Journalled on Monday, 14 October 2024 | Santo Cristo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 24 degrees, hot, sunny, and slightly overcast.

Last night was my first at my new address, and the first time in a year and a half that I had slept somewhere entirely my own.

After so long sharing space with other people, the quiet felt wonderful. I also tried to go to bed earlier than I had while living with Nalva and Yasmin, when bedtime was usually after 10:30 or 11:00 p.m. Last night, I was in bed by 9:30. It was not perfect, because earlier would have been even better, but it was a very good start.

I want to return to the healthy routine of being in bed by 9:00 p.m., or earlier if possible. I learnt the value of an early night about ten years ago, and I have loved it ever since. Nine o’clock is perfect for me. Anything earlier feels sublime.

My Google watch has an app that estimates how much sleep I get and how well I sleep. I do not know how accurate it is, but I have used it to track my sleep since buying the watch in England. During the year and a half I spent living first with my mother in England and then with Yasmin in Brazil, it recorded only two nights when I slept for more than six hours.

On my very first night here, I had already passed the six-hour mark.

Over the next couple of months, I hope to build on that and reach seven hours a night. Seven feels right for me: eight seems too much and six too little.

I have heard different opinions about the ideal amount of sleep and whether the hours before midnight are especially restorative. I cannot say how universal those claims are, but they reinforce what I already know about myself: I feel better when I go to bed earlier, and seven hours seems like the right goal.

Whatever the science, I slept far better than usual in my new place. Of course, the comfortable double bed probably deserves some credit too. It is a considerable improvement on an uncomfortable sofa bed.

Tomorrow is Teachers’ Day, so I decided to turn today into an extra day off. With no work tomorrow and the schools closed today, the children will not return until Wednesday. I used the opportunity to organise the flat and deal with the small jobs that come with settling into a new home.

In the morning, I bought a set of bathroom scales online. The shop could not deliver them, so I arranged to collect them in Ipanema. I also needed to pick up my new glasses from Dona Vera in Copacabana. These will be the last glasses I buy from her for a long time. I am very happy with my recent pairs and should not need any more for at least the next hundred years.

Before setting out, I gave the flat another thorough clean and visited the local supermarket. It was much better than I had expected: clean, well organised and reasonably priced, with helpful staff and, importantly, no bad smells.

I wandered around the neighbourhood too, getting a feel for what it had to offer and stopping now and then to chat with the locals.

In the early afternoon, I walked ten minutes to the nearest metro station and travelled to Ipanema to collect the scales. From there, I took a bus to Copacabana for my glasses, then another bus home. It dropped me outside Rodoviária Novo Rio, the city’s main bus and coach station.

My condominium is only half a kilometre behind the station, but the walk takes me through years of memories.

When I lived in São Paulo and worked as a consultant, and even earlier, when Jessica was one or two years old, I travelled between Rio and São Paulo many times a month. I would leave on Friday night, arrive on Saturday morning, then make the return journey from Sunday night into Monday.

Back then, the station was a bit of a dive and hardly welcoming, especially at night.

Now it feels surprisingly polished, almost like a small shopping centre, with marble finishes and smart shops. These days, getting home means walking through a place full of old memories, then continuing for another ten minutes until I reach my new front door.

It was a full but satisfying day. The flat was cleaner, the errands were done, and for the first time in a long while, I had a quiet place that felt entirely my own. By 10:00 p.m., I was back in bed, ready for another night in my new home.