

Hey, that wasn't me! I don't post anonymous comments!!

Anonymous said...

Let's see if we have this correctly? Here's a guy who can't remember which movies he has seen but can get 95% on the driving test?

What were the questions? Like,

"Red traffic light means stop." T/F

(Only in Sao Paulo could there be a question about the correct answer.)

Anonymous said...

There were no questions about colors. That was good, because I really get confused with red, yellow and green...
But there were questions like:

If you see someone on the road wearing a cream color shirt, grey pants and vest, and straw hat, you:

a. Run over him.
b. Drive by and make sure they see you laughing.
c. Stop, force him into the car and drive him to a insane asylum.
d. It would never happen in São Paulo.

I would take a long time to decide which one to chose, but I guess it would be D.