It’s the end of the blog as we know it (and I feel fine). The first post I wrote from Brazil was back in November 2006 and now this is to be the last one. It’s my birthday, I’m 29, and at the time this post is published to the blog I’ll probably be on a plane out of Brazil to America. True, we’ll still have some weeks in Brazil packing up later in the month, but for all intents and purposes this seemed like a good place to stop. My English Teaching career is over. Our thoughts are on the UK. We’re saying our goodbyes. I’ve enjoyed writing this blog and so thank you to any and all of you who actually read my long-winded, disconnected, haphazard, occasionally passable ramblings. And honorouble mentions to those of you who contributed comments and guest blog entries!

Maps and Legends. The blog in numbers: 310 (or thereabouts) posts at 250 words per post = 77,500 words.5,500 visits and 7,300 page views.85 comments.5 authors.

All the way to Rio. As the observant among you will notice I’ve tried to write a blog post a day for the last month in order to fit in everything I’ve wanted to say. In one respect I’ve failed though. My 100 things I miss about England and 100 things I love about Brazil lists are incomplete by about 10 entries each. I thought it would be a good idea to leave it this way as sometimes ideas for those posts hit me out of the blue, and if this happens over the next few weeks then I still have space to quietly add them in. I am absolutely determined to complete them both, though.

Begin the Begin. I’m sure you’ll all be delighted to hear that there are other ways to still read my writing. I’ll be penning thoughts on just about anything over at beyondrandom and Rach and I are starting a bilingual blog which will become a “proper” website called Britain Brazil Bridge. In fact, today sees the start of that project – check it out over here. And there are those other sites listed over there >>> which I still write for. Thank you for reading!

Until the day is done. I’m still not sure I know exactly reads this thing and so if you’ve been part of a silent majority, now’s your time to speak up. Let's treat this last page as a guest book. Please leave a comment if you haven’t before! That includes you Aunt Betty!

Strange Currencies. Finally, it goes without saying that I need to thank this strange, unique, enormous, beautiful, contradictory, optimistic, festive country of Brazil and it’s gorgeous people for teaching me so much, drawing me closer to God, enriching my view of life and giving me something to write about more than once a week. God Bless you all and may you always win at football except when you’re playing England!