Uptown girl

Went to Faria Lima this afternoon to babysit our son while P went for another job interview, with a well-known investment bank. The new metro line, the yellow one, took us some of the way. It reminds me a bit of the Jubilee Line extension in London but the stations, for all their modernity, are once again far too noisy. Why doesn't anyone pay attention to acoustics in this country of engineers ? I have been on some tube trains here which make it impossible to talk while moving, such is the raucous background din.

Coming out of the station at Faria Lima we then had to walk about a thousand miles down this grotesque motorway-like avenue, me trying to push the buggy with one hand while the other held an umbrella that was being buffeted by wind and rain. Yet again, the criminally neglected sidewalks (they are for poor people don't you know, so no point wasting money on them) made it so difficult to manoeuvre the buggy, and the usual lack of sloping curbs is downright dangerous. Hello urban planners or engineers ! Where the hell were you when these sidewalks were being "designed" ?? I just can't forgive a country that so blatantly ignores any concept of The Greater Good, aka enlightened self-interest. That is one very very stupid and immoral country.

P was just in time for the interview and I and Sam had to cross the roaring motorway to get to the one refuge in this no-man's land of brutal office blocks. Once again P hoped she would be back "very soon" but as usual the short interview dragged on for two hours, during which time Sam, who had been given three more vaccinations in the morning, became extremely restless, initially in a cute and endearing way but, after an age of not being able to concentrate on any of my reading, in a non-cute way.

The stress is always so much greater because there is nowhere else for me to go apart from this one crappy little cafe, and I have to keep him indoors so we don't get even more polluted than usual. When I finally met P across the road, she said how this Brazilian economist interviewer had given her a hard time about being a mother and wanting to do the job as his PA, ie she should stay at home instead for the next four years.

The privileged in this country always assume that everyone has the same leisurely options as themselves. P pretended that her "husband" was in love with Brazil because the interviewer kept telling her that life in the UK was much better. She pretended that she and I were committed to staying in Brazil because the country is booming. "I'm not so sure of that," said the economist and government adviser (he was referring to the "booming" comment). Funny what people say during interviews.

We had the usual row as we walked away from the bank, such was my misery after sitting with an agitated baby in one of the richest parts of Sao Paulo, yet where they still make everything look ugly as hell.

And since the tube wasn't working (this line still runs only part-time) we had the choice of shlepping for one of the nightmare public buses, probably too crowded to get on anyway, or taking a taxi and accepting further fiscal punishment. We opted for the latter, driving through bumpy, uncomfortable roads but at least not being caught by too much traffic.

People say Brazil has infrastructure problems. Infrastructure is a posh word that also sounds a bit boring. So let me put it in more Anglo-Saxon terms:

Basil f££ks you every time you breathe or move.

It makes the simplest things impossibly difficult - unless you are rich. And if you are Brazilian rich I am not interested, since you are most likely also superficial, laughably snobbish and in general way behind the times.

On days like today, sadly all too frequent, I loathe life in this city.