Since Flavia came to Europe in early April I have been putting on weight -about four kilos.

More large meals!

So has she but I will not tell you how much. We both enjoy eating and drinking and have been taking less exercise than we should.  Just the wedding last week must have added a kilo. Things must change! The start of the Tour de France has inspired me. Put your money on Oscar Freire to win the points competition.

In fact I have already started and have lost a kilo. No alcohol on at least three days per week and a lot less food. In theory we walk around 6 km every evening. In practice we usually do it two or three times a week. I will try to get that up to six times a week. Flavia’s daughter Jana has lent me her bike and my first three rides have been 6, 9 and 12 km. I will increase that  to 20km most days.

The bike is a fetching shade of pink. As Brazilians are so keen on everything being colour co-ordinated I think I will probably have to buy some matching shorts and top like this. Maybe I should go for the hat and sun glasses too. The bike will be very good exercise as half the gears do not work and it is a bit small for me and is very hard work.

The problem is the Brazilian food. It is wonderful, I love it!  It is also high meat content, high fat and high calorie.  It is too much to expect me to show self-restraint when I go to an Aladdin’s Cave of a self-service restaurant. There are so many new things to try and different  ways of preparing them. And, of course, lots of European dishes to show Flavia. It is a shame that fruit and salad take so much time to clean here.