Yesterday I woke up with a headache and had a scratchy throat throughout the day. It got better this morning but had some serious muscle pain in my back. I guess I just had a mild flu. Perhaps William passed that on to me.

Anna posted a note in the WhatsApp group for expats for a Friday morning coffee. After dropping off William at CLIB, I caught a Route 24 bus and rode three stops to met them at the Bela Sereia coffee.

I was introduced as “William’s Dad”. Eight people showed up. We talked about the weather, the rain, and cultural experiences. Except me, they were all veteran expats who had lived in multiple countries. One person complained about pain. A person offered to give her some substances from Egypt that was totally legal but extremely effective. I hope it was not a kind of the substances flowing from China to the US, that were only recently outlawed by the US. They were talking about life in Egypt prior to the Revolution, when an expat was treated at the same level of a president.

After lunch, the lab was in particularly in a Friday mood, to the point I asked what was happening. It was the Black Friday. Of course.

Learned another new word, cheiro. Despite waiting for 30 minutes in rain, the first two buses that came were both cheiro, which means full and no longer allow extra riders.