Rhod and Anna's World Adventure

Earlier we watched England lose in the most unfortunate way - Penalties. By way of consolation the Brazilian hostel manager said to me. "It´s ok man. We will beat Portugal for you in the semi-final."

Pride comes before a fall so they say and today it would seem that they are right. As explained previously the Brazilians cannot see the possibility of defeat. You will not find them in the pub chewing their fingers to the bone worrying about extra time or penalties because it couldn´t happen to them.

I had a feeling that there might be tears before bedtime and for once I was right. Sometimes you pay the price for over confidence.

The reaction to the game was incredible. Outside the streets were full of baffled people quietly getting back to normality with no street party to go to. The hostel staff skulked away silently back to their posts. However, as Rhod and I continued to watch the post-match commentary we were suddenly made aware of one Brazilian lady in the corner who was actually sobbing out loud. She recovered pretty well though after the barman thrust a beer into her hand. But we were amazed at the pundits on the TV - two of them were crying and consoling each other with man hugs and back slaps whilst the main man tried to hold the whole thing together but was clearly struggling to find the words. I can´t imagine Gary Linekar and the BBC team breaking down like that (though I guess they are more used to dealing with their country losing than Brazil.)

We have to go now. A street trader needs to use the computer to look up the number of the big yellow self storage unit in Rio. He has some T-shirts with six stars on them that he won´t be needing for at least 4 years!