living life high on the hog

Last week Jimmy and I received an invitation from our Swiss friend Daniel, who is the Food and Beverage Manager at the Sao Paulo Hilton, for a pre-Carnaval dinner at the Hilton followed by a samba school practice.

Jimmy tries to limit his work social events to two nights a week and this made for the third evening out this week. But I'm never invited to the work social events and my dance card for the week was fairly empty, so I insisted that we go.

Then we both had really awful days yesterday, and we were tired and grumpy and neither of us wanted to socialize.

Well.

I am glad we put on our happy faces because we were treated to the most sensational evening - one that will definitely be remembered as a highlight in Sao Paulo.

We assumed this was a big affair that the Hilton was putting on, so we were a little confused when we asked the concierge where the dinner hosted by Daniel was being held. He asked us to allow him a few moments to find Daniel. This was odd because why wouldn't he just point us to the restaurant along with the masses of other people who were surely here for the dinner?

A couple minutes later he found us in the lobby and said he'd escort us to the correct floor. He pushed the top button and I just figured they had some sort of rooftop terrace where we might be served drinks before we headed back to the restaurant.

Wrong.

We entered this FABULOUS living room with a view over the river and the new incredible bridge here in Sao Paulo. The kind of view that has those automatic shades where you push a button and they go up by themselves. I could've parked myself on the couch and never left. Other than a bartender tucked away in a corner, we were the only people there so it seemed as if maybe I could just park myself there and never leave. Then Daniel came out with the sales manager and we promptly started eating hors d'oeuvres like sushi and crudite and these marvelous mini-croque monsieurs. It was all very delightful and civilized and we had a great time catching up with Daniel who is one of the funniest and definitely one of the nicest and most genuine people in the world.

We found out the Austrian and Australian Consuls General and their wives were the other guests, so it was an intimate gathering. So the Austrian couple arrived and he made the comment that he felt "presidential" entering the room. I am so clueless that it still didn't register where we were. I didn't know who he was before last night, so my first thought was that maybe he was getting ready to run for the Austrian presidency and my second thought was does Austria have a president??

Then the Australian couple arrived and within 2 minutes of meeting them, we discovered that Lisa was a Rotary exchange student to Australia (she's Canadian) the year after I was there with Rotary and we shared many of the same experiences (except she ended up with an Australian husband and I, obviously, did not).

At some point, the lightbulb turned on in my very dim brain that We. Were. In. The. Presidential. Suite. at the Hilton. We were sitting on the couch where Really. Important. People sat, and there I was dropping a carrot from the crudite tray on the floor.

Perhaps some of you live in a world where this is no big deal. This is a big deal to me because I don't live in that world. So forgive me my gloating because I'm going to regale you with the details of what we ate, the bathroom visit, etc.

So once all the guests were there, Daniel led us the dining room of the Presidential Suite (did I mention that's where we were?). Appetizers came first - a 3-tiered tray (like what you'd serve food on at high tea) was placed in front of each person so we each got a small plate of a cold vegetable salad with shrimp, a mushroom dish, and carpaccio. This was followed by the main course of beef with risotto, which was followed by a cheese course, which was followed by a dessert of tart and ice cream, which was followed by coffee. I believe there were 3 if not 4 waitstaff for just the 7 of us. It was so civilized - the food was excellent, the company was marvelous, the conversation lively and engaging and the location wasn't bad either. A perfect dinner party, all in all!

Then we were given the opportunity to go the restroom (and of course see the bedroom) before we took off for the samba show. As tacky as it sounds, we all took our photos on the bed where people like none other than our former president slept. Some people can say they slept in the Lincoln Bedroom but I can say I reclined in the Hilton Presidential Suite Bedroom. Those photos will hopefully be forthcoming because I, of course, having no idea of what we were doing, forgot to charge our camera batteries and the camera wouldn't work once we got there. I will post photos as soon as I get them.

I didn't have long to check out the bathroom because we were in a hurry, but they did have good L'Occitane products for the likes of Very.Important.People to use. So I pretended I was a Very.Important.Person and slathered myself in cream.

Then we were off by van to the samba school. The school is called Rosas de Ouro (Roses of Gold), and Daniel is actually dancing with them for the Carnaval parade in a couple weeks. They practice a few nights each week in order to improve their chances of winning the whole Carnaval shooting match. (Last year they came in 4th). They started last night at about 11:10pm and went for an hour without a break in the singing, dancing, or drumming. In addition to the dancers and drum corps who are actually part of the school and must come to practice, there were some 3000 people there last night who paid R$20 each to come and dance and watch the rehearsal. It was incredible. The energy was amazing and actually generated heat. It was a very Brazilian, very cultural experience. Where else but Brazil would people come out on a Wednesday night at 11pm to watch people practice dancing? It was total madness but all excellent fun.

As an aside, we met a famous tv host there. I can't remember his name - terrible, I know, but we don't watch Brazilian tv - but he hosts a midday show on Globo and he's the big Brazilian Carnaval announcer every year. He happened to be there last night so Jimmy was introduced to him and I got two sweaty kisses (he was sweaty, not me!), for which he apologized profusely.

We finally fell in the bed last night at 1:30, totally exhausted but completely exhilirated from a really fun and special evening.

Daniel, if you're reading this, thank you a million times over for a fantastic night. It was an extraordinary once-in-a-lifetime opportunity from beginning to end.

Now I need to figure out how to make Jimmy president so I can be kept in the manner to which I could easily become accustomed!