Siri in Isolation

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SOOTHED BY NATURE

- March 02, 2022

When I came to Brazil in August of 1977, the hectic traffic and my lack of a working command of Portuguese stopped me from driving. I had driven in several countries, on the left side in Ireland, and even in the chaos of New York City, but I had never seen traffic like Rio de Janeiro’s. At the time Oswaldo had persistent low blood pressure and we used to joke that he only needed to drive down to the end of the congested and honk-filled Avenida Copacabana to immediately resolve the problem. So, in 1978, when people abandoned their cars to throw themselves into the Carnival festivities, I took out our borrowed WV Variant and drove all over the becalmed city streets, getting my bearings, and regaining my confidence as a driver. I was reminded of this today, all these years later, when on the very last day of Carnival, I drove myself in scant traffic to go for a walk by myself in the nearby botanical garden. I haven’t driven a car in over a year due to a stupefying combination of two...

ORCHIDS GALORE

- September 05, 2021

Some years are harder than others, and for us, the first part of 1986 was a difficult year. I remember thinking of us as survivors of a bad patch, when in August we sat in our garden sharing a bottle of champagne in celebration of our 7 th wedding anniversary. With some insistence a large blue butterfly started circling around my head and as I jerked away, Oswaldo said, “Calm down, she just wants some champagne.” Sure enough, when I put down my old-fashioned, wide-mouthed coupe , the butterfly sat on its rim and helped herself to some Veuve Clicquot . We felt in the presence of something wild and unexpected, a kind omen perhaps, and a few weeks later I discovered I was pregnant with Victor. He was born on the birthday of my grandmother, who had passed away that July. After a stoic 2020, the first part of 2021 has not been easy for us due to several health-related reasons. Today, when I limped out in my garden, still with a brace on my leg, I suddenly realized nature...

CRASH COURSE IN DANISH

- July 12, 2021

I arrived in my native Denmark on July first. After spending almost fifteen months sequestered in our house in Rio de Janeiro, I had been anxious for a change of scene. I tested negative for Covid-19 upon arrival and again after 4 days in quarantine. I was finally free to move around and sent Oswaldo a happy mask-less selfie taken in front of the first supermarket I had entered in so many months. All this changed when minutes later I stumbled on the pavement and crashed to the ground. I found I was unable to get up, could only stretch my upper body to retrieve my glasses, shopping, and phone, all of which had fanned out on the pavement around me. I pulled myself into a sitting position and just knew I had broken the other kneecap. Concerned bystanders called an ambulance, and I called my sister and her husband who live nearby. The rescue team of three fit, well-trained young men dealt with me calmly and professionally, did not question my refusal to move the leg, and lifted...

FAILURE TO TRAVEL

- May 20, 2021

The week before last I was certain I would leave in June for two weeks in Denmark. I would travel with Victor, and, with the support of our trusted caseiro, Oswaldo would stay behind to take care of things, including the two frisky dogs. We would spend time with our family, meet our brand-new little niece, and see old friends. We would quarantine in a house generously offered by my sister, and there was a possibility Victor might be able to get the one-shot Johnson vaccine. My blah mood lifted, and I began to imagine being in an atmosphere radically different from Brazil right now, breathing a fresher air, and experiencing a returning feeling of freedom to move around. Excited about the trip, we made little of having to wear a mask for 18+ hours, the exposure to airport crowds, and the Covid strict arrival in Denmark. In my mind I was packing my bags. Then Covid interrupted in an unexpected manner Our caseiro , who has been with us more than 30 years and who had Covid...

DISHEARTENED

- May 06, 2021

“How are you?” asks my Danish friend, Tove, calling from Santiago, Chile, where she lives. We are speaking in Danish, and I pause a bit before I select a word to describe how I feel. “ Modløs ,” I finally say. (Discouraged, disheartened, dispirited are some translations, all of them applicable). She counters with “ vemodig” (sad, melancholic), and we both laugh at our plight. ‘Depressed’ is next, she adds, and we chuckle again, the way Danes often react to a shared bad situation. Like me she has been largely confined to her house for more than 13 months under the much stricter Chilean quarantine rules, and like me she has received her second shot of the Chinese CoronaVac (Sinovac) vaccine, which, we have just learnt, will not be authorized for inclusion in a European vaccination passport, and thus not grant us access to Denmark. Both of us are lucky to live in nice houses with a view and a garden, but the enforced confinement is getting to us and draining our ...

POSSIBLE TRAVELS

- April 25, 2021

For my first CoronaVac (Sinovac) shot, a month ago, I was flustered and apprehensive. I had not left the house to spend time in a public place for more than a year and dressed in the Danish red and white colors for good luck. We had arrived 40 minutes early fearful they’d run out of vaccines and the whole undertaking was stressful, from the waiting in a socially distant line -– to the slow shuffling in line through a darkened Planetarium, the local vaccination venue. The shot itself was over in a minute, but it took a while to settle down from the experience, spraying everything with alcohol and washing hands, whilst waiting for after-effects that never manifested. By contrast, my second shot was a breeze, we arrived later, stood only briefly in line and made the time to take a decent photo of this rather momentous event. The organization by SUS, the Brazilian public health care system was exemplary – friendly, objective and efficient – organizing on one side the elderly r...

TWENTY TOUCANS.

- April 07, 2021

The word ‘ revoada’ [ rre·vo· a ·duh ] forms in my mouth at the sight of 20 or more black-billed toucans gathering in a tree at the foot of our garden. It’s what happens when your brain has several – I have 3: English, Portuguese, and Danish – languages at its disposal. It picks the best word for you. In this case, the Portuguese word is just more evocative than the simpler ‘flock’ in English and similar ‘ flok ’ in Danish. . It is the morning of Easter Sunday and Victor and I have leapt out of our seats on the veranda when we become aware of so many toucans landing. Their egg-yolk-yellow chest feathers glitter amongst the branches as the birds preen and jump from branch to branch. We marvel as they lift up one by one to fly in a straight line across our roof towards the tall Imperial palm in our front garden. About this time of year, the huge clusters of white flowers sprouted beneath its massive leaves have turned into tangled clumps of hard litt...

STARSTRUCK

- March 29, 2021

Many years ago, in Rio de Janeiro, the Motion Picture Association used to host fabulous screenings for new movies, many with the presence of famous actors. We were amongst those invited and it is how I came to shake James Stewart’s hand. The actor was by then quite old, white-haired and with big horn-rimmed glasses, but he stood tall and calm next to Gloria, his lovely wife of many years, waiting patiently to shake the hands of the long line of starstruck carioca fans. When it became my turn, I muttered something heartfelt, forgotten now, but I still remember how honored I felt to have shaken the hand of this legendary actor. Not long after this Oswaldo and I stood in line for a flight from Paris to NY, when it became clear that it was overbooked. The airline was offering $300 and a seat on the next flight back to the US for whomever gave up their ticket. We were discussing whether to do this when the man in front of us, who turned out to be a very handsome Ben Gazarra – w...

LONGING FOR CHANGE

- March 19, 2021

I solve the NYT mini puzzle every morning. It’s a pleasant little test which lasts only a couple of minutes. The other day one clue was “Airport Boarding Area” and the correct answer, which I knew immediately, was “Gate.” Suddenly, I was filled with a longing for being at a gate, going somewhere. I thought of walking down the long airport corridors trailing my carry-on and felt a pang of loss. I REALLY miss traveling. We have been cloistered inside our walls more than a year now, since March 14. Our home is a delightful, if not downright luxurious place in which to be confined – and we’re so lucky to be here, together - but the feeling of being ‘locked in’ is always present. This morning, as I crossed our patio, leading the dogs to do their morning ‘ xixi ,’ I looked up and was struck by the clear outline of the Dois Irmãos profiled against an intensely blue sky. The moment was so pleasurable, so harmonious that I stopped to raise my arms wide to breathe in deeply (accompani...

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